The message of the Arts & Crafts movements around the world is still relevant today: Family and the earth are our greatest treasures, and the home is where these come together. We can celebrate simple, rich materials and the craftspeople who transform them in an ever-evolving tradition. Cedar, brick, oak, woven fabrics, and stained glass all come alive in carefully modulated sunlight.

The stair is the primary design element, weaving the utilitarian ground floor vertically with the main living spaces and the loft-like attic. Modelled on the Red House stairs, it is the major piece of "furniture" in the library and living room, where it reappears as a balcony. The intentionally dark and quiet entry is lit from above by the stairwell, enlivened by the cut-out circles which throw light either way, depending on the time of day. One literally bursts into the lofty, sunlit library at the top of the stairs.

Most of the details in the house are hand-crafted or antique, including the lighting, ironwork, and stained glass windows. The house celebrates the many craftspeople who began the Arts & Crafts movement and who continue it today.

For further reading:

"Refined and Rusticated: Using the Arts and Crafts Style"

by Martha McDonald
Period Homes - Autumn 2003

"English Arts and Crafts"

by J. Robert Ostergaard
New Old House Magazine - Fall 2005