Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bungalow snapshots and details...




My writing desk






Alliums grown in the backyard dried, on display.


Note the bottom left corner of Jane Powell's book!


I have moved  the alliums to the dining room and placed the Van Briggle Bunny and bowl on the ledge...Mrs. Plant's photo can be seen through the pillars.
                                  
Jane Powell came to our humble bungalow and photographed some details of the interior several years ago. She lives in Oakland California and is restoring her arts and crafts home. Her restoration philosophy is pure, honest, and true to the historic details of the period.

San Francisco artistic license article.

The heritage movement has many supporters and they are a group of diverse personalities that are passionate about their cause. In my experience, they are creative and flamboyant with academic art history roots.

A small portion of our arts and crafts book collection on the Stickley bookcase.

Have you restored or renovated a home?
Have you overseen the process as a contractor or are you hands on?
Do you have any advice or hints when living in a home during the construction?
What were the biggest challenges and would you do it again?
Interested in opinions as I am contemplating a bedroom redecorating project in the next few months....

2 comments:

the gardener's cottage said...

i've tried to comment twice now and i keep losing power. storms in so. cal!

anyways, i have no advice on how to live with construction. we renovated the whole house at once and didn't live in it.

my biggest challenge was to stay focused on my design plan when everyone around me was working like mad and going crazy.

i specifically wanted to restore this cottage with it's original intention in mind. the help lived here. it was built with leftover building materials from the estate. so in keeping with that idea i used materials that would have been used in the big house. the black and white floor, the butler-like cabinetry and hand-me-down chandeliers were things i thought would have been used. we completed this house in 7 weeks so i was under a lot of pressure. but it was so much fun and i enjoyed the process immensely. i have no idea if any of this helps you, you seem like you've got it down. your house is beautiful already.

~janet

hostess of the humble bungalow said...

What a luxury to live elsewhere while under construction...but that 7 week schedule must have been hard on you. Sounds like you thrive on that kind of work, being so creative and having that designer's eye for detail is a gift...here it is my husband with that talent. I am basically chief cook and bottle washer or and gardener too!
Hope you have power back and that the storms have subsided.