Design challenge: Use pine to transform my boring ranch-style house into a craftsman?

[Mark Andersen]

I am casting about for design ideas and inspiration, and hope someone might have some good suggestions. My 1958 ranch-style house is awfully boring. Though the last owner put in new trim, it's just the cheap, shiny, boring trim you see in every new house. I would like to do something more interesting. I really like the craftsman aesthetic, with built-ins, chair/plate rails, and more substantial trim around the windows, doors, and doorways, etc., and think that a scaled down version of that look could work very well in the house. I can't afford the amount of QS white oak it would take to really keep it traditional, so I'm looking for other options. The other "challenge" is that the new windows are all white, vinyl windows, so I'm worried about something clashing with those "modern" looking windows.

I happened to pick up LOTS of ponderosa pine (over 300 bf) pretty inexpensively when a local lumberyard went out of business. It is mid-grade stuff (I think it would be called "quality," as opposed to the higher "select" grade or the lower "standard" grade), with quite a few knots (all tight), but the boards are 1" x 10" nominal (and 12' to 16' long), so there is quite a bit of QS wood available by ripping selectively. I hate the look of knotty pine with the shiny, yellowish finish that is so common in my part of the country, but wondered if others have had luck turning pine into a nice-looking trim wood/built-in wood, especially going after a craftsman/arts & crafts look? Are there methods and/or staining products that will give it a nice, rich look that de-emphasizes the density and growth ring differences? I know that a seal coat is needed to minimize blotching, with any stain-type finish.

One thought I had was to use a dark brown milk paint (over a seal coat of shellac -- at least where there are knots), with a coating of wax on top. This will obviously obscure the grain and knots in the wood, but I think it might look nice. Lastly, I know that all of this flies in the face of the craftsman ethic (which would say you should never try to dress up a cheap wood to look like a nicer wood), but I think using white oak for something like wood trim that won't get much wear is kind of overkill, especially given how expensive it is in modern times.

[Alan Caro]

Mark Andersen,

Arts and crafts interiors had a lot of variation. If you google images of the work of > Charles Rennie Makintosh, William Morris, Greene and Greene, Gustav Stickley, Olbrich, Charles Voysey, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and pre-WWI Frank Lloyd Wright, you can see quite a range of styles.

Of course, the A & C effect would be much enhanced if there were both exterior effects > shingles, square-edged windows surrounds, projecting ridge beams, trellis, the appropriate windows and doors, and so on. I would suggest at least having an A & C front entry door. If the house has prominent garage doors, changing those by adding appropriate detail- for example, panel with grids of applied flat stock, divided windows, etc, can go a long way to subverting the 1958 sensation,..

In the interior, I would suggest considering >

1. Plain paneled doors.

2. Window surrounds that use all squared off pieces and with the top component projecting past the vertical sides like a lintel.

3. A tall base -4-6" that is either completely squared or is a flat piece with a half round on the top and quarter round as shoe

4. A picture or plate rail that runs entirely around the room and that ties to windows, doors, and opening using flat, un-decorated pieces.

5. Wide plank, pegged wood floors.

6. Have a look particularly at fireplace surrounds by the architects listed above. The fireplace/ hearth is the focal point of the room and important in establishing the style. Find an early Wright-style Clock for the mantel.

7. In a dining room or den, a continuous picture or plate rail that ties to the base with a grid of flat pieces -such as 1/2" X 3-1/2" applied to the wall. The wall can be paneled in 1/8 Oak veneered plywood or it can be the drywall /plaster wall. If it wood, use a light stain. Paint the drywall /plaster sections in a Viridian or Venetian Red and leave the area above white.

8. Build wood light fixtures based on designs by the architects listed above. Frank Lloyd Wright and Makintosh in particular made many lighting designs. You can also find very simple lantern-style fixtures, the plainer the better.

9. Of course, any very large furniture done in the A & C style will help the effect, especially dining tables and desks. A couple of Morris Chairs will always help!

10. It is a disadvantage to have white, vinyl windows, so you may wish to have quite plain coverings- sort of linen-esque.

As for finishes, much of the A & E style used very minimal finishes, but if you are using wood with vaying grain and quality, there were a number of designers that painted it or used varying transparency stain- subtle greens and reds were found in English styles. In the cases of Makintosh and Voysey, there were some quite austere rooms in which the walls and trim were generally all white.

