August 23, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode of Home In Progress, hosted by Dan Hansen and sponsored by RepcoLite Paints and Benjamin Moore, the first half is a humorous recount of life lessons learned during a family vacation, from managing close quarters with family to trying on new swimwear before the trip. Dan ties these vacation anecdotes to home improvement tips, emphasizing the importance of testing paint colors, stain matching, and tool comfort before committing to a project. In the second half, Dan dives into the lore of Craftsman homes, detailing their historical roots in the arts and crafts movement, key characteristics, and prominent figures like William Morris and Gustav Stickley. He explains their widespread appeal due to practicality, philosophy of simplicity, and natural beauty, offering insights into both exterior and interior design choices suitable for Craftsman-style homes.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction and Show Overview00:33 Family Vacation Stories01:50 Lesson 1: The Space Invader06:53 Lesson 2: The Swimsuit Fiasco11:41 Lesson 3: Kids Don't Listen13:50 Effective Communication with Contractors16:35 Introduction to Craftsman Style Homes17:01 Understanding Architectural Styles17:52 Defining Craftsman Homes20:07 Origins of the Craftsman Style24:19 The American Craftsman Movement30:44 Craftsman Homes in Modern Times31:40 Choosing Colors for Craftsman Homes34:07 Conclusion and Resources
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to Home in Progress, sponsored by Repoll
Light Paints and Benjamin Moore on the show today in
the entire second half. I'm really excited about this. I'm
going to be diving into one of the most beloved
styles in American architecture, the craftsman home. We're going to
look at what makes a craftsman a craftsman. We'll explore
some of the key features of the homes, and probably
(00:22):
more importantly, we'll talk about the history behind the movement
and the movers and shakers, the people who really made
it happen. So we'll get to all of that that
second half of the show, but right now, I want
to talk about vacation. Here's the deal. Last week was
our family vacation, our yearly family vacation. We did the
usual thing thing that we do every single year, every
(00:46):
single summer for the last I don't know how long.
We spent two nights on Mackinac Island and then we
go to a cottage on Bert Lake and spend about
a week there. So the whole thing it's like ten days,
great time, lots of memories, lots of fun, and this
year was one of the best years ever. You know,
we say that every year, but this one was really
(01:08):
really great. But as happens every single year, I come
home with a lot of lessons learned. Because really, when
you put six people under the same roof, you know,
in a tiny little cottage, and they spend twenty four
hours a day together, you're gonna learn new things. It's
a given you're gonna learn new things. And some of
(01:29):
those things are just enough connected to home improvement things
that I can talk about them on the show and
pretend that I'm still on topic. So let's talk about
some of the lessons that I learned from vacation and
how we can apply them to home improvement stuff. And yes,
I've done this before if you you know, really keep
track of things, but it's really fun. So anyway, here's
(01:51):
my first lesson that I learned this year, vacation twenty
twenty five. I'm not certain, I guess, but I really
think that this is true. I believe that in every
family there's at least one person who wants to be
exactly where you want to be. You know, exactly where
(02:12):
you want to be. Now, I don't mean the kid
who loves you so much that they just want to
be by your side all the time. You know, That's
not what I'm talking about. That's different. I'm talking about
the kid who seems to derive some kind of weird
satisfaction from materializing in the exact spot that you're trying
(02:32):
to occupy. You know, at our cottage, for example, I
would walk into the kitchen, you know, I look around,
kind of take in my surroundings. I'd notice nobody is
standing by the coffee maker, So I think, perfect, go
get some coffee. I set down my book, I head
over to pour a cup, and as I begin boom,
(02:53):
I turn around and I am literally knows to nose
with my daughter, who suddenly, out of the blue needs
a banana or a spoon or anything anything that she
can grab or needs to try to grab right exactly
where I'm at. She's got to be literally almost in
my shoes in order to reach what she suddenly needs
(03:14):
at that moment. You know. So she's there and I'm trapped.
If I move left, she pivots that way. If I
go right, she cuts that route of escape off. Sometimes
this is real. Sometimes I just stand really really still,
and I kind of close my eyes and put my
head down and I put my arms right tight at
my side, and I just try to make myself as
(03:36):
small as possible, and I just wait until she gets
what she needs and goes away. That's that's what it was.
And it's not a once in a while thing, you know.
If that were the case, I could just write it off.
It's all the time, you know. I would watch her
across the room. I would start to do this. I
would gauge where is she? What she doing? Okay, there
(03:58):
she is. She's happily reading, or she's knitting or something,
And so I'd kind of get up quietly and I'd
go do something random that I needed to do. And
nine times out of ten, i'd hear the quiet footsteps
behind me as I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'd feel,
you know, hot breath on the back of my neck,
and I turn around. In there she is somehow deciding
(04:19):
that she needs to do a completely different thing from
the thing that I'm doing, but a thing that she
needs to do in the exact same spot where I'm
doing my thing. I love her dearly, but after ten days,
it'll mess with your brain, right, I mean, it messes
with your patients. It messes with your entire psyche. Now,
(04:39):
what does this have to do with home improvement? Well,
not much. This one's a bit of a stretch, but
I still can make a stretch. I believe every family
has this person. I truly, truly believe that. And it
always comes out when you're doing a project together in
a tight space, like when you're painting a bedroom. You know,
you're rolling paint on a wall. You've got, you know,
(04:59):
maybe an extra eension pole, because it's really nice to work.
You know, even if you don't need to put it
at a four foot extension, it's nice to have a
two foot extension pole like Woosters Sherlock extension poles, just
to make a quick product plug. Nice to have that
little bit of an extension pole. It's just easier to work.
So you're doing that in this little tight space and
you go to roll down the wall and the back
(05:21):
of the extension pole rams right into the stomach of
somebody who has no reason to be standing immediately behind you.
But there they are, right there's your coworker, your family
member who just has to be in your space, in
your business. So you hit them with the handle of
the extension pole, or you turn around with your brush
and you smack right into their brush because apparently that
(05:42):
gallon of paint that you're working is the only gallon
of paint that they could possibly refill their brush from.
You know, they're basically everywhere you want to be. You know,
it's like they're reading your brain, anticipating your next move,
and then trying to beat you to that exact spot.
It's utterly frustrating. So here's my home improvement tip. And
I know it's a stretch, I know, just we're having
(06:04):
fun here. If you've identified this person in your house,
and if you haven't, just look around and figure it out,
because there is somebody who leans this way in your house.
When you identify this person in your home, do not,
under any circumstances paint with them. Just don't do it.
I know. I've said before on the show that family
projects can be fun, that everybody can be involved, even
(06:26):
the little kids, and that's still true for the most part.
But if you've got somebody who absolutely has to be
wherever you are, that's their superpower or their super villain
power or whatever it is. If you've got that person,
save yourself the stress and give them a different project,
you know, Send them out for supplies, send them out
for pizza, send them out to get coffee for everybody
(06:47):
you name it. Let them help, but let them help
far far away from you. All right, that's less than one.
Lesson two is this one. Always try your new swimsuit
on before you arrive at your vacation desk nation. All right.
I did not do that, and I should have, because
when I put mine on, my brand new swimsuit, I
(07:09):
was so excited to have a brand new swimsuit. When
I finally put it on, it was well, let's just say,
alarmingly short, you know, not fun short, not retro short.
Even it was scary short, you know, scary short. I
wear shorts all summer long, but I wear normal shorts,
you know, normal shorts for somebody my age. So when
(07:31):
I pulled this thing on, you know, I've got tan legs,
but they're not nearly as tan as high as this
suit required them to be. My goodness, the pale skin,
so much pale skin, it was blinding. And then there
was the waist. The elastic band around this swimsuit gripped
me like you know, a rubber band around a water balloon.
(07:53):
That's the only thing I can think of. You know,
put a big rubber band around a water balloon and
there you go. That was me. My stomach bulged over
the top, like you know, the top of a mushroom
or something, and I think it felt like it cut
the circulation off to my legs. When I slipped it
on in the cottage, I thought, oh boy, this is
a little bit bad, a little bit bad. If i'd
(08:15):
have even looked in the mirror at that point, i'd
have known how bad. But I didn't. I was just
kind of looking at myself try to gauge it, and
I thought, this is bad. Then I tried to walk
out to the dock, tried to walk out to the dock.
