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Design Around This #9: Tarting Up a Tudor

marcolo
12 years ago

Design Around This #10: Tudor Revival

Welcome to Stately Wayne Manor.

From the late 19th Century all the way through the 1970s--and even today--the Tudor Revival has remained a favorite style in many parts of the country. It's picturesque. It's romantic. It evokes a sense of nostalgia and nobility and even lets you play princess for a bit.

The original Tudor style was a mashup of medieval and Renaissance forms, which is why you see both Gothic and Classic details on authentic English Tudor houses. The revival style is even more of a mashup, so you not only get Jacobean and Elizabethan elements but can also see clear nods to whatever other style was popular when a house was built. In other words, there are Prairie Tudors and Craftsman Tudors and split-level Tudors and also really strict repro Tudors.

Size and vibe vary tremendously--everything from mansions that look like Henry VIII might have slept in them to storybook cottages (which in their most extreme form make up their own separate style). The feeling can be regal, fairytale, cottage, modest, homey, imposing or whatever.


{{gwi:1990146}}

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You find the same variety on the interiors. Not all interiors carry out the exterior theme, either.

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The usual rules apply. Nothing is personal, give feedback, lurkers definitely feel free to try your hand or just comment.

Go.

Comments (98)

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The backsplash is Nevamar or Pionite "Calvalcade South"; the wallpaper is "Betty's Ceiling Paper" from Carter and Co; and the flooring is Ann Sacks Hacienda.

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    (Mudhouse indignantly defends honor)

    mudhouse--super cute, but I feel like you're cheating slightly by assuming authentic 16th century beamed ceilings in a revival house!

    Oh no, I would never besmirch the honor of this thread by such devious behavior! Here's the origin of that cool beamed ceiling. The blog didn't list the location or age of the house, but the impressively weathered beams appear to be applied over standard tongue-and-groove paneling. If I had enlarged it more you could have seen the white ceiling fan.

    But, maybe it's a 16th century ceiling fan?

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    But now that I peer at that pic hard...maybe it truly is a much older room than I had initially thought (hard for me to judge.) I do get your point...something that looked more 1930's revival construction era (since that was my made-up house age) would have been more appropriate. Point taken!

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Okay Lavender, I thought Marcolo and I both did pretty good storybook kitchens but here is another shot. The cabinet color is too intense but that could be changed:







    Daltile St Moritz
    Dupont Corian
    Plain and Fancy cabinets, Big Chill Appliances
    Ann Sacks Coquille floor
    Trustworth Studios wallpaper, Vintage fixture
    Great Windsor Chairs and Vintage Table

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I find a lot of rug images on 1st dibs because they just show the rugs and they have nice ones. Of course they cost as much as a really good car, but that's beside the point :)

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Circuspeanut, that photo is stuck in my brain.

    Cawaps, I would love to see that huge Kate Hudson kitchen redone in those materials (huge improvement and so much more fitting to the house exterior.)

    Doggonegardener, I like yours a lot, especially what you did with the colors and accessories. I went blank on Tudor accessories, yours looked wonderful.

    I liked Pal's first board, the beautiful geometric designs on the Jacobean chest and the mossy green counter. And the board with the pewter and stainless steel barrel hood.

    I envy Marcolo's Hansel and Gretel design because of the light-hearted fun in it, including the yellow arch top cabinets. The second one was amazing, I had no idea you could design rooms around the concept of power. Those would be handsome and remarkable rooms. Glad Dorothy won the power struggle in the end.

    LWO's bat fixtures are amazing. I understand you had to restrain yourself on other things accordingly, but I would have liked to see the animal andirons (maybe not the gargoyle wallpaper though.) Great colors and backsplash.

    I enjoyed the deep saturated oranges/reds, turquoise/greens in many of the rooms here. Somehow that seems more "right" to me for this thread than the subtle colors I ended up with, but I'm still struggling to get my mind wrapped around how far Tudor can range.

  • marcolo
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    LOL. I actually found some vendors through ebay who seem to have perfectly serviceable Chinese Art Deco rugs. Not the most spectacular ones, but quite nice. I'd never buy a rug online without seeing it, though.

    I have lots of ideas for this one, but boy, is it time consuming to find materials. Wallpaper is particularly hard. Thibaut shows everything, Schumacher only shows a couple of collections. Tile is tough. And you can find Tudor or Gothic elements in all sorts of decent materials, from casegoods to lighting or whatever, but you have to know where they are and who makes them. For my Wolsey kitchen I wanted to experiment with a white Harlequin and black accents to mimic ermine, but couldn't find a single photo, even though I've seen them before.

