Hardwood parquet flooring is the standard for high-style and urban Victorian houses. Photo by Edward Addeo.

As always, more ideas come to us from history than from a showroom. Look at the flooring choices here—not only to see the variety of conventions, materials, and finishes available, but also to confirm the decorating importance of the floor.

Some types, such as parquet borders and wide pine, are closely associated with an era. Others are more generic (hardwood tongue-and-groove), or easily adapted to an inspired new use.

Tile

Take, for example, English geometric and encaustic tiles. These unique, lovely, and practical tiles reappeared during the 1980s Victorian Revival. Encaustics are a medieval-period tile whose manufacture was rediscovered in England during the 19th-century art movements.

Besides their use in restoration today—as for Victorian brownstone entries and old city-library floors—geometrics and encaustics can be used, in an endless number of patterns, for newer houses. They’re especially handsome when paired with English Tudor or Arts & Crafts influences.

Painted Floors

Painted wood floors can be country-style or quite formal, as with this faux-marble treatment in the entry hall of the Rensselaer Nicoll House.

Painted floors have long been associated with early American and country houses. Their strong geometric and faux-marble effects, though, are sophisticated enough for, say, 20th-century Colonial Revival hallways.

Floors painted with trompe l’oeil effects date to colonial days but have become popular in personalized new interiors.

Wood Flooring

Wood flooring by itself offers hundreds of options, given different species of wood, reclaimed and new stock, varying widths and jointing options, inlays and parquetry, and finish types. Though you won’t find all such options at the Home Depot, suppliers are not hard to locate.

Finishing Touches Only a face-nailed, wide-plank pine floor, without gloss, looks right in a ca. 1690 bedroom. If you are refinishing or installing a period floor, don’t overlook the importance of final finish, whether it be penetrating oil or surface varnish, high gloss, low sheen, or flat. Flooring conveys character. Wood floors are the standard for public rooms and more formal private ones, as wood suggests tradition, durability, and depth. Fancy-cut wood floors, like patterned parquet, evoke European elegance and a gilded age of decoration. Slate, stone, and tile are no-nonsense surfaces for foyer, sunroom, or bath.

For this project, artisans at Buddy Rhodes made concrete in custom colors of moss- and slate-green, inset with veins of sand and coal, to complement earthy Motawi tiles.

A manmade material that resembles stone, concrete is made by mixing cement (a fine powder of clay and limestone) with aggregate and water, which sets and binds the materials together. Varying the aggregate determines the finish: coarse gravel is used for construction, while fine sand produces a smooth finish. Today concrete can be found in homes as period-appropriate complements from the foundation up, including countertops and floors in kitchens and baths, fireplace hearths and surrounds, benches, bathtubs and sinks, shower stalls, walls and windowsills.

This concrete vessel sink and warmly colored countertop are by J. Aaron Cast Stone.

A lot of the appeal of concrete is its chameleonlike quality, points out Susan Andrews of San Francisco’s Buddy Rhodes Studio. Concrete can be formed in nearly any finish and color, often inspired by an element in the room. Take, for example, a Berkeley homeowner who asked for kitchen counters to complement the earth tones of Motawi tiles inset in the backsplash (shown above).

The process begins with an exact template made on site. Then the artisans return to the studio, where custom molds are formed in melamine, and the concrete is poured. The finished countertop is installed, glued into place, grouted, and its final finish applied. Handmade by skilled craftspeople, custom-designed concrete requires time, skill, and expertise; it usually runs about $100 per square foot, about the cost of high-grade marble or granite.

Kemiko products were used to stain this custom interior floor.

In decades past, concrete was used mostly for floors—and it doesn’t have to be hidden any longer, explains George McCullough of Quaker Chemical, which produces Kemiko products. Tired wood and linoleum floorings are being pulled up so the concrete underneath can be cleaned and restained for an updated and affordable flooring solution. Preparation includes thorough cleaning and neutralization; this and topcoat application are best left to trained applicators with special equipment. After a topcoat is applied, McCullough suggests a mop-on polish (such as Kemiko’s “Easy Shine”) or a buff-on wax (like Kemiko’s “Stone Tone Wax II”), which lasts for years with occasional buffing.