When I did that, I knew this is really bad.
And then when I finally reached the water and the
kid saw me and the laughter started. I don't think
(08:37):
I'm ever gonna live that one down. This was Dad's
poor swimsuit choice for vacation, and it'll probably go down
in family history and we'll be telling generations of Hanson's
down the road about this event. Anyway, the home improvement
point for this, so it's pretty easy. Don't commit to
(08:57):
something new without testing it first. Now, in home improvement,
there are a lot of these little you know, swimsuit moments,
whatever you want to call them. They're all waiting to
happen if you don't check things out ahead of time.
So just a few simple things right off the bat.
First off, of course, you're going to see this one
coming a mile away. Sample your paint colors. Don't just
grab a swatch in the store and then commit to
(09:19):
four gallons of paint based on that. Paint can look
completely different when it's on your wall than it does
on that little, you know, one inch square sample underfluorescent
lights in the store. So grab a Benjamin More color
sample and look at it in your lighting. Look at
it at different times of the day, especially focus on
the time of day that you're in that space the most.
Make sure it looks good in that timeframe. Put it
(09:42):
on a phone board and move it around, or you
can just roll it under the wall with a small
roller like a Wooster Jumbo coder. If you do that,
use the same nap that you'll use later and feather
out the edges and you'll be able to paint over
that easily when you're ready. But make sure you're sampling
your paint colors. That's absolute essential when you're making a
(10:02):
big color change in your space. So that's the first thing.
Second thing, always test your stain colors and make sure
you're testing them on the wood that you literally are
going to be staining. You know, if you need a
stain match, we can do that. It's one of the
things we do really well a lot of places. We've
even got competitors who will send people to our stores
to get those stain matches because we're really good at it.
(10:23):
So we can do a stain match for you. But
don't just take the sample that we matched on our
boards and stain your entire project without double checking. You know,
stain color is affected by how your specific wood takes it,
so always test it on your material, you know, the underside,
the backside, anywhere that's not going to show. Make sure
it works before you commit, and for the best match possible,
(10:44):
bring a sample of the wood that you're going to
be staining when you come in for the match in
the first place. All right. Third thing, you know, tied
to the swimsuit lesson check comfort before you buy tools.
You know, paint brushes for example, they all look the
same for the most part. But the handles, they're quite different,
and they feel different in your hand. Some of them
are more square, some of them are more rounded, some
(11:05):
of them have more halft, some of them are thinner.
Pick them up in the store and hold them the
way you'd actually use them. People don't do that. It's surprising,
and they get home and they final they don't like
the feel of that brush. Make sure you're checking it
out in the store, you know, hold it like you
would use it. See if it feels right. You're going
to find that. Some feel better, some don't feel as good.
(11:25):
And having one that feels right in your hand makes
a huge difference when you're working for any length of time. So, yeah,
lesson learned. Whether it's swimsuits or stains, brushes, paint colors, whatever,
test before you commit. Right, Those are a couple of
the lessons that I've learned. I've got one last one
that I want to talk about, and it's this. Kids
don't listen all right, And it doesn't matter how old
(11:47):
they are, you know. I always assumed they were going
to grow out of it, that one magical day was
going to arrive, and I could say the words. You know,
they'd hear those words and then they'd actually act on
the words. But vacation has scientifically proved otherwise. You know,
my kids are older now, they're smart people, they're successful,
they've got jobs, and yet over and over again they
(12:09):
still don't listen. Example, one of them asks what's for dinner? Right,
doesn't matter who somebody asks what's for dinner? It's a
good question. And I've got all their eyes riveted to,
you know, on me. I turned the TV down, I
cleaned my throat, I enunciate. I say, mm, we're having
grilled chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, and California blend vegetables. Dinner
(12:33):
will be at five, maybe five thirty, somewhere in that range.
Does anybody have any questions? Right? I say all of that,
there's no questions. Everybody nods, total one hundred percent comprehension
and understanding. Fast forward two hours later, I walk into
the kitchen. It's four forty five. There's a kid pulling
five frozen burritos out of the microwave. I say, what
(12:53):
are you doing. We're eating in like twenty minutes. And
the answer, every single time is this what nobody told me?
Nobody told me we're eating at five five point thirty.
Same thing happened on our walk. We went around Macana Island,
walked the perimeter of the island. At the beginning of
the walk, I said, it's eight miles to go all
(13:14):
the way around. We're walking the whole thing. It's going
to take us two hours and forty minutes, give or take.
Everybody nods, everybody agrees, and then halfway around, one kid
pipes up, you know how far are we going? Anyway? Parents,
you have to know. Oh man, I hope you know
exactly what I'm talking about. I can't imagine that I'm
alone in this. I love my kids. They all know
(13:36):
I'm talking about this, so don't send emails about that.
I was mean. I didn't give out any names, and
the kids all know. It's all something we laugh about.
It just is what it is. It's funny. Anyway. What's
the home improvement point of all of that? It's this.
Your contractor is not a mind reader, and neither are you.
You know, talking is not the same as communicating. Nodding
(13:58):
is not the same as understanding, and if you're not careful,
you can end up halfway through a remodel project or
whatever you're working on with somebody saying wait, you wanted what?
Or you saying, wait, your quote didn't include two coats
of paint? I thought that was a given. Here's how
you make sure you're actually communicating with your contractor. And
(14:19):
I'm specifically talking painting here, but a lot of this
is going to apply to any contractor you bring on.
First off, and I'm going to go kind of quickly,
but you'll get the gist of it. First off, get
multiple quotes, right. You're not just price shopping, you're listen shopping.
You know. Some contractors itemize every step. Others are going
to hand you a single number. Neither is wrong. But
(14:39):
if you don't ask questions, you don't know what you're getting.
So ask what's included in prep work? When it says
prep work on the quote, what does that all entail?
Ask about priming? Are they priming? Ask about finished coats?
How many coats are they quoting? All of that. Don't
just assume that they know what you want, ask clarify
and confirm. Second, look beyond the price, you know, think compatibility.
(15:03):
When you first meet your contractor, did the contractor listen
to you did they explain things well. That matters just
as much as the bottom line, because once the work
starts communication, it's the whole deal. At that point, you
know every contractor can do a really great job, and
every contractor can also fall short of your expectations. If
the expectations weren't communicated, well, it's kind of a partnership
(15:27):
in a sense. So ask questions when you have concerns,
but also listen to their answers. Don't micromanage somebody who
does this every single day of their life, but make
sure that they understand what you're asking for and what
you're expecting, and make sure you understand what's realistic. Another
thing you can do is ask for references and follow up.
Last things, specify the products. A lot of people don't
(15:49):
realize you get to decide what goes on your walls.
Some paints are cheaper, but they don't last, they don't
wash up, they don't hold up, and it costs the
same or more for the contractor to apply cheap paint
as good paint. So specify what you want. If you've
heard good things about scuff X, tell them you want
scuff X, or stop by our store. Tell us your project.
We'll make some recommendations for you. So the bottom line,
(16:11):
whether it's kids on vacation, whether it's you on vacation
with your family, whether it's you and your contractor or
your contractor, and you just make sure that you're all communicating,
that you're all understanding what the other one's saying, ask questions,
and that clarity that you gain upfront is going to
save you a ton of frustrating moments down the road.
All right, there you go a few of the lessons
that I learned on vacation and some home improvement takeaways.
(16:33):
They're just kind of fun. All right. Now, I want
to shift our focus and look at craftsman style homes,
the history behind them, the architects behind them, the story
behind them. We'll get to all of that after this.
This is home in progress, where the to do list
is long, and that's all right. We're not crabbing at you.
We're not going to yell at you. That's how it is.
It's how ours is too. It's probably supported by Repcolite
(16:55):
Paints and Benjamin Moore because home projects are easier when
you've got people you can trust. All Right, I want
to start something new. I talked about it at the
beginning of the show, something new that I want to
revisit from time to time. Basically, I want to look
specifically at different architectural styles that are present in our neighborhoods,
you know, all around us. If I talk about a
(17:16):
colonial style home, for example, or a ranch or Victorian home,
most of us know what that is. I get that,
but not everybody. But also more importantly, even those of
us who can identify the different styles, we don't usually
know the full history, or at least a robust history
of how those styles came to be, you know, the
(17:37):
main architects who championed each one, or a lot of
other interesting details that are just part of the story.
