American Bungalow Style

American Bungalow Style Review

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America once had a love affair with bungalows -- and it's being rekindled coast to coast. This elegant book showcases exceptional examples and features a catalogue of period furnishings.

With a flaming fire in the cozy hearth, a comfortable Morris chair, and soft, natural colors everywhere, bungalows have long embodied the ideal of the American home. At the turn of the century they took the country by storm, providing well-designed and well-priced shelter nationwide. Bungalows revolutionized residential architecture in America and grew into a beloved symbol of domesticity by offering stylish yet affordable housing for the average person. Today whole neighborhoods of bungalows are being saved and restored by people who appreciate the simple and natural lifestyle made possible by these small houses.

Beautifully illustrated with more than three hundred color photographs, "American Bungalow Style" presents two dozen American houses that capture the bungalow spirit. Many are Arts and Crafts in style, others show a touch of Spain or colonial America, and all exemplify the charms that enticed thousands of bungalow buyers during the form's heyday from 1880 to 1930. Among the bungalows included are examples by famous architects from Frank Lloyd Wright to Bernard Maybeck, as well as Gustav Stickley's own log cabin retreat. Many are the work of anonymous but skilled builders, and some were ordered by mail.

Bungalows may differ widely in style and size, but they have in common a simplified natural lifestyle made possible by these small houses.

Beautifully illustrated with more than three hundred color photographs, "American Bungalow Style" presents two dozen American houses that capture the bungalow spirit. Many are Arts and Crafts in style, others show a touch of Spain or colonial America, and all exemplify the charms that enticed thousands of bungalow buyers during the form's heyday from 1880 to 1930. Among the bungalows included are examples by famous architects from Frank Lloyd Wright to Bernard Maybeck, as well as Gustav Stickley's own log cabin retreat. Many are the work of anonymous but skilled builders, and some were ordered by mail.

Bungalows may differ widely in style and size, but they have in common a simplified plan that places most of the living spaces on one floor. They are typically one or one and a half stories high, low in profile, and fitted with lots of built-ins and all the conveniences of their time. On their own piece of land, with a garden in front or back and space to park a car, bungalows provided the privacy and independence that many Americans favor.

The idea that simplicity and artistry could harmonize in one affordable house spurred the bungalow's popularity -- a rare movement in which good architecture was found outside the world of the wealthy. Bungalows allowed people of modest means to achieve something they had long sought: respectability. With its special features the bungalow filled more than the need for shelter. It provided fulfillment of the American dream.

A fully illustrated appendix features more than one hundred furnishings suitable for bungalows and Arts and Crafts houses. This special catalogue section highlights modern reproductions of tables and chairs, lamps, textiles, wall coverings, tile, and hardware that look right at home in bungalows old and new, commodious and compact.

Arts and Crafts End Table/Nightstand Mission Style: Downloadable Woodworking Plan

Arts and Crafts End Table/Nightstand Mission Style: Downloadable Woodworking Plan Review

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You won't have to look far to find the perfect spot in your home for this multi-purpose table. Here, we photographed it as a nightstand, but other uses might include: telephone stand, occasional table, plant stand, or entry hall table. Its timeless beauty is matched only by the pride you'll feel when you're finished building it.

Measures 18" wide, 15-1/8" deep, 29-1/16" tall.

About WOOD Magazine downloadable plans

• For error-free construction, each downloadable plan includes a bill of materials, a cutting diagram, a detailed supplies listing, and, when necessary, a mail-order buying guide for hard-to-find hardware.
• For a clear idea of how our projects go together, each downloadable plan includes an exploded-view drawing with helpful details. All drawings are done professionally by the WOOD Magazine staff of woodworkers and illustrators.
• Large color photos and step-by-step instructions show exactly how we built the project in the WOOD magazine shop. We build each project ourselves to work out any bugs before you ever get the plan.
• Detail drawings and step-by-step illustrations provide necessary dimensions and machining processes you'll need to make the building process as straightforward as possible.

Note: This is a downloadable woodworking plan. All other materials must be purchased separately.

Glass-Topped Coffee Table: Downloadable Woodworking Plan

Glass-Topped Coffee Table: Downloadable Woodworking Plan Review

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If you have a treasured collection of curios, you probably understand how difficult it can be to find just the right place to display it. But now, with this traditionally styled coffee table, you have a unique option.

Measures 48" long, 24" deep, 17" tall.

About WOOD Magazine downloadable plans

• For error-free construction, each downloadable plan includes a bill of materials, a cutting diagram, a detailed supplies listing, and, when necessary, a mail-order buying guide for hard-to-find hardware.
• For a clear idea of how our projects go together, each downloadable plan includes an exploded-view drawing with helpful details. All drawings are done professionally by the WOOD Magazine staff of woodworkers and illustrators.
• Large color photos and step-by-step instructions show exactly how we built the project in the WOOD magazine shop. We build each project ourselves to work out any bugs before you ever get the plan.
• Detail drawings and step-by-step illustrations provide necessary dimensions and machining processes you'll need to make the building process as straightforward as possible.