Concrete is being reinvented in new and exciting ways. Sonoma Cast Stone’s “MetalCrete,” for example, “plates” metal (copper, brass, nickel, steel) onto concrete for the solid feel of stone with the sparkle of a metallic finish. How about furniture made of concrete? Portland, Oregon-based Cunin Design’s undulating lounge is not only sexy, but ergonomic and comfortable, too.

How to Maintain Concrete Counters
A monthly waxing (one studio recommends combination of olive oil and beeswax) keeps concrete looking good for years. Remember to clean up spills as quickly as possible, because oils and acids can cause stains in concrete.

Recognized by Morris

In the 1890s, a seamstress named Mary Isobel embroidered panels for a tri-fold screen designed by J.H. Dearle. Now the Mary Isobel Collection includes fabrics including the namesake Mary Isobel (curtains) and Lily Leaf (chair).

To the trade from Morris & Co. by Sanderson

Lebus Reborn

Inspired by a 1903 English original, Nancy Hiller constructed her own version of a Harris Lebus sideboard from red oak. A similar piece with art glass by Anne Ryan Miller and artisan-made brass and copper hardware would sell for about $7,950.

From NR Hiller Design

Watermeadow Snake

Inspired by a watermeadow fritillary that grows near Oxford, Snakeshead Two is an 1887 William Morris design. Shown in one of two colorways, the newly available, all-linen fabric measures 56½” wide. It costs about $118 per yard.

From Historic Style

Medieval, and Evergreen

A custom fireplace installation in Lee Green is accented with Medieval Animal tiles, inspired by the floors of old English abbeys. The field tile is about $110 per square foot. The 3″ x 3″ Medieval Animal tiles are $14 each. The custom relief panel is $900.

All from Motawi

Bespoke Pendant

Crenshaw Lighting has been making custom light fixtures by hand for more than 50 years. The company’s growing collection of Arts & Crafts fixtures includes this bronze, stained-glass pendant hand-built for a private residence.

For a custom piece in a similar vein, contact (540) 745-3900, crenshawlighting.com

Beautifully Fulfilled

Inspired by the English “House Beautiful” movement, Aesthetic papers like Eden and Persia embody the 19th-century ideal of art for art’s sake. Eden (top) is $60 per roll; Persia is $57. Both papers are 27″ wide.

From Mason & Wolf Wallpaper

Voysey Lace

David Berman of Trustworth Studios has transformed a CFA Voysey design of 1900 into Oak and Acorn. Newly available, the lace panel measures 33″ wide and comes in lengths from 54″ to 72″ (custom shortening is also available).

From Cooper’s Cottage Lace

Medieval Rambler

The rose has been a favored English motif for centuries. In reds and greens on a sage ground, Craftsman Rambling Rose is hand-knotted in Nepal from hand-carded, -spun, and -dyed Himalayan wools. The 6′ x 9′ size retails for $1,944.

From Tiger Rug

Dainties from the Garden

Pulls and knobs from the English Garden collection include (from top) Dianthus, Mountain Ash, Poppy, and McKenna’s Rose. All are available in two or more finishes and different color options. Prices range from $19 to $40 per piece.

From Notting Hill Decorative Hardware ]]> http://www.oldhouseonline.com/furnishings-english-in-america/feed/ 1 http://www.oldhouseonline.com/getaway-kitchens/ http://www.oldhouseonline.com/getaway-kitchens/#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:10:52 +0000 Randy http://www.oldhouseonline.com/?p=14738

(Photo: Doug Keister)

Like the rest of the house, the kitchen in a getaway should be a space that lets you relax and enjoy yourself. So what if the cabinets are old and the appliances aren’t stainless steel? Hopefully you bought the place for its age and charm. Even worn-out kitchens can be transformed into appealing spaces that are more than functional for the days or months you will be in residence for far less than a typical kitchen renovation that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

A kitchen addition in an 1850s stone farmhouse in Canada keeps close to its roots: It was inspired by an 18th-century kitchen in a National Trust house in Cornwall. The long table, painted in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Viola,’ is particularly “English.” (Photo: Edward Addeo)

Let’s begin with the obvious: Keep the charm that won you over in the first place. Beadboard walls, original wood floors, molded door and window casings, even grungy existing cabinets can be spruced up or repurposed in ways that make your getaway your own.