And so that's what we're going to be doing from
time to time in the next little bit, you know,
from time to time, not every single episode, but here
and there we'll hit them. And right now, I want
to start with one of the most beloved and recognizable
American styles, the craftsmen. Now, as I mentioned, some people
(18:01):
craftsmen homes, they get exactly what that is. It's completely,
you know, instantly recognizable to a lot of people. You know,
I say craftsmen, they know what I'm talking about. I
am not one of those people you know on the
show here. This was always kind of funny to me.
I never talked about it, and I never tipped my hand.
But Haley, my co host from like a year and
(18:22):
a half ago or something like that, she would talk
about her house from time to time, and she'd always
throw around the term craftsman, and I just played right along,
you know, played along like I knew exactly what she
was talking about. I would not exactly what I talked
about earlier, with my kids not hearing what I'm saying.
I'm just as guilty Hailey's talking. I'm nodding like crazy,
(18:45):
but I have no clue what she's exactly getting at.
You'd have to be an idiot, right to not know
what a craftsman home looks like. Well, I didn't know.
I had an idea, you know, cause I knew what
Haley's home looked like, but when it came down to it,
I really couldn't pin it. And for the sake of
people like me, let me paint a quick picture so
(19:05):
that we're all on the same page, and by the
end of this segment, we're all gonna know what a
craftsman home looks like and much more stuff, all right,
So a lot of good stuff coming a craftsman home.
Let's look at what that looks like. So picture a
house with a low, gently sloping roof and wide eaves
that stick out. Okay, you can see the ends of
the rafters, sometimes even decorative brackets peeking out underneath. Out front,
(19:29):
there's usually like a big deep porch. Usually that's supported
by thick square columns. They're often tapered, and they sit
on a sturdy stone or brick base. The whole house
kind of feels grounded, horizontal, almost hugging the earth. The
materials that they use, they're natural materials, you know, wood, stone, brick,
things like that. The colors are earthy, two browns, greens,
(19:52):
muted grays, things like that. Inside the homes you'll often
find a fireplace, you know, right in the center of things,
and built in bookcases, built in benches, you know, things
like that. That's the craftsman look in a nutshell, warm, welcoming, solid.
So where did it all come from, why did it
catch on the way that it did, and why even
one hundred years later do people still seek out craftsmen homes?
(20:14):
And neighborhoods. The story starts, you know, really begins in
England in the mid eighteen hundreds, you know, back in
the old Country. It all starts over there across the
pond with something called the arts and crafts movement. And
this is not what probably five people out there listening
are picturing. You know, I'm one of those five. When
(20:36):
I hear of the arts and crafts movement, I can't
help but picture the big country decor phase that happened
in the eighties. You know. I remember going to arts
and crafts fares and shows with Mom and seeing, you know,
all kinds of tin punched metal. Mom did that for
a while. She'd ten punch little hearts on things and
(20:56):
rub them with steel wool, it seems like, and some
kind of I don't know, black liquid dye that would
settle in all the little punches and create that. Look,
I'm not talking about that. That's not the arts and
crafts movement that I'm going to get at here. What
we're talking about is something that's a little bit cooler
than that. All right. So at that time, the mid
(21:16):
eighteen hundreds, in jolly old England, the industrial revolution is
in full swing, you know, factories, smoke soot, all of
that stuff. Just picture that monumental, you know, industrial machine
cranking out stuff left and right. It's cranking out furniture, textiles,
decorative goods and all of it. In the popular Victorian esthetic,
(21:39):
you know, so that meant lots of ornamentation, heavily carved furniture,
patterned wallpapers stacked on top of patterned carpets, you know,
laced fringe tassels, nick knacks, nickknacks, Oh, my goodness, nick
knacks everywhere you look, what's that? That's a nick knack,
and there's twelve other ones behind it lurking, and there's
a thousand scattered everywhere else throughout my space. That's what's
(22:01):
happening in this particular time period in that esthetic. Dusting
the mantles and the end tables, back in those days,
it had the take almost a solid week. I mean,
you'd finish dusting and probably just turn around and start again.
It's probably why people didn't live as long, you know,
back then. It's possible. I mean, I'm sure there were
(22:23):
other things, but maybe the dusting just wore them down.
It was too stressful to keep the house clean, so
they just checked out early anyway, probably because of all
of that. To many, you know, these interiors began to
feel cluttered and chaotic and artificial. They didn't like them anymore.
They don't want that anymore. And the furniture itself, you know,
much of it was mass produced, and it's really basically
(22:46):
just a cheap imitation of finer craftsmanship. Instead of hand
carved details, you'd get machine stamped decorations that are glued
onto flat boards, you know, instead of solid wood joinery,
you'd get pieces nailed together as quickly as posible, basically.
In short, instead of good furniture and decore, you get
the stuff in my house, right, that's what's happening. Well,
(23:07):
not everybody loved that. In fact, by the eighteen sixties
a group of thinkers and designers started pushing back a
little bit. Now. Chief among them was a gentleman named
William Morris, and his name is well known to a
lot of us in the design world. You know, he's
well known for being involved in the production of loads
of home materials, you know, stained glass, tapestries, painted tiles, furniture, wallpaper.
(23:30):
That's where I know him from textiles and more. He
believed that objects in our homes should be beautiful but
also honest, made from real materials, crafted by hand and
designed to be functional as well as beautiful. So functional
as well as beautiful. Now his mantra, I guess he
didn't technically have a mantra. You know, how many of
(23:51):
us really have a mantra? I don't know. I guess
we don't need to go down that road. But you know,
I guess you could summarize his kind of mindset with
this statement, have nothing in your home that you don't
know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. So
I have nothing in your home that you don't know
to be useful or believe to be beautiful. So that
was the seed of the Arts and crafts movement, and
(24:13):
it spread across England and then by the end of
the century it made its way to America. Now, when
the arts and crafts ideas began arriving in the United
States in the late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds, they
found fertile ground. You know, Americans were also tired of
the fussiness of Victorian homes. In fact, we were tired
of fussiness in general. Still, are you know, I'm fed
(24:36):
up with fussiness, had it up to here with fussiness anyway,
It was the same back then. They wanted something simpler,
something more natural, and more importantly, something affordable, which I
also love. And that's where the American craftsman style comes
in now. One of the biggest figures here supporting this
movement was Gustav Stickley, and I'm pretty sure a bunch
(24:58):
of you know that name. He was a furniture maker
who deeply admired the arts and crafts ideals, and in
nineteen oh one he launched a magazine called The Craftsman.
And in that magazine he did something really, really, really smart.
He included house plans. So for the price of a
magazine subscription or just getting a magazine. Did they have
subscriptions back then, I don't know. I don't know. It
(25:21):
doesn't matter. For the price of a magazine, ordinary people
could flip through and find plans for a simple, beautiful
home and they could actually literally hand those plans to
a builder and potentially build a craftsman house of their own.
Stickley's magazine ran until nineteen sixteen, and during that time
it was hugely, hugely influential. He basically gave the American
(25:44):
public a catalog for the most part of what this
new kind of house could look like and how it
could fit into a lifestyle centered around family, simplicity and
basically just natural beauty. Now. At the same time, mail
order companies like Sears and Roebuck jump on the idea.
So starting in nineteen oh eight, Sears started offering entire
house kits through their catalog. You know, you could get
(26:06):
pre cut lumber, nails, shingles, windows, doors, flooring, everything you
needed to build a home. The materials would arrive by
a railcar and a local crew or sometimes even the
homeowners themselves could put it together in just a few weeks.
