Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Colonial Style

I have been working on a Design project for a customer that involves some intense details. Lots of Wainscoting, Pilasters, entablatures, as well as built up casings. This project has been post poned till November. But I thought I would share my SU designs as well as mention this book from Brent Hull: Traditional American Rooms
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This book is probably the BEST design source out of many books that I have for ideas,  especially when dealing with Traditional Details. Something cool that I learned recently  is "Traditional" from an architectural stand point in this country means "Colonial Revival"
I have always had customers tell me they want to stay traditional...But I honestly never really knew what that meant until I started reading these books for myself as well as asking Gary Katz lots of questions ;)

This Book from Brent Hull is LOADED with pictures. The details are simply incredible and I really learned A LOT of new patterns and designs from this book alone. I would really recommend it if your into details like me. As a finish carpenter we NEED books like this if we are going to improve and stay progressive.

Here are some of my Designs I drew for my customer using Traditional American Rooms for a main reference.





Check out the rest of my original SU Design work created for this project in the Colonial Revival Style HERE



If this project continues on to the building stage. It will be amazing! Stay tuned...

3 comments:

  1. Good to hear about the book from Brent Hull - that's been in my Amazon wishlist for awhile now. But I'm not sure I buy equating "traditional" with "Colonial Revival" - for example, portico's would be rare on a true colonial, as would broken pediments over a front door. But I'm just theorizing, not talking about real world interactions. How would you differentiate between colonial (vernacular), Palladian, and colonial revival?

    Your project drawings look compelling, would love to bring the same type of treatment to my dwelling. But the arched window above the center window appears too small/vestigal to my eye. Is there the opportunity to incorporate it to a greater degree into the main window set?

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  2. I agree. On a true "Colonial" you wouldnt see many of the elements you meantioned. Here in the Bay Area we are influence much more by the colonial revival style. Where you do see alot of classical elements, as well as palladian influence and georgian, which is what the Revival style is about. Vernacular is Simple colonial cottage like found in say...Virgina
    Here is a great example of Colonial Revial Style: http://picasaweb.google.com/archmolding.net/OliveVisitsFortBakerBayAreaDiscoveryMuseum?authkey=Gv1sRgCLzltqHcqdWV1wE#5463897634194352402

    Yes I want to do more with that window. I orginally drew alot more trim work there...But the owners want it simple...I dont agree with that..But Its what they want.

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  3. Very Sweet renderings. Your talents never fail to impress me..

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