Three More Great Homes

Like this new house in Iowa, recent projects show that the Arts & Crafts Revival continues to thrive -- and evolve with the resurgence of craftsmanship and sustainable design.

Custom home-builders Mike and Susan Hoien created a house of timeless design for themselves in Iowa. Bradbury’s ‘Oakleaf Frieze’ is one of several revival papers in the house. (Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers: www.bradbury.com)

Custom home-builders Mike and Susan Hoien created a house of timeless design for themselves in Iowa. The entry features custom art glass with an oak-tree motif.

Mike and Susan Hoien (Hoien Construction, Spirit Lake, IA) were diligent in their research once they committed to building themselves an Arts & Crafts-inspired home. Motifs throughout show a command of the original style and even of the movement’s antecedents in Great Britain. Although they incorporated aspects of Prairie School, Shingle Style, and Craftsman houses, the interior maintains a consistent flow through the use of nature imagery and a naturalistic palette.

Photos by Paul Crosby

Architect Matthew Bialecki designed this rough stone and cedar shingle retreat in upstate New York -- it’s both elegant and in the vernacular.

An open floor plan hearkens back to the classic Adirondack lodge. The two-sided fireplace warms both the kitchen and the screened porch.

Proving that American A&C goes beyond Stickley’s Mission style, this house by architect Matthew Bialecki drew inspiration from Adirondack lodges, some of the work of Greene and Greene, and his client’s pleasant memories of a lakefront vacation home. The result is a spacious house that blends the Craftsman vocabulary and a rough-hewn, organic aura with the latest in energy efficiency.

Photos by Gross and Daley

An artist couple created this Craftsman-inspired house in Mahwah, N.J., complete with meandering brick walks and superb gardens.

Their hand-applied ceiling treatments are a highlight in the dining room, great room, and kitchen. Dining room furniture is reproduction.

Revival magic happened in this New Jersey house completed by two artist-decorators. They distressed oak cabinets, created stencils (using state-of-the-art software and materials) to make hand-painting go faster, glazed exterior shingles (made of a modern product, not wood), and added shredded raffia to sandstone plaster. The result is a house that looks old world – anything but new. Learn more at www.specfindesigns.com

Photos by Bob Skinner

Patricia PooreAuthor

Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.

Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.

Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.