I record in Holland and there's one of these houses,
a historical house that basically a kit like this, similar
(26:29):
to this right out my window. I can see it
every day when I come to work and it just
sits there. So, yeah, you could build an entire house
by ordering it through the Sears and Robot catalog. I
think that's great. And as a quick aside, because I
can't move past this without saying something, you've probably also
heard of craftsmen tools, right, which Sears began selling. I
(26:51):
think in like nineteen twenty seven something like that, same catalog,
same company. But here's the thing, there's no connection at
all between the tools and the home style. Well, the
tool line got its name completely independently. Is just one
of those funny coincidences of history that Sears ended up
selling both craftsmen style houses and Craftsmen brand tools in
the same catalog. Anyway, selling house plans and even materials
(27:14):
in magazines and catalogs made the style that craftsman style
super accessible, you know, not just for the wealthy, but
for the growing middle class as well, and that's part
of why the craftsmen homes began to spread so quickly
across the country. Now, most of these craftsmen homes were
modest in homes, like what we think of as the
craftsman bungalow, one story, maybe a story and a half, simple, practical, affordable,
(27:38):
perfect for a middle class family. But at the other
end of the spectrum were the ultimate bungalows. Now that
term doesn't refer to a single house, but to a
whole subset of craftsmen homes, you know, the largest, most elaborate,
most luxurious examples of this particular style. They were primarily.
These ultimate bungalows were primarily the work of two brothers,
(28:00):
Charles and Henry Green, and they were architects based in Pasadena, California.
Now the most famous of their houses is the Gamble House,
built in nineteen oh eight for the Gamble family of
Procter and Gamble fame, so we know of them. It's
a masterpiece. Look it up, you know, google it, the
Gamble House. It's filled with rich wood interiors, you know,
(28:20):
just amazing joinery, Japanese inspired details, custom furniture designed to
match the house. Definitely check it out. It's beautiful, the
Gamble House. But the Green's also designed other ones too,
you know, the Blackburn House, the Thorson House and more.
Each one is, honestly it's a work of art, blending architecture,
furniture and landscape, all of that into this single presentation.
(28:45):
Absolutely beautiful. They're really worth checking out. So on the
one hand, you've got an affordable bungalow kind of a
thing accessible through a Sears kit or Stickley's magazine, and
then on the other hand you've got these high end
works of art by Green and Green, both of them.
All of these fall under the umbrella of craftsmen, and
that's part of the style's richness. So with that said,
(29:07):
why did craftsmen homes become so popular so quickly? Well, first,
you know, they were really practical. The bungalow especially was
an affordable, comfortable home that fit the needs of a
growing middle class. So that's one easy way to see
how they'se caught on. Second, they were philosophical. And here's
what I mean. At a time back then, you know,
(29:28):
the cities they were exploding in size, you know, in
daily life, it was becoming more industrial, more mechanical, more impersonal,
and people were craving a home that felt felt real,
felt authentic, felt filled with authentic things, you know, if
that makes sense. Basically, they wanted a place that kind
of stood apart from the noise and clutter of the
(29:50):
outside world. And the craftsman home wasn't about necessarily impressing
guests with ornate trim or machine stamped ornament and decorations.
That's not what it was about. It was about sending
kind of a quieter message. Basically, we value simplicity, family, community,
and a connection you know, to nature, to the landscape.
(30:11):
In many ways, it was a return to an older,
almost old fashioned idea of home, you know, not just
a house, but a hearth, a gathering place, a sanctuary,
a place where life kind of felt more grounded, more human,
you know, more in tune with the rhythms of the
natural world. They just wanted to get away from that
industrial vibe. So that's another reason they caught on. Third,
(30:32):
they caught on because they were beautiful, you know, natural materials,
earthy colors, handcrafted details. All of that gave craftsmen homes
a warmth that Victorians, for all their grandeur, sometimes lacked. Now,
by the nineteen thirties, craftsmen homes kind of started to
fade in popularity, you know, the Great Depression slowed home
building in general, and then new styles like Colonial revival,
(30:55):
Tudor Revival, Art Deco, eventually Modernism, all these new styles
begin to take center stage. But the craftsmen never really disappeared.
And today we've got neighborhoods filled with these homes and
they're highly sought after. People love them for their warmth,
their human scale, and their timeless design. And if you
think about it, the philosophy behind the craftsmen that we
(31:17):
talked about just a minute or two ago, the love
of honest materials, you know, authentic materials, handmade materials in
a sense, the emphasis on craftsmanship, the harmony with nature,
all of that that still resonates today. In fact, a
lot of what we now call sustainable design or even
slow living, all of that echoes those same early twentieth
(31:38):
century ideas. And you know, since we're a paint company,
you know, since Repcolite sells paint, I really can't wrap
up a discussion of craftsmen homes without talking a little
bit about color, because the paint choices are part of
what makes these houses so striking craftsmen homes. They were
all about blending in with nature, like we talked about.
Because of that, the colors for the exteriors were pulled
(32:00):
straight from the landscape. So you'd see earthy greens, warm browns,
deep russets, muted golds, soft grays. You know, all of
those colors were common on the exteriors of these homes.
Trim outside was often done in a darker, contrasting shade
to highlight the exposed beams, the brackets, the porch columns,
all of that. Sometimes you'd even see three or four
(32:21):
coordinated colors used together. One for the siding, another for
the trim, and then a darker accent on windows or doors.
Now inside that same philosophy applied. You know, the walls
were usually painted in warm natural tones, so olive, terra cotta,
tan cream, you know, colors that paired well with the
oak or mahogany trim and all the built in furniture
(32:41):
that was so common in those craftsmen interiors. Now do
you need to go with those colors if you're painting
your craftsmen home today, Well, of course not. Nothing's off
limits really when it comes to color. Color is subjective, right.
If you walk into a craftsman home today and the
walls are all painted in bright whites or trendy pastels
or whatever, it doesn't mean it's wrong. But sometimes choosing
(33:05):
colors that fight against your home's architecture can give you
an uphill battle. You know, you may find yourself working
a little bit harder to make that space feel grounded
or cohesive. Your home already has a style, you know,
the architectural style, and when you lean into it, even loosely,
you usually find the house starts to feel right quicker,
if that makes sense. If you ignore it or you
(33:27):
fight against it, and sometimes that contrast can work beautifully.
But if you do that sometimes you know, other times
it can leave things feeling just a little bit off.
And that's where we can help. At Repcolite, we work
with homeowners every single day to choose colors that don't
just look good on a paint chip, but that really
you don't belong in your home. Whether you live in
(33:47):
a craftsman bungalow, a colonial, a ranch, some kind of mansion,
anything in between, we can help you. And if you
want to dig deeper into this topic, head over to
our blog at repco light dot com. I've got a
full right up there about the craftsman's style, along with
a curated list of historically appropriate Benjamin More colors that
you can use as inspiration. So that's craftsmen homes. That's
(34:09):
kind of their history a little bit. Some of the
key players I didn't mention Frank Lloyd Wright some of
his early stuff. He was an important architect in the beginning.
He moved towards slightly different take on things as the
years went by, but he was another architect whose name
gets thrown around or bandied about when we're talking about
craftsman homes. Hopefully with all of that information, next time
(34:31):
you're walking down the street and you see a house
with a broad front porch, you know, a low roof,
the exposed rafters, maybe a big stone fireplace inside, you're
going to know you're looking at a craftsman home. It's
not just a style of home, it's a window into
a moment in history when America was really searching, looking
back for simplicity, authenticity, and a home that felt, you know,
(34:54):
truly truly alive and built for the people living there.
It's what we all wan want. I just think it's
great that the craftsman home. That's its whole point was
to achieve that. So the craftsman style there you go.
All right. That's going to wrap it up for this
episode of Home in Progress, sponsored by Repco Light Paints
and Benjamin Moore. If you enjoyed the show, make sure
(35:15):
you don't miss the next one, and you can do
that by subscribing to the Home in Progress podcast wherever
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(35:35):
can go and find all the episodes or at least
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dot com, r E P C L I t E
(35:58):
dot com and you can find blog posts, paint and
design resources in all of our past episodes as well,
so check that out. And if you're in West Michigan
or if you're in Metro Detroit area, you can stop
by and see us at one of our locations. We'd
absolutely love to be your paint supplier. Stop out, talk
to us. We carry Benjamin Moore of course, and our
(36:20):
own brand of paint and we can help you with
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huge companies, and we also work with homeowners and di
I wires who are just getting started. So we've got
all the info, all the tips, all the supplies, everything
you need. Stop out and see us on on the
west side of the state or in the Metro Detroit area.
