An eclectic wand transforms a 1919 Craftsman from modest to magical
by Julie Kolb
Just as magicians closely guard the secrets of their illusions, interior designer and homeowner Janelle Johannesen hesitates before divulging some of the secrets of her bungalow’s dramatic transformation from simply restored to simply stunning.
Her three-bedroom home, built in 1919, sits on a bungalow-lined street in North Park, one of San Diego’s early neighborhoods. Master builders and speculators built many of North Park’s bungalows, responding to the region’s population boom of the early 20th century. While many bungalows in this neighborhood have been stripped of their built-ins, trim and windows, Janelle’s home survived the decades relatively unscathed
While many bungalows in this neighborhood have been stripped of their built-ins, trim and windows, Janelle’s home survived the decades relatively unscathed. In 1991, a local realtor and investor purchased the house, updated the kitchen and bathroom, applied a fresh coat of aqua and white paint to the exterior, and put it back on the market.
It was the first house she looked at when she decided it was time to buy her first home. She was enchanted by its details: split-shingle siding, divided-light casement windows and a quartet of stout square stucco columns that call attention to the horizontal line of the porch roof, which extends outward to create a porte cochere. The low pitch of the roofline and the forceful horizontal elements in the bungalow’s design reminded her of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie-style influences. “I’m from the Midwest, and the house just kind of sung to me,” she says.
From local historians and preservation organizations, she learned that the home had been built by Alexander Schreiber, one of San Diego’s leading master builders during the early 20th century, who built more than a hundred homes in the area. Many Schreiber homes remain today, especially in North Park and the nearby neighborhoods of Mission Hills and the Uptown District, and several of his homes have been historically designated as fine examples of late-Craftsman-era architecture. Janelle’s is one of four Schreiber houses on her block.
Mixing It Up
Janelle drew on her formal training as an interior designer and her experience as a salesperson for Kneedler Fauchere, a to-the-trades interior design firm, in bringing out the classic character of the bungalow.
To accomplish the transformation, she decorated the house using an eclectic mix of elegant contemporary furnishings, bargain finds, and vintage pieces created during the 1930s through the 1960s. But what makes the mix of elements work magically with the architecture is her faultless eye for detail and fearless use of color.
She credits her first job — selling paint — with giving her the confidence to choose colors that complement the bungalow’s natural gumwood woodwork. “My color palette is cashew, greens and coppers,” she says.
The living and dining rooms are a hand-mixed shade she named sisal. “It’s sort of a parchment color. I painted the ceilings the same color because I don’t like white ceilings.”
Both rooms have elegant Craftsman gumwood details. A wide built-in buffet with glass-paned doors and original glass pulls takes center stage in the dining room. The gumwood wainscoting is capped by a plate rail atop a row of corbels. Trapezoidal columns separate the dining and living rooms, and the fireplace mantle echoes the corbel and trapezoidal column motif. To one side of the fireplace is a built-in bookcase enclosed by a pair of glass and wood doors. She also brought out the gumwood’s character by using texture and material to add color and variety to the rooms. “I chose a little bit of wicker, leather and mohair in here. If you have too much wood, it’s all brown.”
The living and dining rooms are a hand-mixed shade she named sisal. “It’s sort of a parchment color. I painted the ceilings the same color because I don’t like white ceilings.”
Both rooms have elegant Craftsman gumwood details. A wide built-in buffet with glass-paned doors and original glass pulls takes center stage in the dining room. The gumwood wainscoting is capped by a plate rail atop a row of corbels. Trapezoidal columns separate the dining and living rooms, and the fireplace mantle echoes the corbel and trapezoidal column motif. To one side of the fireplace is a built-in bookcase enclosed by a pair of glass and wood doors.
She also brought out the gumwood’s character by using texture and material to add color and variety to the rooms. “I chose a little bit of wicker, leather and mohair in here. If you have too much wood, it’s all brown.”
The dining room typifies her ability to combine decor styles. The black dining table is from Pottery Barn. The maple dining chairs are vintage 1940s. The organically geometric dining-room chandelier is a thrift-store treasure. “It’s from the ‘70s, when the Southwest look was big,” she says. “I replaced the glass with mica and spray-painted the metal black because its design reminded me of Wright.”
A Dedication to Collecting
Janelle’s collections of Arts and Crafts pottery and plein air paintings, gathered over years of scouring yard sales, thrift shops and antique stores for treasures, fill the home. Long before she bought the bungalow, she collected jewelry made from the 1920s through the 1940s. Since then she has focused on Arts and Crafts decorative pieces.