Note industrial pendants; palm-themed slipcovers add a jolt of color. (Photo: Doug Keister)

Designer Jane Coslick is famous for turning derelict wood-frame cottages in Tybee Island, Georgia, into colorful beach getaways. In one example shown here, Jane kept as many original elements as she could, from the heart-pine floor to the beadboard walls. When she needed more beadboard to complete the kitchen sitting room, she scavenged it from a similar building that was being torn down. She not only kept the feel of the original cottage, but also saved thousands of dollars.

In a cold-weather getaway, an AGA stove that’s always on might be an investment to consider, as is orienting the kitchen to a source of heat, such as a fireplace or wood-burning stove. A summer house, on the other hand, might not even need true walls—the exposed beams and studs epitomize getaway rustic (and make it easier to run wiring).

A tiny, plank-walled cottage kitchen makes the most of open shelving and an overhead rack for stemware. (Photos: Doug Keister)

Got funky old cabinets? Paint them in sunny colors, or replace them with found built-ins, painted or striped.

Avoid over-fitting the kitchen. Do you really need expansive banks of upper and lower cabinets? Fewer cabinets mean less stuff. And so much of the charm of a cottage comes from using freestanding cabinets and open shelving. There’s no need for countertops measured in acres, either. Smaller surfaces allow you to adapt inexpensive scrap pieces of such high-end materials as marble, granite, slate, or copper for work surfaces or breakfast bars.

Consider a retro range like this one in white from Big Chill.

This isn’t the place for a commercial stove and a Sub-Zero fridge. Put the money into an efficient gas grille if you’ll be cooking outdoors. If you find the old appliances unattractive, choose a kitchen color scheme to help them blend in. White appliances all but disappear in a white kitchen.

It’s even possible to come up with a complementary color scheme for an avocado green stove. (Try white, with the green picked up in patterns on tea towels or slip-covers. Bolder renovators might choose a color on the opposite side of the color wheel—in this case, orange!)

For a simple dwelling, keep the palette clean. One of the signatures of Jane Coslick’s Tybee Island cottages is her use of bright pops of color on a white palette. A getaway house kitchen can benefit from the use of bold, unusual, or whimsical colors, especially when there’s only enough money in the budget to paint the cabinets, not replace them.

Bin pulls reproduced in historically correct glass brighten aged cabinets.

A ribbed glass pendant from Barn Light Electric is nostalgic and inexpensive.

Old glass insulators from Conant Metal & Light are fun and functional.

Speaking of money, put dollops of cash into accents like lighting and hardware. A fresh coat of paint and new, period-appropriate cabinet and bin pulls can transform cabinets. Choose reproduction pendants and scon-ces to illuminate work areas. Personalize the space as you outfit it with dishes, utensils, and pots and pans.

The tiles aren’t the originals, and don’t look for twin dishwashers . . . but how charming is the collection of colorful spun aluminum over the old stove? (Photo: Jonathan Wallen)

A second home is the perfect place to trot out all those collectibles you found on eBay and have been storing since the late 1990s, or vintage pieces found locally that tie your house to its history.

Remember that less is more when it comes to pots and pans—and utensils, if drawer space is tight or nonexistent.

Edit tools and equipment, keeping in mind must-haves, like lobster pots in coastal Maine, or marshmallow skewers for mountain retreats with fire pits.

If you are planning a major overhaul or addition, open the kitchen to the living space, indoors and out. Even small galley-sized kitchens live large when they open into a gathering room.

For sources, see the Products & Services Directory.

In the kitchen wing, a dropped ceiling and damaged wallboard have been removed; walls here had brick nogging. Paint colors are based on those of Homer Laughlin’s ‘Riviera’ pottery of the 1940s.

For this neat white-clapboard house with a blue door and irises abundant, little has changed since 1840. Its state of preservation seems remarkable—we are not all that far from New York City. But the farmhouse has never been modernized, and thus has not been subjected to the disruption that comes from adding bathrooms, a great room, or decorative excess. In fact, with the potbellied kitchen stove currently disconnected from its chimney, the house has no heat.

Yet original plaster-on-lath is in excellent condition. So are the lyrical staircase and all the doors and trim; the old pine floors are tight and smooth. “For two years I read the New York Times country-property listings,” Jack McGroder recalls. “I just read them; I never made a call or went to see anything. Then one day I came across ‘1840 Greek Revival/mountain views’ and I thought, ‘This is ridiculous: I’m going to see it.’ Only house I looked at. It was love at first sight.”