Again, in my view, the best way to approach this kind of project is to look at the range of the style in it's original period and decide what elements appeal and suit your aesthetic, effort level, and budget.

Alan Caro

[Mark Andersen]

Thank you for the reply, and detailed suggestions, Alan! I appreciate it. I have read pretty extensively on the Arts & Crafts movement, but a couple of those names were new to me (or I have forgotten about them!). What I was envisioning is something very much like what you described above in numbers 2, 3, 4, and 7. I especially appreciate the information on painted trims in the English expressions of A&C -- I haven't run across many of those. I am not overly fond of the all-white look (or even white trim/wainscot with bolder paint above a plate rail), since it always seems too contemporary and/or formal, but am trying to figure out how to tie something like the muted greens and reds you describe with the harsh white of the windows frames. For better or worse, the windows are almost brand new (and large and expensive), so replacing is not an option at this point. Perhaps keeping a white section of wall above the plate rail (with the painted trim/painted drywall grid look, as you described), would help bring things together.

Thank you again for your suggestions!

A hurdle to overcome is the desire to put in a fireplace, fireplace insert, or woodstove, and frame it with nice built-ins as many of the craftsman designs did, but not currently being able to afford the stove/fireplace. I might have to start in other rooms, and save the living room (the only real "common area" outside of the kitchen, as there is not a separate family room or den) for later, when a wood stove is practical. The floors are the standard oak floors common for that era, which I should have mentioned. They were refinished by the previous owner with (I believe) just a poly finish, so they are relatively light.

[Brian Williamson]

Hi Mark. A few years back I added some A & C elements to my house and can vouch for the influence of adding simple, wide trim to windows, doors, and baseboards goes a long way to helping out the feel of a house. One thing that I did that worked out well was going to a salvage yard to get period doors. The doors had tons of character (read: light damage) that made lent a air of history to a brand new re-do of the interior. I also opted to build wood windows to replace the modern aluminum ones throughout the house.

There are tons of craftsman bungalows out here in CA that use stained VGDF for all trim and built-ins. I imagine that you could acheive similar results using your pine if it were properly sawn.

I don't have totally relevant pics handy, but here's one showing some of the work:

Here is a pic of some windows that I built and the trim being installed (note that the vertical trim isn't on yet).

The trim is very simple and plain.


Alan.. Wow! You are certainly a wellspring of knowledge on the topic. I enjoy the A&C aesthetic and have done a little researching on the topic and found your post very educational. Thanks for sharing!

[Alan Caro]

Brian Williamson,

Thank you for the complementary words. And in return, you've posted an image containing excellent examples, beautifully executed, of a large number of the components that can be used to create that kind of friendly Arts and Crafts environment, including plain inset panel doors, the kind of windows common in these houses in which the mullions- divisions are different in one panel to the other, the projecting window lintel and even a proper farmhouse sink suitable for 1908 and today. Well done!

I've long been interested in the Arts and Crafts movement, since my architecture student days in merrie ol' where I was under the spell of Voysey. Makintosh, and Lutyens and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, and then living in Pasadena near some fantastic houses by Greene and Greene, and so on. Although I designed many houses in California with thick plaster walls and tile roofs, I've designed a number of houses in the A & C style in Venice (in L.A. by the Pacific, Redwood City and Marin County (near San Fracisco), a beach house in Virginia Beach VA, and quite a number not a million miles from your location- Calabasas and Thousand Oaks, CA, and an A & C house in Beverly Hills. The images are from Venice,Topsail 1.jpg Redwood CityRedwood 2.jpg, MalibuOC 2_Malibu House.jpg, and the last is a creaky early sketch for the Virginia Beach house> K_Early Massing Sketch H_ 5.30.13.jpg


Alan Caro

[Brian Williamson]

Holy cow you're one talented individual! Hats of to you, sir. I'll quiet down now and let someone else address the original question at hand.

[Brian Holcombe]

Hi Mark,

i appreciate your interest in arts and crafts interiors, I love them as well. But they do not apply well to a 1950's ranch, you may want to do some research on how Modernist architects have included paneling and moldings into their interiors. They are going to be light where a&c is heavy, but they will retain the geometry, repetition and proportion that is so attractive about arts and crafts.

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[Brian Holcombe]

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