(36:42):
And again you can find more info at repco light
dot com. All right, that's officially gonna do it. Have
a great week, everybody. I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening
up to
Hey, everybody, Welcome to Home in Progress, sponsored by Repoll
Light Paints and Benjamin Moore on the show today in
the entire second half. I'm really excited about this. I'm
going to be diving into one of the most beloved
styles in American architecture, the craftsman home. We're going to
look at what makes a craftsman a craftsman. We'll explore
some of the key features of the homes, and probably
(00:22):
more importantly, we'll talk about the history behind the movement
and the movers and shakers, the people who really made
it happen. So we'll get to all of that that
second half of the show, but right now, I want
to talk about vacation. Here's the deal. Last week was
our family vacation, our yearly family vacation. We did the
usual thing thing that we do every single year, every
(00:46):
single summer for the last I don't know how long.
We spent two nights on Mackinac Island and then we
go to a cottage on Bert Lake and spend about
a week there. So the whole thing it's like ten days,
great time, lots of memories, lots of fun, and this
year was one of the best years ever. You know,
we say that every year, but this one was really
(01:08):
really great. But as happens every single year, I come
home with a lot of lessons learned. Because really, when
you put six people under the same roof, you know,
in a tiny little cottage, and they spend twenty four
hours a day together, you're gonna learn new things. It's
a given you're gonna learn new things. And some of
(01:29):
those things are just enough connected to home improvement things
that I can talk about them on the show and
pretend that I'm still on topic. So let's talk about
some of the lessons that I learned from vacation and
how we can apply them to home improvement stuff. And yes,
I've done this before if you you know, really keep
track of things, but it's really fun. So anyway, here's
(01:51):
my first lesson that I learned this year, vacation twenty
twenty five. I'm not certain, I guess, but I really
think that this is true. I believe that in every
family there's at least one person who wants to be
exactly where you want to be. You know, exactly where
(02:12):
you want to be. Now, I don't mean the kid
who loves you so much that they just want to
be by your side all the time. You know, That's
not what I'm talking about. That's different. I'm talking about
the kid who seems to derive some kind of weird
satisfaction from materializing in the exact spot that you're trying
(02:32):
to occupy. You know, at our cottage, for example, I
would walk into the kitchen, you know, I look around,
kind of take in my surroundings. I'd notice nobody is
standing by the coffee maker, So I think, perfect, go
get some coffee. I set down my book, I head
over to pour a cup, and as I begin boom,
(02:53):
I turn around and I am literally knows to nose
with my daughter, who suddenly, out of the blue needs
a banana or a spoon or anything anything that she
can grab or needs to try to grab right exactly
where I'm at. She's got to be literally almost in
my shoes in order to reach what she suddenly needs
(03:14):
at that moment. You know. So she's there and I'm trapped.
If I move left, she pivots that way. If I
go right, she cuts that route of escape off. Sometimes
this is real. Sometimes I just stand really really still,
and I kind of close my eyes and put my
head down and I put my arms right tight at
my side, and I just try to make myself as
(03:36):
small as possible, and I just wait until she gets
what she needs and goes away. That's that's what it was.
And it's not a once in a while thing, you know.
If that were the case, I could just write it off.
It's all the time, you know. I would watch her
across the room. I would start to do this. I
would gauge where is she? What she doing? Okay, there
(03:58):
she is. She's happily reading, or she's knitting or something,
And so I'd kind of get up quietly and I'd
go do something random that I needed to do. And
nine times out of ten, i'd hear the quiet footsteps
behind me as I'm doing what I'm doing, and I'd feel,
you know, hot breath on the back of my neck,
and I turn around. In there she is somehow deciding
(04:19):
that she needs to do a completely different thing from
the thing that I'm doing, but a thing that she
needs to do in the exact same spot where I'm
doing my thing. I love her dearly, but after ten days,
it'll mess with your brain, right, I mean, it messes
with your patients. It messes with your entire psyche. Now,
(04:39):
what does this have to do with home improvement? Well,
not much. This one's a bit of a stretch, but
I still can make a stretch. I believe every family
has this person. I truly, truly believe that. And it
always comes out when you're doing a project together in
a tight space, like when you're painting a bedroom. You know,
you're rolling paint on a wall. You've got, you know,
(04:59):
maybe an extra eension pole, because it's really nice to work.
You know, even if you don't need to put it
at a four foot extension, it's nice to have a
two foot extension pole like Woosters Sherlock extension poles, just
to make a quick product plug. Nice to have that
little bit of an extension pole. It's just easier to work.
So you're doing that in this little tight space and
you go to roll down the wall and the back
(05:21):
of the extension pole rams right into the stomach of
somebody who has no reason to be standing immediately behind you.
But there they are, right there's your coworker, your family
member who just has to be in your space, in
your business. So you hit them with the handle of
the extension pole, or you turn around with your brush
and you smack right into their brush because apparently that
(05:42):
gallon of paint that you're working is the only gallon
of paint that they could possibly refill their brush from.
You know, they're basically everywhere you want to be. You know,
it's like they're reading your brain, anticipating your next move,
and then trying to beat you to that exact spot.
It's utterly frustrating. So here's my home improvement tip. And
I know it's a stretch, I know, just we're having
(06:04):
fun here. If you've identified this person in your house,
and if you haven't, just look around and figure it out,
because there is somebody who leans this way in your house.
When you identify this person in your home, do not,
under any circumstances paint with them. Just don't do it.
I know. I've said before on the show that family
projects can be fun, that everybody can be involved, even
(06:26):
the little kids, and that's still true for the most part.
But if you've got somebody who absolutely has to be
wherever you are, that's their superpower or their super villain
power or whatever it is. If you've got that person,
save yourself the stress and give them a different project,
you know, Send them out for supplies, send them out
for pizza, send them out to get coffee for everybody
(06:47):
you name it. Let them help, but let them help
far far away from you. All right, that's less than one.
Lesson two is this one. Always try your new swimsuit
on before you arrive at your vacation desk nation. All right.
I did not do that, and I should have, because
when I put mine on, my brand new swimsuit, I
(07:09):
was so excited to have a brand new swimsuit. When
I finally put it on, it was well, let's just say,
alarmingly short, you know, not fun short, not retro short.
Even it was scary short, you know, scary short. I
wear shorts all summer long, but I wear normal shorts,
you know, normal shorts for somebody my age. So when
(07:31):
I pulled this thing on, you know, I've got tan legs,
but they're not nearly as tan as high as this
suit required them to be. My goodness, the pale skin,
so much pale skin, it was blinding. And then there
was the waist. The elastic band around this swimsuit gripped
me like you know, a rubber band around a water balloon.
(07:53):
That's the only thing I can think of. You know,
put a big rubber band around a water balloon and
there you go. That was me. My stomach bulged over
the top, like you know, the top of a mushroom
or something, and I think it felt like it cut
the circulation off to my legs. When I slipped it
on in the cottage, I thought, oh boy, this is
a little bit bad, a little bit bad. If i'd
(08:15):
have even looked in the mirror at that point, i'd
have known how bad. But I didn't. I was just
kind of looking at myself try to gauge it, and
I thought, this is bad. Then I tried to walk
out to the dock, tried to walk out to the dock.
When I did that, I knew this is really bad.
And then when I finally reached the water and the
kid saw me and the laughter started. I don't think
(08:37):
I'm ever gonna live that one down. This was Dad's
poor swimsuit choice for vacation, and it'll probably go down
in family history and we'll be telling generations of Hanson's
down the road about this event. Anyway, the home improvement
point for this, so it's pretty easy. Don't commit to
(08:57):
something new without testing it first. Now, in home improvement,
there are a lot of these little you know, swimsuit moments,
whatever you want to call them. They're all waiting to
happen if you don't check things out ahead of time.
So just a few simple things right off the bat.
