Over many centuries, America has seen the rise of dozens of types of houses with distinctive architectural styles, each enjoying its era of immense popularity and thankfully some designs still exist in the 21st century. Whether it’s a ranch, Victorian, Colonial, or Prairie style, many American neighborhoods consist of houses that are aesthetically diverse and of pleasing variety. One of those designs is Craftsman House.
So, what is a craftsman house?
A craftsman-style house is a home that focuses on the use of natural materials and hand-worked goods. This architectural style was developed in the early 20th century. It relies on well-constructed architecture highlighted with hand-crafted decorative details.
It releases warmth and humility so it is perfect for a cold climate. This style focuses on the handmade workmanship of beautiful and natural materials.
Talking about its design, a typical craftsman house is multiple steps to the raised first floor of a story-and-a-half layout. On the other hand, the exterior consists of a low-pitched roof with wide overhangs and a prominent or wraparound front porch supported by tapered columns. The interior features stress comfort, including exposed wooden beams, built-in bookshelves, hand-laid stone fireplaces, and window seats.
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What is the history of the craftsman house?
As mentioned above, craftsman homes first came into fashion in the US at the end of the 21st century. It drew inspiration from the British Arts and Crafts movement, which began in England in the mid-19th century. The American Arts and Crafts movement could be seen in things like pottery, furnishing, and even house architecture with the development of the Craftsman style.
Arts and Crafts furniture designer, Gustav Stickley, popularized the idea of Craftsman homes through his magazine, The Craftsman. The magazine gave people ideas about the simplicity of materials and design and also specific home plans for its readers.
These homes are opposites to Victorian-style homes, which were built to show the advancements of industrialization and mass production. While Victorian houses reflected richly in every way, prominent and almost boastful, employing a gothic revival style that featured ornate and decorative wood trim, Craftsman-style houses focused more on the importance of hand-crafted goods and natural building materials over the extravagant Victorian style.
Craftsman design reached its most advanced progression in the house designs of Frank Llyod Wright who was undoubtedly one of the greatest American architects of the 20th century.
Craftsman house exterior
This style was probably the only style of architecture that evoked the feeling of home in the 20th century. It also became more popular when tens of thousands of American families rose to middle-class status. These humble and warm houses sat row by row in thousands of neighborhoods. They even provided wide-covered porches a perfect place to sit in the evening and greet passersby. The incredible curb appeal of this house is why movies and TV shows have featured Craftsman neighborhoods on screen. While there are different variations of Craftsman style, many include the following exterior features.
- One-story to one-and-a-half-stories tall
- Screened-in or covered front porch
- Low-pitched roof
- Tapered columns supporting the roof
- Deep overhanging roof eaves
- Exposed beams and rafter tails
- Multi-pane windows
- Second-story gable windows
- Partially paned doors
- Earthy tones and colors
- Multiple steps up to an elevated first-floor
Craftsman home interior design
Talking about the inside of the Craftsman style, its interiors are in the details, featuring the work of master carpenters from where it was named Craftsman. While the exact design of a Craftsman house depends on the individualized house plans, some common interior features of this style include:
- Built-in cabinets and shelves
- Prominently featured natural materials, including wood, stone, and brick
- Handmade features and woodwork
- Intimate spaces, such as kitchen nooks and window seats
- Hardwood flooring
- Nature-inspired colors like brown and green
- Open floor plan
Types of Craftsman-Style Houses
This humble style of home architecture saw many interpretations. However, here are a few of the most prominent.
Bungalow
This style of Craftsman-style home originally came from colonial Bengal, India. It has many repetitions but a typical bungalow is a small, square cottage that has a second or half story built into a low-sloped, overhanging roof.
It often has a front porch supported by columns and an open floor plan that eliminates waste space.
Prairie
Drawing inspiration from the wide flat vistas of the American heartland, the Prairie-style house is a uniquely American architecture pioneered in the early 20th century by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Some prairie-style houses, taken to their full expression by Frank and his workers are still considered masterpieces of American architecture.
Prairie style reflects and blends with the environment rather than standing out of it. It reflects a Midwestern landscape by featuring flat, minimally sloping rooflines, and a low -profile exteriors composed of flat lines and planes. In the words of Wright, a Prairie-style house should be “married to the ground.”
Mission Revival
These style homes put a West Coast twist on the Craftsman Style which utilizes stucco on the exterior to copy abode construction. These also take inspiration from bungalows and prairies like gabled roofs and overhanging eaves.
They also have their unique elements derived from Spanish architecture, like arched windows and a distinctive red tile roof.
Foursquare
It is a square, two-story box comprised of four equal-sized rooms on each floor. One fun fact is that you can easily spot these homes from the street due to their rectangular, symmetrical design and wide porch, which like other Craftsman homes has a pyramidal roof.
Some common Craftsman homes FAQs
Q. Are Craftsman houses costly to build?
A: Yeley says, “Craftsman-style homes are more expensive to build because of the amount of detail and the quality of materials used in their construction.” “The cost to build a Craftsman home would be at a minimum 15% higher due to this level of craftsmanship.”
New York-based architect Eric J. Smith who has experience working on traditional and classical architecture, including Craftsman-style homes for 35 years said that by its very nature, this design requires far more hours of labor, resulting in higher costs. “These homes will cost a premium—however, to me, it is more than worth it,” Smith says.
Q. When were Craftsman houses built?
A: These houses which are also sometimes called the California bungalow became prominent in the booming construction of California neighborhoods in the early 20th century. However, its roots grew out of the Arts and Crafts movement of the American Midwest during the same period. Prairie-style homes were an offshoot of the Craftsman and were spawned by the architectural philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago.
Q. How do I renovate a Craftsman house?
A: While renovating a Craftsman house, it should be done with great care. This will preserve the integrity of the house and will deeply retain its resale value.
Original fixtures and hardware used by Craftsman builders – things like doors, hinges, cabinets, light fixtures, and windows – are available on the secondary market. In regions where there are and were a lot of Craftsman houses built, there are often antiques and architectural resale shops that sell remnants of Craftsman homes that have been torn down or damaged. Many of these firms all over the country also inventory these items online. Search for things like “Craftsman light fixtures” or “Craftsman doors.”