    My storybook kitchen is actually pretty light. I'm not loving Powerpoint because it seems to compress the files so much, and the photobucket code makes it harder to fix picture size. So I think those mood boards overstate the dark elements.

    I think mudhouse's storybook is very cute also, but I guess it's not what you'd call bright. One of the issues is--what do you mean by storybook? CA storybook is its own thing, very cartoony, as well as Gaudi-esque or Mannerist, all stretched and distended. I think it's cool but could never live in one. Nothing normal looks good in it. Perhaps lavender means a Cotswold cottage, which is adorable but much less fanciful, so you're not likely to find it full of birds to put your corset on you.

    Trying to decide next directions. I'm thinking one medieval adventure-ish; one Goth; maybe one realistic late '20s humble family home. I could do this one thread forever.

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Pal- You and Marcolo did very nice storybook kitchens. I really like this new one, too...very pretty! The colors are much more romantic and feminine, which is a nice contrast to the heavier woods, in some of the other ktichens.

    I'm still hoping to see Marcolo's 'Cinderella kitchen'. You know, something that would work with this type of hardware :) {{gwi:1638256}}From Snow White album

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Marcolo,
    I am going for the pictures and 1st dibs features shots on a plain white background. I could find most of this stuff elsewhere too, if the budget was important.

    I also agree that finding the sources is tough on this one

    Lavender,

    That hardware is French, so as a purist it would be too much of a fairy tale for me to use that in a tudor thread...sorry :)

  • marcolo
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Agree w pal. If that's the hardware you're trying to use in a cottage kitchen, that may be the problem. It's a whole nother country and 200 years later.

  • juliekcmo
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    To my GW Friends.
    I live in Kansas City in an area filled with these homes. I found the following article from one of our local homes associations websites. FYI


    History - Dible Tudors


    The homes in Rockhill gardens have a unique combination of materials like brick, stone and timbered stucco. These homes exemplify the commitment to excellence of Napoleon W. Dible, a legend in local Kansas City home builders, where he was know for his individual style, attention to detail and affordability.

    Dible all but created the speculative home-building business in Kansas City. That is, he bought land and built houses without first securing buyers. He started his business here in 1905 and quickly became the most successful builder of single-family homes in the area. Dible studied and designed his homes to appeal to women of the era with apparent features such as oversized bedroom closets, built in shoes racks and extensive plaster detailing in the formal rooms.

    Since its inception in 1929, Rockhill Gardens has grown into an active neighborhood community. Over five hundred homes were built through 1945, the majority being English Tudor style or two story Colonial.

    Arches are in nearly every room on the main floor of Royce Baker's 1933 Tudor in Kansas City.Two identical doorways curve up into dramatic peaks and flank the interior wall of her living room. One leads to the dining room, the other to the staircase. Another arched doorway frames the entryway, which is big enough to tuck a small table and lamp inside. Yet another connects the dining room to the kitchen. "They make the house look so charming and cozy," a resident says. "They add to the storybook look of the style on the inside."

    The tale of Kansas City's Tudor Revival houses begins and ends with a local builder's love for them.

    Napoleon William Dible felt like he was handing the moon on a silver platter to homeowners with the easy-to-build, easy-to-sell style. He constructed his homes with characteristics of Tudor mansions he'd admired: towering chimneys, steep gabled roofs and decorative half timbering. Most of these were tiny by today's standards, having about 1,500 square feet.

    "But he called them mini-mansions," says his grandson, William Hickok, a retired builder who worked for Dible. "It's his signature house."

    The Tudor was also the style nationally in the 1920s, and because it was among the first styles to have detached garages, it is often considered the "automobile house". Shortly after World War I, one Model T rolled off the production line every 20 seconds. Porches moved from the front of the house to the side and were screened to "shield" residents from car pollution.

    Hollywood helped bolster the Tudor's image. The storybook style was shown on the silver screen, notably in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". But at the same time, the modernist movement was gaining momentum, rejecting historical references and ornamentation. Architectural critics decried the Tudor: "Houses or Stage Scenery?" was one essay's headline. Few were built after 1940.

    The end of the Tudor came later for Kansas City and Dible, who was still building them in 1953, Hickok says.

