Revival Interiors
Bungalow-era rooms have been described as plain, but they are warm and fully decorated.
Wallpaper remained popular during the Arts & Crafts period. Gone was the multi-patterned, tripartite treatment (dado, fill, frieze) of the Victorian era.
Treatments now included panelized walls—with embossed wallcovering, paper, burlap, or stencil designs between moldings or battens. Most popular was the embellished frieze, placed in the area at the top of the wall just under the ceiling. Pendant designs, landscapes, and stylized florals all were common.
By modern standards, interiors were fully decorated, with woodwork, paint, pillows, and rugs adding to the cozy effect. For your home, consider finishing treatments, as well as contemporary textiles that add color, pattern, and warmth to Arts & Crafts rooms.
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.