First off, of course, you're going to see this one
coming a mile away. Sample your paint colors. Don't just
grab a swatch in the store and then commit to
(09:19):
four gallons of paint based on that. Paint can look
completely different when it's on your wall than it does
on that little, you know, one inch square sample underfluorescent
lights in the store. So grab a Benjamin More color
sample and look at it in your lighting. Look at
it at different times of the day, especially focus on
the time of day that you're in that space the most.
Make sure it looks good in that timeframe. Put it
(09:42):
on a phone board and move it around, or you
can just roll it under the wall with a small
roller like a Wooster Jumbo coder. If you do that,
use the same nap that you'll use later and feather
out the edges and you'll be able to paint over
that easily when you're ready. But make sure you're sampling
your paint colors. That's absolute essential when you're making a
(10:02):
big color change in your space. So that's the first thing.
Second thing, always test your stain colors and make sure
you're testing them on the wood that you literally are
going to be staining. You know, if you need a
stain match, we can do that. It's one of the
things we do really well a lot of places. We've
even got competitors who will send people to our stores
to get those stain matches because we're really good at it.
(10:23):
So we can do a stain match for you. But
don't just take the sample that we matched on our
boards and stain your entire project without double checking. You know,
stain color is affected by how your specific wood takes it,
so always test it on your material, you know, the underside,
the backside, anywhere that's not going to show. Make sure
it works before you commit, and for the best match possible,
(10:44):
bring a sample of the wood that you're going to
be staining when you come in for the match in
the first place. All right. Third thing, you know, tied
to the swimsuit lesson check comfort before you buy tools.
You know, paint brushes for example, they all look the
same for the most part. But the handles, they're quite different,
and they feel different in your hand. Some of them
are more square, some of them are more rounded, some
(11:05):
of them have more halft, some of them are thinner.
Pick them up in the store and hold them the
way you'd actually use them. People don't do that. It's surprising,
and they get home and they final they don't like
the feel of that brush. Make sure you're checking it
out in the store, you know, hold it like you
would use it. See if it feels right. You're going
to find that. Some feel better, some don't feel as good.
(11:25):
And having one that feels right in your hand makes
a huge difference when you're working for any length of time. So, yeah,
lesson learned. Whether it's swimsuits or stains, brushes, paint colors, whatever,
test before you commit. Right, Those are a couple of
the lessons that I've learned. I've got one last one
that I want to talk about, and it's this. Kids
don't listen all right, And it doesn't matter how old
(11:47):
they are, you know. I always assumed they were going
to grow out of it, that one magical day was
going to arrive, and I could say the words. You know,
they'd hear those words and then they'd actually act on
the words. But vacation has scientifically proved otherwise. You know,
my kids are older now, they're smart people, they're successful,
they've got jobs, and yet over and over again they
(12:09):
still don't listen. Example, one of them asks what's for dinner? Right,
doesn't matter who somebody asks what's for dinner? It's a
good question. And I've got all their eyes riveted to,
you know, on me. I turned the TV down, I
cleaned my throat, I enunciate. I say, mm, we're having
grilled chicken, salad, mashed potatoes, and California blend vegetables. Dinner
(12:33):
will be at five, maybe five thirty, somewhere in that range.
Does anybody have any questions? Right? I say all of that,
there's no questions. Everybody nods, total one hundred percent comprehension
and understanding. Fast forward two hours later, I walk into
the kitchen. It's four forty five. There's a kid pulling
five frozen burritos out of the microwave. I say, what
(12:53):
are you doing. We're eating in like twenty minutes. And
the answer, every single time is this what nobody told me?
Nobody told me we're eating at five five point thirty.
Same thing happened on our walk. We went around Macana Island,
walked the perimeter of the island. At the beginning of
the walk, I said, it's eight miles to go all
(13:14):
the way around. We're walking the whole thing. It's going
to take us two hours and forty minutes, give or take.
Everybody nods, everybody agrees, and then halfway around, one kid
pipes up, you know how far are we going? Anyway? Parents,
you have to know. Oh man, I hope you know
exactly what I'm talking about. I can't imagine that I'm
alone in this. I love my kids. They all know
(13:36):
I'm talking about this, so don't send emails about that.
I was mean. I didn't give out any names, and
the kids all know. It's all something we laugh about.
It just is what it is. It's funny. Anyway. What's
the home improvement point of all of that? It's this.
Your contractor is not a mind reader, and neither are you.
You know, talking is not the same as communicating. Nodding
(13:58):
is not the same as understanding, and if you're not careful,
you can end up halfway through a remodel project or
whatever you're working on with somebody saying wait, you wanted what?
Or you saying, wait, your quote didn't include two coats
of paint? I thought that was a given. Here's how
you make sure you're actually communicating with your contractor. And
(14:19):
I'm specifically talking painting here, but a lot of this
is going to apply to any contractor you bring on.
First off, and I'm going to go kind of quickly,
but you'll get the gist of it. First off, get
multiple quotes, right. You're not just price shopping, you're listen shopping.
You know. Some contractors itemize every step. Others are going
to hand you a single number. Neither is wrong. But
(14:39):
if you don't ask questions, you don't know what you're getting.
So ask what's included in prep work? When it says
prep work on the quote, what does that all entail?
Ask about priming? Are they priming? Ask about finished coats?
How many coats are they quoting? All of that. Don't
just assume that they know what you want, ask clarify
and confirm. Second, look beyond the price, you know, think compatibility.
(15:03):
When you first meet your contractor, did the contractor listen
to you did they explain things well. That matters just
as much as the bottom line, because once the work
starts communication, it's the whole deal. At that point, you
know every contractor can do a really great job, and
every contractor can also fall short of your expectations. If
the expectations weren't communicated, well, it's kind of a partnership
(15:27):
in a sense. So ask questions when you have concerns,
but also listen to their answers. Don't micromanage somebody who
does this every single day of their life, but make
sure that they understand what you're asking for and what
you're expecting, and make sure you understand what's realistic. Another
thing you can do is ask for references and follow up.
Last things, specify the products. A lot of people don't
(15:49):
realize you get to decide what goes on your walls.
Some paints are cheaper, but they don't last, they don't
wash up, they don't hold up, and it costs the
same or more for the contractor to apply cheap paint
as good paint. So specify what you want. If you've
heard good things about scuff X, tell them you want
scuff X, or stop by our store. Tell us your project.
We'll make some recommendations for you. So the bottom line,
(16:11):
whether it's kids on vacation, whether it's you on vacation
with your family, whether it's you and your contractor or
your contractor, and you just make sure that you're all communicating,
that you're all understanding what the other one's saying, ask questions,
and that clarity that you gain upfront is going to
save you a ton of frustrating moments down the road.
All right, there you go a few of the lessons
that I learned on vacation and some home improvement takeaways.
(16:33):
They're just kind of fun. All right. Now, I want
to shift our focus and look at craftsman style homes,
the history behind them, the architects behind them, the story
behind them. We'll get to all of that after this.
This is home in progress, where the to do list
is long, and that's all right. We're not crabbing at you.
We're not going to yell at you. That's how it is.
It's how ours is too. It's probably supported by Repcolite
(16:55):
Paints and Benjamin Moore because home projects are easier when
you've got people you can trust. All Right, I want
to start something new. I talked about it at the
beginning of the show, something new that I want to
revisit from time to time. Basically, I want to look
specifically at different architectural styles that are present in our neighborhoods,
you know, all around us. If I talk about a
(17:16):
colonial style home, for example, or a ranch or Victorian home,
most of us know what that is. I get that,
but not everybody. But also more importantly, even those of
us who can identify the different styles, we don't usually
know the full history, or at least a robust history
of how those styles came to be, you know, the
(17:37):
main architects who championed each one, or a lot of
other interesting details that are just part of the story.
And so that's what we're going to be doing from
time to time in the next little bit, you know,
from time to time, not every single episode, but here
and there we'll hit them. And right now, I want
to start with one of the most beloved and recognizable
American styles, the craftsmen. Now, as I mentioned, some people
(18:01):
craftsmen homes, they get exactly what that is. It's completely,
you know, instantly recognizable to a lot of people. You know,
I say craftsmen, they know what I'm talking about. I
am not one of those people you know on the
show here. This was always kind of funny to me.
I never talked about it, and I never tipped my hand.