She has been drawn particularly to Roseville pottery and has amassed a collection of Roseville pieces, including many from the Moss and Freesia lines. Her collection has also been shaped by bargain hunting. “I started out trying not to spend more than $25 for each piece,” she says. “But that was in 1991.” In the dining room, three diminutive plein air paintings in gilt frames are displayed beside Roseville pieces. A contemporary white, narrow oblong piece of pottery provides a modern contrast. Pieces of Roseville’s Thorn Apple pottery are arranged across the fireplace mantle, the golden yellows and deep greens perfectly complementing the other colors in the room.
One of her favorite antique-store finds is the copper fire screen. The screen’s relief of pine needles and cones was hand-hammered using the repousse technique, in which the metal is worked from behind. “If I ever sell the house, that piece will go with it because it fits the room so beautifully.”
Finishing It Off While she is confident about choosing interior color, she hired a color consultant to help her develop a new exterior scheme. She had the shingles painted with Sherwin-Williams Weathered Shingle. Trim details are finished with Dunn-Edwards Wood Bark and Marsh Maverick.
And the landscaping?
“I wasn’t going to landscape,” she says, “but once the house was painted, it was like a gorgeous dress paired with old shoes. It was so beautifully transformed, I was in tears.”
In her mind, the changes she has wrought in the house are modest. “I didn’t really change anything. I just enhanced the house’s underlying character with new paint colors and furnishings.”
That may well be, but the response by her neighbors suggests that her decisions have been influential. Since she has worked her magic, others on her street have followed her lead, turning neglected and aging bungalows into gold.
In her mind, the changes she has wrought in the house are modest. “I didn’t really change anything. I just enhanced the house’s underlying character with new paint colors and furnishings.”
That may well be, but the response by her neighbors suggests that her decisions have been influential. Since she has worked her magic, others on her street have followed her lead, turning neglected and aging bungalows into gold.
Julie Kolb is a free-lance writer in San Diego. This is her first feature for American Bungalow.
This 1920 Sears bungalow had been severely neglected for more than 30 years when we bought it in 2005. We rented an apartment around the block and lived there with our three dogs and a cat for nine months while we painstakingly gutted and refurbished the interior and exterior. The house is adjacent to the former Choate School, now Choate Rosemary Hall.
Our bungalow was built in 1923 by Frank and Anna Lentz, half a block north of the Menomonee River and the railroad tracks carrying people, livestock and freight from Milwaukee to Madison and the Twin Cities. Frank worked in his family’s lumber and millwork business, once located behind our house. The Lentz family lived here until we bought it in January 2000. It is full of Lentz craftwork, including a built-in china cabinet in the dining room, leaded-glass French doors and a leaded-glass “piano” window in the living room.
Our home was built in 1910 by a lumberman who insisted on “nothing but the best” — oak woodwork and floors, imported cypress panels in the dining room, coffered ceilings, diamond windows with several panes of stained glass. We have restored and redecorated each room with Arts and Crafts wallpapers and antique furnishings. Our home was featured on the 2006 Bay City Historical Society Tour of Homes. Bay City artist Jeff Ward did this illustration.
We moved into our 1922 bungalow in 2004 after completing a major interior renovation, during which we were excited to uncover the home’s original blueprints in the basement. They are now framed and proudly displayed in our study. The design is reminiscent of Gothic Revival cottages built in the 1840s.
We built our home in 2005. It has three bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths and an unfinished basement with a bathroom roughed in. The interior is master-crafted with six-inch Bruce hardwood flooring throughout. We especially love our front porch with two sitting areas. Through the summer, neighbors gather and share their evenings with us.
This bungalow was built in 1910 by a builder as an office for his physician son. My husband’s grandparents bought it in 1939, and we bought it from them in 1982. We have raised two children here. In the early years, the entire second floor was used as storage in the summer and as a hen house in the winter. It still has all the original oak woodwork, leaded-glass windows and beautiful hardwood floors.
I rescued this 1928 house from demolition by having it moved to its current location in the Fairmount Southside Historic District. I really don’t know how to classify its architecture; I suppose one would call it a side-gable bungalow. I, however, would just call it beautiful.
With the exception of the kitchen and bath, this charming 1917 Aladdin kit house in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus is as near to its original state as could be hoped, with original fixtures and unpainted wood throughout. Built-ins include five-foot-wide bookcases on either side of the fireplace and a buffet in the dining room. The large living room accounts for nearly one-third of the house’s total square footage. We feel blessed to have such a warm and inviting home.
Recent Comments