Back in 1990, Jack recalls, the house was surrounded by waving fields of grain—rye grass, grown to three feet tall. “I didn’t mow it for a couple of years, it looked so good.” He planted the wisteria, which took five or six years to bloom and now worries him with its weighty presence. So far no damage is evident (“I think it’s just lying on the metal roof, not invading”) and after each spring display, he can’t bear to cut it.

In the dining room, more classical bits and pieces: the torch sconces were the owner’s one and only purchase at a live auction.

Inside his summer-only house, “I wanted a classical look, but not all the way with formal Empire furniture,” Jack explains. “I find things that give an illusion—I don’t have a lot of cash.” His bits and pieces have come from flea markets, salvage yards, Dumpster dives, even an iron shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans. And he went to an auction, once. “I wanted those torch sconces [now in the dining room]. Bidding started and my paddle went up. I had no willpower.”

The interior sparkles, regardless of budget. The kitchen has a salvaged wall cupboard, filled with Wedgwood china, perched on a chest. It and the little rush-seated country chairs got new life painted in the colors of Homer Laughlin’s ‘Riviera’ dishware, another collection displayed in the kitchen, which also inspired the painted floor.

Curtains in the dining room, which is currently between paint colors, have chenille embroidery in an anthemion pattern, very Greek. The curtains were a lucky find at the 26th Street flea market, “back when they had the parking lot.” The broken-pediment china cabinet in the dining room cost $150 at an East Side thrift shop. Jack painted its interior Pompeii red.

An aqua stair hall complements the deep blue of the parlor, which was inspired by classical Wedgwood china.

Classical inspiration, too, led to the formal paint colors. The saturated blue in the parlor comes from the strong blues of Wedgwood china. Then Jack painted the entry hall and staircase wall aqua as a complementary lead-in: “I seem to recall that Benjamin Moore called it something like ‘Greek Temple’ in the ’90s, and that clinched it,” he says.

More daring is the chartreuse-y green chosen for a long room (probably built as three small support rooms) running the width of the house to the rear. Jack McGroder has always had a developed sense of color. He trained as a fine-art painter, later ending up in scenery and costume design, starting as a dresser for City Opera. He’s been at Radio City Music Hall for many years, as a wardrobe supervisor now—specializing in shoes.

“Think about it: hundreds of people, each with seven or eight pairs,” he says—shoes custom-colored and hard-working. (He also personally sewed all the white collars for the Rockettes’ Santa outfits.) Indeed, his attention to detail comes through in the house.

The scrolling staircase newel is a highlight of the interior.

The mahogany stair newel, with a scroll or lyre design, is particularly fine for this vernacular house. Always on the lookout for another like it, Jack says he’s seen only one that is similar, in a South Carolina house restored by Dick Jenrette. [See Adventures with Old Houses, Wyrick & Co., 2000.] Perhaps the carpenter chose the design from a pattern book.

Upstairs, bedrooms are intimate, with sloping ceilings and small frieze windows set in the low walls. In one, the wisteria blocks the view: “Just like for Miss Havisham, the outside world doesn’t exist,” says Jack. He bought the bedroom’s impressive set of toile drapery panels and valance years go, in a Columbus Avenue shop, for about $30. Hung to graze the floor from the sloped ceiling, they create a nook within the room, and inspired the fuchsia color of the walls. French Victorian cut velvet—probably from a porti`ere—covers a chaise. The substantial brass bed is one Jack slept in as a child, on the porch of his grandparents’ summer place near Niagara Falls. It had belonged to his great-great-uncle.

Preservation, rather than renovation or even restoration, is apparently in store for the future, too. Commenting on the mantel leaning against a wall, the missing wallboard in the kitchen, Jack McGroder says: “I do things to a certain point, then look at it as a set piece, I suppose. I squint, it looks good; I can’t obsess about what’s not done.”

An Arts & Crafts aesthetic is strong in the dining room, with its original oak woodwork. The sturdy massing of high wainscot, beams, and corbelled mantelshelf are tempered by colorful Hall pottery, along with later art glass and Art Deco lighting. Unique, antique geometric tiles surround the gas fireplace.

Fanciful is one way to describe this house, where Arts & Crafts-era features like oversize brackets and corbels, a chalet roof, and transomed Glasgow windows are joined by such Moresque details as the entry arch, framed window, and tile-work. Owners Cynthia and Allen Koster have preserved the historic fabric inside and out and have furnished the house tastefully with collections from different periods.