Note: This is a downloadable woodworking plan. All other materials must be purchased separately.

Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern At Home

Classic Modern: Midcentury Modern At Home Review

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This gogeously illustrated book is the only major work to document the hip and inventive design of the mid-twentieth century, a period that today reigns unchallenged among style setters as well as a new generation of home owners and collectors. There is no hotter style today than the cooler than cool work of modern designers and archtitects from the 1940s and 50s. Endlessly inventive and emminently livable, mid-century modernism has an optimism and confidence born of postwar abundance, and a spirited elegance that appeals powerfully fifty years later. In CLASSIC MODERN, design expert Deborah Dietsch introduces readers to the basic tenets of modern design and explains how the simple yet inspired forms typical of this style were so readily disseminated into mainstream American culture. Filled throughout with enticing examples of mid-century pieces from such timeless designers as Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Arne Jacobsen, and George Nelson, this beautiful book recaptures the excitement of the period's brilliant designs.

Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining

Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining Review

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More than just the woman who created the fashion empire that bears her name, Lilly Pulitzer exemplifies an attitude, a casual sort of elegance, a style called "affluence at ease." Lilly and her clothing wholeheartedly embrace color -- she made famous the pink and green combination -- and her love of vibrant hues and bold prints led the New York Times to recently call her "a major force in prep resort wear for forty years."

But Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau is also almost as well-known for her entertaining as she is for her fashions. A tribute to her insouciant lifestyle, Essentially Lilly is lavishly illustrated and peppered with anecdotal memories of a life filled with color. Joined by her family and close friends, Lilly recalls the parties, the decorating, the food, and the fashion that have been part of her life in Palm Beach since she arrived there in the 1950s.

With sections devoted to each part of the day, Essentially Lilly captures a variety of social events -- from a sunrise sail to a beach supper under the stars -- and imbues each with singular "Lilly style":

Mellow Yellow Mornings -- start the day off easy with a walk on the beach or a luxuriously lazy breakfast in bed. Take some friends out for an early morning sail or a country club brunch. Round off the morning hunting for a one-of-a-kind treasure at a local flea market.

Think Pink Afternoons -- rev up the middle of the day with a bridesmaids' lunch, a birthday cookout, or a charity tea. Perhaps you'd rather relax with a fruity pool party or a "just-looking" stroll down Palm Beach's fabled Worth Avenue. True Blue Evenings -- gather your friends together for a festive cocktail party or a romantic beach dinner under a full moon. Maybe it's a deep woods campfire that appeals to you, or watching a movie out under the stars, or just a simple pizza party for your family.

Essentially Lilly presents memories and menus, beautiful photographs and dazzling illustrations as well as dozens of recipes and entertaining suggestions to make your own get-togethers as successful as one of Lilly's famed parties. Best of all, Lilly offers her spirited advice throughout: "Just relax and have fun -- and be an individual," she says. "It's better that you enjoy yourself than it is to get it right." Good rules to live by.

"LILLY PULITZER trademarks and logos are the property of Sugartown Worldwide, Inc. The book, including the design on the cover, are Copyright © 2004 Sugartown Worldwide, Inc."

The Ninth District - A Thriller

The Ninth District - A Thriller Review

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The Federal Reserve has never been robbed. FBI Special Agent Jack Miller, pulled into a high-profile case to mentor a new agent, finds himself in a clash with the toughest opponent of his career. The chase culminates in the bowels of the city, in the storm sewers and tunnels beneath The Ninth District Federal Reserve of Minneapolis.

The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl

The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl Review

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Marc Schuster’s colorful debut novel paints a riveting portrait of a divorced mother whose quest to be everything to everyone exposes the dark secrets of America’s suburbs.

Audrey Corcoran never dreamed she’d try cocaine, but a year after a bitter divorce, she meets a man named Owen Little who convinces her that a little buzz might be exactly what she needs to lift her spirits. And why not? He’s already turned her on to jazz, and no one in his circle of friends ever thinks twice about getting high. Soon, however, her escalating drug use puts a strain on Audrey’s relationship with her daughters, and she begins to sell cocaine from her home in order to subsidize her habit. By turns horrifying and hilarious, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl offers a scathing indictment of American consumer culture and the wildly conflicting demands it makes upon women.

On the surface, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl is about overcoming addiction. At the same time, however, the novel examines society’s conflicting expectations of women. Consumer culture constantly tells women to be fun, smart, wild and sexy, but at the same time, this same culture also demands that women be dependable, reliable, sensible and safe. In short, women are expected to do it all. Against this backdrop, protagonist Audrey Corcoran discovers cocaine and thinks she’s found the product that will allow her to be everything to everyone. Her struggle with addiction, then, is also a struggle with her sense of identity, and her essential dilemma is whether or not to buy into the myth of the perfect woman or to accept herself as flawed and imperfect, yet no less worthy of love.