But Haley, my co host from like a year and
(18:22):
a half ago or something like that, she would talk
about her house from time to time, and she'd always
throw around the term craftsman, and I just played right along,
you know, played along like I knew exactly what she
was talking about. I would not exactly what I talked
about earlier, with my kids not hearing what I'm saying.
I'm just as guilty Hailey's talking. I'm nodding like crazy,
(18:45):
but I have no clue what she's exactly getting at.
You'd have to be an idiot, right to not know
what a craftsman home looks like. Well, I didn't know.
I had an idea, you know, cause I knew what
Haley's home looked like, but when it came down to it,
I really couldn't pin it. And for the sake of
people like me, let me paint a quick picture so
(19:05):
that we're all on the same page, and by the
end of this segment, we're all gonna know what a
craftsman home looks like and much more stuff, all right,
So a lot of good stuff coming a craftsman home.
Let's look at what that looks like. So picture a
house with a low, gently sloping roof and wide eaves
that stick out. Okay, you can see the ends of
the rafters, sometimes even decorative brackets peeking out underneath. Out front,
(19:29):
there's usually like a big deep porch. Usually that's supported
by thick square columns. They're often tapered, and they sit
on a sturdy stone or brick base. The whole house
kind of feels grounded, horizontal, almost hugging the earth. The
materials that they use, they're natural materials, you know, wood, stone, brick,
things like that. The colors are earthy, two browns, greens,
(19:52):
muted grays, things like that. Inside the homes you'll often
find a fireplace, you know, right in the center of things,
and built in bookcases, built in benches, you know, things
like that. That's the craftsman look in a nutshell, warm, welcoming, solid.
So where did it all come from, why did it
catch on the way that it did, and why even
one hundred years later do people still seek out craftsmen homes?
(20:14):
And neighborhoods. The story starts, you know, really begins in
England in the mid eighteen hundreds, you know, back in
the old Country. It all starts over there across the
pond with something called the arts and crafts movement. And
this is not what probably five people out there listening
are picturing. You know, I'm one of those five. When
(20:36):
I hear of the arts and crafts movement, I can't
help but picture the big country decor phase that happened
in the eighties. You know. I remember going to arts
and crafts fares and shows with Mom and seeing, you know,
all kinds of tin punched metal. Mom did that for
a while. She'd ten punch little hearts on things and
(20:56):
rub them with steel wool, it seems like, and some
kind of I don't know, black liquid dye that would
settle in all the little punches and create that. Look,
I'm not talking about that. That's not the arts and
crafts movement that I'm going to get at here. What
we're talking about is something that's a little bit cooler
than that. All right. So at that time, the mid
(21:16):
eighteen hundreds, in jolly old England, the industrial revolution is
in full swing, you know, factories, smoke soot, all of
that stuff. Just picture that monumental, you know, industrial machine
cranking out stuff left and right. It's cranking out furniture, textiles,
decorative goods and all of it. In the popular Victorian esthetic,
(21:39):
you know, so that meant lots of ornamentation, heavily carved furniture,
patterned wallpapers stacked on top of patterned carpets, you know,
laced fringe tassels, nick knacks, nickknacks, Oh, my goodness, nick
knacks everywhere you look, what's that? That's a nick knack,
and there's twelve other ones behind it lurking, and there's
a thousand scattered everywhere else throughout my space. That's what's
(22:01):
happening in this particular time period in that esthetic. Dusting
the mantles and the end tables, back in those days,
it had the take almost a solid week. I mean,
you'd finish dusting and probably just turn around and start again.
It's probably why people didn't live as long, you know,
back then. It's possible. I mean, I'm sure there were
(22:23):
other things, but maybe the dusting just wore them down.
It was too stressful to keep the house clean, so
they just checked out early anyway, probably because of all
of that. To many, you know, these interiors began to
feel cluttered and chaotic and artificial. They didn't like them anymore.
They don't want that anymore. And the furniture itself, you know,
much of it was mass produced, and it's really basically
(22:46):
just a cheap imitation of finer craftsmanship. Instead of hand
carved details, you'd get machine stamped decorations that are glued
onto flat boards, you know, instead of solid wood joinery,
you'd get pieces nailed together as quickly as posible, basically.
In short, instead of good furniture and decore, you get
the stuff in my house, right, that's what's happening. Well,
(23:07):
not everybody loved that. In fact, by the eighteen sixties
a group of thinkers and designers started pushing back a
little bit. Now. Chief among them was a gentleman named
William Morris, and his name is well known to a
lot of us in the design world. You know, he's
well known for being involved in the production of loads
of home materials, you know, stained glass, tapestries, painted tiles, furniture, wallpaper.
(23:30):
That's where I know him from textiles and more. He
believed that objects in our homes should be beautiful but
also honest, made from real materials, crafted by hand and
designed to be functional as well as beautiful. So functional
as well as beautiful. Now his mantra, I guess he
didn't technically have a mantra. You know, how many of
(23:51):
us really have a mantra? I don't know. I guess
we don't need to go down that road. But you know,
I guess you could summarize his kind of mindset with
this statement, have nothing in your home that you don't
know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. So
I have nothing in your home that you don't know
to be useful or believe to be beautiful. So that
was the seed of the Arts and crafts movement, and
(24:13):
it spread across England and then by the end of
the century it made its way to America. Now, when
the arts and crafts ideas began arriving in the United
States in the late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds, they
found fertile ground. You know, Americans were also tired of
the fussiness of Victorian homes. In fact, we were tired
of fussiness in general. Still, are you know, I'm fed
(24:36):
up with fussiness, had it up to here with fussiness anyway,
It was the same back then. They wanted something simpler,
something more natural, and more importantly, something affordable, which I
also love. And that's where the American craftsman style comes
in now. One of the biggest figures here supporting this
movement was Gustav Stickley, and I'm pretty sure a bunch
(24:58):
of you know that name. He was a furniture maker
who deeply admired the arts and crafts ideals, and in
nineteen oh one he launched a magazine called The Craftsman.
And in that magazine he did something really, really, really smart.
He included house plans. So for the price of a
magazine subscription or just getting a magazine. Did they have
subscriptions back then, I don't know. I don't know. It
(25:21):
doesn't matter. For the price of a magazine, ordinary people
could flip through and find plans for a simple, beautiful
home and they could actually literally hand those plans to
a builder and potentially build a craftsman house of their own.
Stickley's magazine ran until nineteen sixteen, and during that time
it was hugely, hugely influential. He basically gave the American
(25:44):
public a catalog for the most part of what this
new kind of house could look like and how it
could fit into a lifestyle centered around family, simplicity and
basically just natural beauty. Now. At the same time, mail
order companies like Sears and Roebuck jump on the idea.
So starting in nineteen oh eight, Sears started offering entire
house kits through their catalog. You know, you could get
(26:06):
pre cut lumber, nails, shingles, windows, doors, flooring, everything you
needed to build a home. The materials would arrive by
a railcar and a local crew or sometimes even the
homeowners themselves could put it together in just a few weeks.
I record in Holland and there's one of these houses,
a historical house that basically a kit like this, similar
(26:29):
to this right out my window. I can see it
every day when I come to work and it just
sits there. So, yeah, you could build an entire house
by ordering it through the Sears and Robot catalog. I
think that's great. And as a quick aside, because I
can't move past this without saying something, you've probably also
heard of craftsmen tools, right, which Sears began selling. I
(26:51):
think in like nineteen twenty seven something like that, same catalog,
same company. But here's the thing, there's no connection at
all between the tools and the home style. Well, the
tool line got its name completely independently. Is just one
of those funny coincidences of history that Sears ended up
selling both craftsmen style houses and Craftsmen brand tools in
the same catalog. Anyway, selling house plans and even materials
(27:14):
in magazines and catalogs made the style that craftsman style
super accessible, you know, not just for the wealthy, but
for the growing middle class as well, and that's part
of why the craftsmen homes began to spread so quickly
across the country. Now, most of these craftsmen homes were
modest in homes, like what we think of as the
craftsman bungalow, one story, maybe a story and a half, simple, practical, affordable,
(27:38):
perfect for a middle class family. But at the other
end of the spectrum were the ultimate bungalows. Now that
term doesn't refer to a single house, but to a
whole subset of craftsmen homes, you know, the largest, most elaborate,
most luxurious examples of this particular style. They were primarily.