    Dible was often asked: "Aren't the English cottage days over?" So he tested the waters that year by building three ranch houses in a new subdivision of Tudors near 78th Street and Holmes. The ranches sold before they were finished.

    "Well, boys," Hickok recalls Dible saying in his baritone voice, "we're changing".

    Arches were popular when Tudor monarchs ruled 1500s England.

    Architectural dictionaries define a Tudor arch as a pointed shape whose sides start with a curve about 60 degrees and continue to the apex in a straight line. However, a variety of arch shapes can be found inside Tudor Revival houses, says Dave Hiers, owner of Tudor Artisans, a company in Gerogia that handcrafts and sells period items.

    "All types of arches, especially in doorways, really help define the Tudor style," he says.

    The front door of Baker's house is a simply rounded arch. She also has arched decorative niches that are pointier - similar to the doorway - in the stairway, breakfast nook and bathroom. Her favorite arched niche is above the 7-foot-wide plaster fireplace and includes an electrical outlet that's original to the house for a lamp or clock.

    "The details seem to be ahead of their time," she says. "Yet I know they're centuries old."

    Erma Embry grew up adoring Tudor Revival homes. To her, they looked like Hansel and Gretel houses with their triangular lines, arched doors and narrow diamond-pane windows. She snatched up a brick one a decade ago in Westheight Manor, a high-style neighborhood near 20th Street and Washington Boulevard in Kansas City, Kan.

    "I finally got my gingerbread house," she says.

    Embry loves the 1919 brick house's interior, which features built-in drawers and two sunrooms. But she, like many revival-style homeowners, did not know how Tudors made their way to America.

    The style is named for the Tudor monarchs of England. Fortified castles were no longer needed around 1520, when the population of the country was rising because of improved standards of living.

    At that time, Henry VIII rewarded court favorites with land in the country. They were rich enough to pay skilled craftspeople to build decorative wall studs in diamond, herringbone and star patterns. The working class emulated the timbering in a scaled-down form and also made use of local stone for their cottages.

    The style faded in the 1700s when cheaper materials and labor became available, but it came back in favor in the 1860s in England. The humbler abodes, not the sprawling castlelike manors, were emulated as people sought houses that blended with the landscape. Period fiction writers wrote about their appeal, helping to spread the style.

    The Tudor made its way to America in the 1890s but didn't take off until after World War I. It was the popularity of the automobile that jumpstarted the Tudor boom in the 1920s. Cars allowed people who worked in the urban core to live farther away, sparking a home-building boom. At the same time, people of Anglo-Saxon descent, wishing to distance themselves from a growing immigrant population in the city, sought to showcase their own heritage in their homes.

    Throughout Kansas City and across the country, builders began naming subdivisions and shopping centers after British places to capitalize on the sentiment. "There was this whole sense of creating English villages," says William Worley, a historian and adjunct professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. "The Tudor style fit that better than any other style."

    The tony trappings so attracted H. O. Peet (of Colgate-Palmolive-Peet) that he carved a soap block model of it and planned to build his own. However, he eventually bought the home.

    "One just has to look around to see Kansas City has one of the best and the most numerous collections of Tudors anywhere in America," says Mike Tecton, a house-plan book publisher in Virginia and a Tudor Revival expert.

    Napoleoan William Dible built most of the Tudors in the Kansas City area. He built a few basic floor plans of mostly small and moderate-sized houses. Even though they were replicated hundreds of times, a homeowner thought his or her dwelling was unique in the neighborhood.

    From house to house, Dible would alternate kitchens left and right, locate front doors in different spots and add extra roof peaks.

    Nationally, the Tudor style is considered masculine and so associated with financial achievement and conservative taste that it was dubbed the "Stockbroker Tudor".

    "The plaster, stone and heavy timbers were attractive to lordly and baronial personalities, giving them fake roots", says Bo Sullivan, a historian and buyer for Rejuvenation, a period lighting company in Portland, Oregon.

    But Dible, Worley says, was a smart businessman and gave Kansas City Tudors feminine appeal. As home appliances were becoming all the rage, he pored over copies of The Ladies' Home Journal and talked to women about what they wanted. The result: built-in ironing boards, laundry chutes and ice-cream-colored tiles for bathrooms and the entryway. On the exterior, Tudors received extra touches such as foundation landscaping and curving front walkways to give them curb appeal.

    "Dible understood something that Nichols didn't," says Worley, author of J. C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City. "It was the man who signed the contract, but it was the woman who made the final desision."

