Plans and views of houses and bungalows published in Stickley’s magazine The Craftsman, with his principles for the American home: simplicity, honest materials left to show, a living room built round its fireplace and opening into the dining room, built-in furniture, and porches used as rooms out of doors.
Stickley (1858–1942) was a furniture maker in upstate New York who took up the ideas of Ruskin and William Morris and made plain, solid oak furniture, often called Mission furniture. From 1901 to 1916 he published The Craftsman, a monthly magazine that offered readers house plans free of charge; Craftsman Homes (1909) and More Craftsman Homes (1912) gathered the best of them.
His houses do without the parlour of the Victorian house, and reduce its entrance hall to a vestibule or a nook. The front door opens into a living room built round a big fireplace, often in an inglenook with seats either side; the dining room opens from it through a wide opening; bookcases, seats and sideboards are built into the walls. Outside, the walls are of shingle, stone or rough brick, the roofs spread wide on exposed rafters, the windows are mostly casements grouped in long horizontal bands, and a deep porch, usually recessed, serves as a room in summer.
The book, part by part
I The Craftsman idea
Simplicity, honesty of construction and materials, and a home planned for the life of the family rather than for show.
II Bungalows and houses
Plans of one and two storeys, with their porches, pergolas and gardens.
Rules: The porch as an outdoor room