These ultimate bungalows were primarily the work of two brothers,
(28:00):
Charles and Henry Green, and they were architects based in Pasadena, California.
Now the most famous of their houses is the Gamble House,
built in nineteen oh eight for the Gamble family of
Procter and Gamble fame, so we know of them. It's
a masterpiece. Look it up, you know, google it, the
Gamble House. It's filled with rich wood interiors, you know,
(28:20):
just amazing joinery, Japanese inspired details, custom furniture designed to
match the house. Definitely check it out. It's beautiful, the
Gamble House. But the Green's also designed other ones too,
you know, the Blackburn House, the Thorson House and more.
Each one is, honestly it's a work of art, blending architecture,
furniture and landscape, all of that into this single presentation.
(28:45):
Absolutely beautiful. They're really worth checking out. So on the
one hand, you've got an affordable bungalow kind of a
thing accessible through a Sears kit or Stickley's magazine, and
then on the other hand you've got these high end
works of art by Green and Green, both of them.
All of these fall under the umbrella of craftsmen, and
that's part of the style's richness. So with that said,
(29:07):
why did craftsmen homes become so popular so quickly? Well, first,
you know, they were really practical. The bungalow especially was
an affordable, comfortable home that fit the needs of a
growing middle class. So that's one easy way to see
how they'se caught on. Second, they were philosophical. And here's
what I mean. At a time back then, you know,
(29:28):
the cities they were exploding in size, you know, in
daily life, it was becoming more industrial, more mechanical, more impersonal,
and people were craving a home that felt felt real,
felt authentic, felt filled with authentic things, you know, if
that makes sense. Basically, they wanted a place that kind
of stood apart from the noise and clutter of the
(29:50):
outside world. And the craftsman home wasn't about necessarily impressing
guests with ornate trim or machine stamped ornament and decorations.
That's not what it was about. It was about sending
kind of a quieter message. Basically, we value simplicity, family, community,
and a connection you know, to nature, to the landscape.
(30:11):
In many ways, it was a return to an older,
almost old fashioned idea of home, you know, not just
a house, but a hearth, a gathering place, a sanctuary,
a place where life kind of felt more grounded, more human,
you know, more in tune with the rhythms of the
natural world. They just wanted to get away from that
industrial vibe. So that's another reason they caught on. Third,
(30:32):
they caught on because they were beautiful, you know, natural materials,
earthy colors, handcrafted details. All of that gave craftsmen homes
a warmth that Victorians, for all their grandeur, sometimes lacked. Now,
by the nineteen thirties, craftsmen homes kind of started to
fade in popularity, you know, the Great Depression slowed home
building in general, and then new styles like Colonial revival,
(30:55):
Tudor Revival, Art Deco, eventually Modernism, all these new styles
begin to take center stage. But the craftsmen never really disappeared.
And today we've got neighborhoods filled with these homes and
they're highly sought after. People love them for their warmth,
their human scale, and their timeless design. And if you
think about it, the philosophy behind the craftsmen that we
(31:17):
talked about just a minute or two ago, the love
of honest materials, you know, authentic materials, handmade materials in
a sense, the emphasis on craftsmanship, the harmony with nature,
all of that that still resonates today. In fact, a
lot of what we now call sustainable design or even
slow living, all of that echoes those same early twentieth
(31:38):
century ideas. And you know, since we're a paint company,
you know, since Repcolite sells paint, I really can't wrap
up a discussion of craftsmen homes without talking a little
bit about color, because the paint choices are part of
what makes these houses so striking craftsmen homes. They were
all about blending in with nature, like we talked about.
Because of that, the colors for the exteriors were pulled
(32:00):
straight from the landscape. So you'd see earthy greens, warm browns,
deep russets, muted golds, soft grays. You know, all of
those colors were common on the exteriors of these homes.
Trim outside was often done in a darker, contrasting shade
to highlight the exposed beams, the brackets, the porch columns,
all of that. Sometimes you'd even see three or four
(32:21):
coordinated colors used together. One for the siding, another for
the trim, and then a darker accent on windows or doors.
Now inside that same philosophy applied. You know, the walls
were usually painted in warm natural tones, so olive, terra cotta,
tan cream, you know, colors that paired well with the
oak or mahogany trim and all the built in furniture
(32:41):
that was so common in those craftsmen interiors. Now do
you need to go with those colors if you're painting
your craftsmen home today, Well, of course not. Nothing's off
limits really when it comes to color. Color is subjective, right.
If you walk into a craftsman home today and the
walls are all painted in bright whites or trendy pastels
or whatever, it doesn't mean it's wrong. But sometimes choosing
(33:05):
colors that fight against your home's architecture can give you
an uphill battle. You know, you may find yourself working
a little bit harder to make that space feel grounded
or cohesive. Your home already has a style, you know,
the architectural style, and when you lean into it, even loosely,
you usually find the house starts to feel right quicker,
if that makes sense. If you ignore it or you
(33:27):
fight against it, and sometimes that contrast can work beautifully.
But if you do that sometimes you know, other times
it can leave things feeling just a little bit off.
And that's where we can help. At Repcolite, we work
with homeowners every single day to choose colors that don't
just look good on a paint chip, but that really
you don't belong in your home. Whether you live in
(33:47):
a craftsman bungalow, a colonial, a ranch, some kind of mansion,
anything in between, we can help you. And if you
want to dig deeper into this topic, head over to
our blog at repco light dot com. I've got a
full right up there about the craftsman's style, along with
a curated list of historically appropriate Benjamin More colors that
you can use as inspiration. So that's craftsmen homes. That's
(34:09):
kind of their history a little bit. Some of the
key players I didn't mention Frank Lloyd Wright some of
his early stuff. He was an important architect in the beginning.
He moved towards slightly different take on things as the
years went by, but he was another architect whose name
gets thrown around or bandied about when we're talking about
craftsman homes. Hopefully with all of that information, next time
(34:31):
you're walking down the street and you see a house
with a broad front porch, you know, a low roof,
the exposed rafters, maybe a big stone fireplace inside, you're
going to know you're looking at a craftsman home. It's
not just a style of home, it's a window into
a moment in history when America was really searching, looking
back for simplicity, authenticity, and a home that felt, you know,
(34:54):
truly truly alive and built for the people living there.
It's what we all wan want. I just think it's
great that the craftsman home. That's its whole point was
to achieve that. So the craftsman style there you go.
All right. That's going to wrap it up for this
episode of Home in Progress, sponsored by Repco Light Paints
and Benjamin Moore. If you enjoyed the show, make sure
(35:15):
you don't miss the next one, and you can do
that by subscribing to the Home in Progress podcast wherever
you get your podcasts from, So subscribe to the podcast
and if you've got a minute, leave us a rating
or review. It really helps more people find the show,
and I appreciate the feedback. If you prefer to listen
on YouTube, I've got all of them out there. You
(35:35):
can go and find all the episodes or at least
the last two hundred something like that on YouTube. Just
search for Home and Progress and you can watch the
episodes there, not really watch video or lots of great
entertaining stuff. It's just a screenshot, but the podcasts are
there if you want to check them out. And of
course don't forget to visit us online at repco light
dot com, r E P C L I t E
(35:58):
dot com and you can find blog posts, paint and
design resources in all of our past episodes as well,
so check that out. And if you're in West Michigan
or if you're in Metro Detroit area, you can stop
by and see us at one of our locations. We'd
absolutely love to be your paint supplier. Stop out, talk
to us. We carry Benjamin Moore of course, and our
(36:20):
own brand of paint and we can help you with
everything you need. We help painting contractors, professional painting contractors,
huge companies, and we also work with homeowners and di
I wires who are just getting started. So we've got
all the info, all the tips, all the supplies, everything
you need. Stop out and see us on on the
west side of the state or in the Metro Detroit area.
(36:42):
And again you can find more info at repco light
dot com. All right, that's officially gonna do it. Have
a great week, everybody. I'm Dan Hanson. Thanks for listening
up to
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