    Although most Kansas City Tudors were constructed inexpensively, they have thrived and few have been demolished. The exteriors are relatively unchanged except many screened porches are now all-glass sunrooms. Often, tiny breakfast nooks got the heave-ho to make way for bigger and better kitchens.

    "Tudors are relatively well built here," Worley says. "They've held up well over the years."

    Credits

    Stacy Downs, reporter for the Kanasas City Star 816-234-4780

    Books
    Tudor Style: Tudor Revival Houses in America from 1890 to the Present, by Lee Goff
    (Universe Publishing, $45)

    Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the Twenties, by Arrol Geliner
    (Viking Studio, $33)

    Manor Houses of England, by Hugh Montgovery-Massingberd and Christopher Simon sykes
    (Vendome Press, $57.80)

    Class Cottages: Simple, Romantic Homes , by Brian Coleman
    (Gibbs Smith, $40)

    Creating a New Old House: Yesterday's Character for Today's Home, by russell Versaci
    (Taunton Press, $27)

    Here is a link that might be useful: History of Dible Tudors

  • juliekcmo
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Paul and Sarah were so excited to find the house. It had all the old world charm Sarah had always wanted. Paul's parents were only a few blocks away, and their kids would be able to go to the same Parish grade school their dad had gone, and where their cousins attend now as well.

    The kitchen layout was fine, but everything suffered from a tired re-do in the 1970s. They knew they couldn't enlarge the kitchen, but were happy that it opened to the sunny dining room.

    Sarah chose a Stickley table and chairs that would only look better with age. The hood would be the beautiful star of the kitchen. She loved the blue and white tiles, and she had chosen the same dishes as her grandmother when she and Paul had married.

    Paul wanted a bad-boy gas stove, and heated tile floor. That was what he wanted in the new space. In the end, it matched their style, budget, and house and family just right.

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, that's probably why I can't put together a kitchen...I'm going too french. I was trying to pick up some of the european elements (like Julie's delft tile...very nice!) that would have been popular, in the late 1920s. Sort of a mixture of english, french, maybe a bit of dutch. I guess it needs more work! LOL

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    A reaction to the dark oak, but also thinking about all that whitewash.








  • marcolo
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oooh, I like! This thread proves neutral schemes do not, in fact, repel me.

  • sochi
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love all your kitchens Pal, they don't make me sad at all. That bronze fp surround - be still my heart. I think the weird MCM tomb like thingys are pretty cool too.

    Mudhouse - amazing attention to detail. Perfect tile. I can't get over how much I am loving all the brown appliances we're using in these threads.

    LWO, that tile is incredible, as is the bat kitchen. Who knew there were bat lights?

    Julie - sweet and lovely. The painting is just charming.

    Roarah, I find this one difficult as well. That is quite the sink in your kitchen, very commanding.

  • cawaps
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Lavender Lass's Storybook exterior reminded me of this fire house in Oakland, designed by architect Julia Morgan in 1927.
    {{gwi:1990323}}

    The front gable always looks like it has snow on it, which reminded me that I had wanted to do a Mrs. Claus thread for Christmas. Since that's not happening, I'm multipurposing a Tudor.

    Santa and Mrs. Claus live at the North Pole in a timeless Storybook cottage. Supplies are limited in the far north, and they must bring everything in by sleigh. Energy is a problem in terms of supply, reliability and conservation. They rely primarily on biomass, because it is reliable and carbon neutral (Santa and Mrs. Claus are concerned about the effect of global warming on the polar ice cap).

    The north pole is cold, even in the summer. They have 24 hours of sun in the summer and none at all in the winter. Seasonal effective disorder is a perennial problem.

    Mrs. Claus wants her kitchen to be warm and inviting, with no cold surfaces, and to have a bit of summer cheer all year round. To that end, she keeps a kitchen herb garden under an HID grow light from Home Harvest. Santa buil the plant stand. She also chose a backspash tile mural depicting a summer warm-climate garden, from Artworks by Julia.

    The cabinets have plank doors (Jamestown by Omega) and decorative strap hinges from Tudor Artisans. The drop pulls are also from Tudor Artisans. The other hardware is from cclranchdecor.com. The counter is Corian, inThyme, because she wanted something warm to the touch.