The dining room has an American A&C aesthetic, while the entry, living room, and white stair hall allude to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the proto-Modern Scots designer. The hall sets the theme of the Kosters’ collecting: The couple created a three-dimensional frieze of Art Deco teapots and pitchers manufactured by the Hall Pottery Company of Ohio. It runs around the entry and dining room. “Collections can become a little obsessive,” confesses Allen. “Especially the Hall china: 125 pieces!”

Furniture in the house is in keeping with a historical Arts & Crafts sense; the dining room table and chairs, for example, blend with the original clear-finished woodwork. But the Kosters have transcended period design-by-rote.  “The front hall is an eclectic collection,” Allen acknowledges, “but our preferences seem consistent and work well together.”

The entry hall suggests London more than the Bay Area. Black Mackintosh-designed chairs are graphic statements against the long-ago-painted trim. Collected Hall pottery on the plate rail creates a frieze. Art Deco fixtures are used throughout.

Finding the appropriate lighting was a challenge. In the hall, a slipper-shade Art Deco hanging fixture is close enough to the ceiling to hide bulbs from someone on the stairs. The Kosters have collected such fixtures from as far away as Australia, and had them rebuilt to accept U.S. sockets.

Color is carried upstairs, with muted hues on the walls and floors, sharply offset by bright splashes from framed prints. More of the pottery collection appears here as well. “The 1930s pottery is bright, which meant the palette overall had to be paler,” says the owner–architect. The house does not seek to re-create a moment in history. The robust and historic first floor is coherent with the more contemporary second level.

At the Antique Rose Emporium, display gardens are oriented around a restored late-19th-century farmhouse.

The rolling countryside of Washington County, Texas, is tranquil and pastoral. The county seat, Brenham, is the only population center; Burton, Chappell Hill, and Independence are tiny communities organized around rural crossroads. But this quiet part of the Lone Star State is also its most historic.

A single monumental event took place in 1836, when 59 men gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos and, under the direction of Sam Houston, signed a Declaration of Independence that gave birth to the Republic of Texas. Until it became the 28th state of the Union in 1846, Texas spent ten years as an independent country, a fact that has never faded from proud local memory. Today, Lone Star State lore lives in a reproduction of the original Independence Hall, where a copy of the tattered and stained Declaration is on display. Nearby is the pioneer house of Anson Jones, who came to Texas from Massachusetts in 1833. As the Republic’s last president, he retired upon annexation. Named after his home in the Berkshires, Barrington Living History Farm has a dog-trot house that’s now part of the complex.

The main house at the circa-1845 Barrington Farm is a vernacular dog-trot structure, with a center breezeway that provides ventilation and shade.

At the Burton Cotton Gin and Museum, the staff fires up the 100-year-old Bessemer engine that drives operations in the National Register-listed site. Another opportunity for a hands-on heritage experience is at Texas Ranch Life, where guests are welcome to participate in cattle roundups, cutting, roping, team penning, and other traditional cowboy activities.

The Antique Rose Emporium preserves a less vigorous but fragrant and authentic aspect of Texas history. Owner G. Michael Shoup began to collect “old” roses in the late 1970s, after he found everblooming roses surviving without apparent care at abandoned farmsteads and gravesites. These sturdy, pest-resistant varieties form the backbone of the 8-acre display garden in Brenham and a nationwide mail-order business.

Brenham's Ant Street Inn was an 1899 mercantile building, now lavishly decorated.

Lavender is the traditional counterpoint to roses; at the Chappell Hill Lavender Farm, sweet and Provence lavender thrive on 23 rolling acres. In the rustic gift shop, browse among sachets and culinary lavender. Ellison’s Greenhouses raise vast numbers of poinsettias; their Christmas display draws visitors from far and wide.

Several local wineries provide tours and tastings: the Windy Hill Winery and the Pleasant Hill Winery, both in Brenham, grow and bottle increasingly respected vintages. A very different outdoor experience awaits at the Monastery of Saint Clare Miniature Horse Farm. A community of Poor Clare nuns, 1960s refugees from Cuba, raise and sell the diminutive horses to support their spiritual work.

No tour is complete without a delicious visit to Blue Bell Creameries, where great ice cream has been made for 103 years. Sweet!