    The rangehood, from Brooks Custom, is equipped with a heat exchanger to recover heat from the exhaust air. The range is a wood-fired "Aga" style cooker, by Eco Range. Mrs. Claus doesn't have a refrigerator; an adjacent room is normally cooled with outside air. During the summer, they bring in blocks of ice to keep the temperature cool.

    Ceilings are low to minimize heating energy, so the ceiling fixtures are modest profile flushmounts from Mica Lamp Company on Tudorfurnishings.com. The wall sconce is from Lighting Innovation (same on from the last board; I got lazy).

    The floor is harwood. The sink is copper from Treasure de Old Mexico, and the faucet is a random ORB faucet pic I found.

    In the dining room, they used quartersawn oak wall panelling and a stone fireplace from Tudor Artisans. The fireplace mantle is a front for a high efficiency masonry heater, not just a draft-creating nuisance. The dining table pic is from Canadian House and Home, but Santa is planning to build something similar in his workshop. The chairs in the pic seem like the wrong style/century, but I couldn't find anything better to put on the board. Mrs. Claus likes them so they might go with something similar, even if it doesn't suit the house. The reindeer head over the mantle is Rudolph, who died from old age in 1984. He was a prized member of the reindeer team and will be part of the household forever. The ceiling detail is also from Tudor Artisans and the rug is from Tudor Furnishings (over the flagstone floor). The ceiling fixture is from Restoration Hardware.

    Kitchen
    {{gwi:1990324}}

    Dining Room

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Contemporary kitchen in a tudor house based upon symbols and shapes of the Tudor era, The rose, and the color red; the ring form chandelier; an antler; simple furnishings.







    Bisazza Springrose Mosaic
    Red Lacquer cabinets
    Ann Sacks TrendQ terrazzo
    F&B Bone wall color; Fixture from Neena's lighting
    Superordinate Lamp (antler)
    Nakashima Free-edge shelf
    Bellini Chairs
    Matthew Hilton Table.

  • sochi
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    cawaps, you totally rock. Best kitchen and story ever. Are you sure that isn't Dancer though? The dining table is fabulous. I do think that the SAD issues and 24 hours of darkness in winter require an entirely white-washed white on white Scandi home though. The herb garden is entirely appropriate of course.

    I like that one too Palimpsest. You're on a roll.

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Any time you are conceptualizing a design you have to free yourself and let yourself do something potentially awful...it doesn't exist yet (or maybe ever), so you just have to follow the idea and see where it goes.

    You also have to be ruthless and throw out something that doesn't work, particularly when other elements are coming together. It doesn't matter how great that individual finish or whatever is all by itself. If it doesn't work you need to let it go. I think people tend to want to use every idea they have in one project, or conversely, get stuck on using one particular finish and then they can't find anything else to work with it--and there might be 99 other things that are close and they could get things to work with those.

    I think it would be good for more people to do exercises like this and get it out of their systems. I won't ever conceivably own Tudor house, a $40,000 rug, or a piece of Nakashima, but I can use any or all of it in these exercises.

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sochi, the Fireplace Surround can be yours for $75,000. Actually, you could probably offer about $60,000.

  • sochi
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I have certainly experienced your point about needing to be ruthless throwing something out that doesn't work. Great advice - but so hard to follow some times.

  • sochi
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Only $60k, eh? Sigh.

  • histokitch
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This thread is so interesting for me. My house is an 1895 Tudor revival. I call it Jacobethan in inspiration--somewhere between Jacobean and Elizabethan Tudor. On the exterior, it is over the top: heavy timbers, gargoyles, carving all over the place. On the inside, it is simple and solid. It was originally a caretaker's cottage, so needed to add to the estate but no need for excess inside. The kitchen connects the oldest part of the house with a very modern but sympathetic addition. The kitchen design challenge was in being true enough to the history of the house (tarted-up utilitarian) while connecting its incongruent styles. I had so many different iterations, some elements of which appeared in this thread. Thanks for the trip, y'all!

  • formerlyflorantha
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Shouldn't there be a secret exit to the Batcave and the Batmobile? or some marble stairways to the upper stories decorated with paintings that move?

  • cawaps
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I'm not sure whether this one is losing steam or if folks have just been wrapped up with holiday stuff. But if it is time to move on to a new one, here is the list of suggestions:

    Materials
    Knotty pine
    Metal cabinetry
    Interesting tile (we can do this one over and over)
    Vetrazzo
    Marmoleum graphic series
    Back-painted glass
    Commercial Kitchens/Restaurant Supply

    Defining the Home
    Minimal traditional house from the '40s through the '70s
    Tract house (specify decade? or any tract house?)
    Queen Anne
    Spanish Colonial Revival
    Craftsman
    Prarie School
    1930s
    1940s
    1950s
    1960s
    1970s
    Pimp this kitchen (choose home/kitchen from real estate listing)
    Beach House
    Mash-up house (what do you do with a house that is already a mash-up of styles, like a Mission-style Queen Anne)

    Theme/Decorating Styles
    Pink Kitchen
    French Country
    Steampunk
    Eclectic
    Starting from clothing fashions as your inspiration pic, design a kitchen that suits the era/mood/style
    Rustic Modern Cottage
    Hollywood Regency

    Budget/Supply restrictions
    $10K budget
    Ikea kitchen (all Ikea?)
    Mail order kitchen
    Home Depot kitchen

    Define the People
    Mid-life crisis bachelor (or cougar) pad
    Rabid sports fan wants to decorate in team colors

    Presentation Strategies that Can Be Combined with Other Choices
    This/Not That (Good taste/bad taste, works/doesn't work)
    High/Low (same look, different budgets)


    What we have done so far:
    1) Apple Jasper
    2) Colonial Revived
    3) 1920's Kitchens and All That Jazz
    4) Formica Patterns are Cooool!
    5) Neo-Tuscan/TuscAmerican
    6) I'm Dreaming of a White Kitchen, But...
    7) Victorian/Queen Anne
    8) Animal "Prints"
    9) Keeping the Golden Oak
    9) Tarting Up a Tudor
    10)

    I'd still like to do pink kitchens. The last two have been style of home (Tudor) and material (golden oak).

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I would be up for pink. Do you want to set any parameters at all or do a breakout of pinks or let people interpret it as they may?

    I was looking back through the older threads and I think in general are getting better at working within a specific style as the threads go on. Tudor could tend to get kind of theatrical or stage-settish and I don't think there was much of that here. I do wonder about whether the type of personality that would buy a traditional tudor would go for some of the finishes presented though--or would be more likely to do a version of SGTG or OTK. I think some of the things might be too quirky or trendy for the demographic, although I did the same thing I tried to break it out into different house types.

  • cawaps
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Pretty much interpret as they may. What I have in mind is to reclaim pink for the modern homeowner as a kitchen color. Pink was in for decades in the middle of the last century. Maybe it was overdone, but I think that we've had decades of backlash against it. People haven't gotten over seeing the color with the baggage of it being their mom's or grandmother's kitchen. I have a friend who bought a 1960-ish home and had to repaint her bathroom to work with 3 competing pinks (two different tiles and the bathtub)--she doesn't look favorably on pink.

    In terms of restrictions, I'd like to see people choose a house style/era and have that in mind when they design the kitchen, although I'm not terribly interested in seeing people slavishly recreate the same kitchens that would have been put in back in the 1950s. I also would like so see pink featured prominently (though not necessarily dominantly) and be integral to the design (not just appearing in the afterthought accessories).

    "Pink for the Present Day."

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Pal's second storybook kitchen, above, has more pink than I've seen in a kitchen, in a long time. Pink is seen as 'little girl' by many people and I think women want to be seen as 'professional' so they shy away from pink, in their homes. It would be nice to decorate with pink, purple, gray or black and not think it's giving people the wrong impression...or going to hurt resale.

    Good luck with your "Pink for the Present Day" theme!

    Maybe in a few weeks, we can do something french? :)

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Cawaps- I meant to say, I really like your backsplash choice, in your storybook kitchen :)

  • cawaps
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I was thinking of you and your backsplash when I picked it out. I thought you might like it.

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Trying one more, an Anne Boleyn Kitchen:

    As a student of art history, Liz had always admired Tudor portraits, but her favorite was the 17th century painting of Anne Boleyn by Frans Pourbus. She loved the beautiful shading and subtle palette. In addition, Liz loved bling.

    Liz was not a fan of overly fussy antiques. There were only two things she wanted to keep from the original kitchen in her Tudor Revival home: the old tile floor, and four leaded glass cabinet doors. She would update the rest with a sense of fun, mixing traditional and contemporary features.

    She replaced the old cabinets with modern Shaker style doors, and topped the counters with brown marble on the perimeters, and orange onyx on the island. For the backsplash, she couldn't resist the luxury of Swarovski Crystal tiles. The cabinet pulls reminded her of keys to the castle.

    To echo the lace in Anne's collar, Liz stenciled a soft gray pattern on the walls, and hung the translucent Organza Pendant in the breakfast area. Liz chose the sparkly Lucia pendant over the island as her Crown Jewels (she was, after all, the queen of her kitchen.) Anne Boleyn had also spent lavishly on her own redecorating, fashion, and self-indulgences. Liz was only being true to her kitchen's inspiration, as any good history student would.

    Finally, the rich bronze tones in the sinks, range hood, and faucets echoed the dark browns in the background of the painting. Liz liked to think that Anne would have approved. She was thankful she could enjoy it for years to come, with very little threat of any beheading in her immediate future.

    Backsplash: Swarovski's Bisazza Crystal Collection
    Countertops: Brown Dynasty Marble, Orange Flower Onyx
    Organza Pendant by Charles Loomis
    Lucia Drum Pendant Light by Murray Feiss
    Key cabinet pull, Soko Studios Hardware, Hearst Castle Collection
    Wall stencil by Royal Design Studio
    Bronze range hood by Handcraftedmetal.com
    Lace plates by Mateus
    Carved porcelain vase by Isabelle Abramson
    Felicia Dining Table, globalhomeny.com
    reproduction early 19th century dartboard by Daryl McMahon (modified with portrait of Henry the Eighth)

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    julieckmo, thank you for the article, it helped me get a better grasp on Tudor Revival. Paul and Sarah would have a very pretty kitchen. I thought the design was very versatile too, because by changing the color of the tile, it would all still work, taking the room in new directions.

    cawaps, what a great story and board! (I was so upset by Rudolph�s passing it took me a while to post back here, though.) I really loved the dining room especially, but that would be a great kitchen to pass a dreary winter in.

    pal, your advice about being willing to do something awful, or being willing to throw out something terrific, really hits home with me. My problem is I throw out something that is terrific, but making trouble, and then the design works better. Except for the counter, so now I change that, but now the floor has to go, so I change that, and now the cabinets are wrong�and I can go in endless circles. As a real designer I would be starving to death in the dark. Good thing this is for fun.

    I may have the same reaction to pink that Marcolo had to golden oak. I have a pink tile bathroom though, so I suppose I could/should push myself to deal with the ickiness of the color.

  • cawaps
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've fallen behind on my comments, so I'm trying to catch up before we start the new topic.

    Roarah, I had to go back and look at your 1920's kitchen. I had forgotten it was a Tudor. I liked that one and the new one. The work table is awesome. Hefty. And a library ladder would be great, in a large-enough kitchen.

    Pal's mock Tudor with the orange range: I like the whole gothic thing. The MCM panels are creepy, but work with the design.

    Sochi's portrait chairs: Ann's chair may be dripping in blood but Henry's has bird poop.

    Mudhouse (rose tile): The rose backsplash is awesome! I really like the off white/brown/blue combination. The blue is very understated and the combo is very relaxing.

    Marcolo Theater of Power: I'm not sure what to think of this one. It's definitely not a kitchen that has mass appeal. The story is great and the design works in that context. But it is super theatrical (yeah, I know, duh, that's the "Theater" part), and some of the elements look like they were salvaged from a church.

    Pal (pewter & stainless hood): I like everything about this one. It has a real sense of history. I love that rangehood.

    Pal (Storybook pink & green). This one is fun and feminine. I really like the wallpaper.

    Juliekcmo: I appreciated the history, too. Great summary. The painting in your design is adorable, and the dishes totally work with it. Are those lights for over the island? They look huge! Too huge, if my perspective is right.

    Pal (White): Very queenly.

    Pal (Rose Bisazza): I like this but the color of the chairs seem off (too much orange compared to the cabs and the roses).

    Mudhouse (Ann Boleyn): This one totally worked for me. I especially love the two lighting fixtures. The backsplash might be a weeeee bit over the top.

  • marcolo
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    mudhouse, love it. Wow,that pendant would really fit in any Tudorbethan house where the owner wanted to go a little more mod. It's so like an Elizabethan collar.

    I have another direction I want to try for an English colonial, which is a very common style of dressed-down Tudor that a lot of people in the Northeast live in.

    At some point I think it might be fun to try one of these threads using a real kitchen that's in the planning stage. One volunteer could post pics of their house along with some inspiration items, and we could see what we might come up with. We'd need a rule that says the "client" is not really the client--no squashing of ideas.

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yes this last one is really classic and modern at the same time.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Love the kitchen, but FWIW that's not Anne--some Italian lady, painted by Pourbus, I think.

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks all, I am kind of trying to push myself to take more risks, so appreciate your comments a lot.

    writersblock, you're right, there does seem to be some controversy about that lovely portrait. I pulled it from this site Tudor Portraits, but Wikipedia has an entry saying it was misidentified as an Anne Boleyn portrait at some point in time. Liz will contact her professors for further research, and will take down the Henry the Eighth dartboard, if necessary. ;-)

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, for one thing, the outfit is about 50 years too late for Anne. Big ruffs like that are in the middle of her daughter's reign. Anne invented the Boleyn sleeve--those giant sleeves that could be turned back to show off the lining, often fur, (supposedly because she had a vestigial sixth finger on one hand). But she would have worn square cut necklines, not a ruff, and usually a gable hood.

  • writersblock (9b/10a)
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Oh, BTW no need to take down the dartboard. I doubt Elizabeth was much fonder of Henry than her mom was.

  • sochi
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Great kitchen mudhouse, well done. I love the browns and bronzeI think you win!

    A general comment - I would encourage people who didn't post in earlier threads to feel free to do so now or in the future. I might go back to one or two of them if the mood (muse) strikes me. I don't think the threads have to been static in time.

  • marcolo
    Original Author
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    So I wanted to see if we could get some Frenchy curves into this somehow in a legitimate way.

    In addition, there's an entire genre of very common Tudoresque house styles we haven't touched yet called the English Colonial, or English Cottage, depending on what part of the country you're in. Built in mass numbers in the '20s, they have obvious links to Tudor forms but are based on the vernacular architecture of the period rather than grand palaces, with the basic structure created out of leftover, stripped-down craftsman elements. Rather than stucco, half timbering and stone exteriors, these houses are normally covered with brick, shingles or clapboards.

    The interior uses classic English cottage elements. The iconic English cottage is a rustic dwelling built in Tudor times but with a later overlay of folk 18th century updates. Hence we see French ladder-back chairs, a lantern pendant and a Welsh cupboard, freshened with a more modern paint color.

    This style of interior appeared in 1920s magazine ads as an example of folk English style.

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Writersblock, thank you for the additional details. These threads are addicting because they open up so many doors for things to learn more about. I wish I had the historical library in my head that many of you have, and it's lots of fun to get a better grasp.

    Sochi, thanks, and I agree it would be good to be able to go back and post new ideas to previous Design threads too. Sometimes I am slow to incubate ideas. And one thread might cause someone to have a new idea about an older one (a new approach, or the introduction of a cool material.)

    Marcolo, your last pretty board helps me to understand why you said you could do this topic almost endlessly. So many different levels to work on. Those elements are great together.

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This last one is really comfortable, and would work as a colonial revival of sorts, as well. I agree that there are certain styles that the iterations could go on almost forever,

  • mudhouse_gw
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've had more time to look at the above boards in depth, and I do like Pal's storybook tudor with the pink and green theme. My unkind comment about pink above was a reaction to my own battles with old pink tile (similar to Cawap's friend.) I would enjoy seeing what folks do with Present Day Pink at some point in time.

  • ideagirl2
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Live Wire Oak, where did you find that multi-bat pendant?? It's amazing! There must be fifteen bats on that thing!

  • sayde
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Fun thread! Here is our 1927 Tudor -- clearly more cottage than castle

    Here is a link that might be useful:

  • palimpsest
    12 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Sayde I missed your post. That is a really pretty house.

  • lavender_lass
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I miss these threads!

  • cawaps
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I've been thinking about reviving them, but thought it best to wait until after the holidays. I'm keen to do a fashion (defined broadly--From renaissance gowns with Elizabethan collars to military uniforms to Jacqueline Kennedy in a Chanel suit and pillbox hat) inspired kitchen. Maybe I should open up a new thread to discuss next topics? I don't know when I'll get to it...busy, busy, busy with the holidays.

    But since this is the Tudor thread, I will say, on topic, that I went to a Christmas party at a friend's 1927 Tudor house. It still has all the original lighting fixtures. They remodeled the kitchen a couple years ago and kept some of the original Douglas fir cabinets and had new ones built to match. Thanks to this thread, I was in a much better position to appreciate her house than I would have been before.