Connecticut Custom Home Pays Homage to an Icon of the Arts and Crafts Movement

Built-in bookshelves and columns delineate the entry foyer and great room while conveying an expansive sense of space.  Photos: Olson Photographic

After two years of research, the clients had a clear vision of what they wanted: a home inspired by the iconic Gamble House in Pasadena, Calif. Although their architect and builder had never before created such a home, they didn't hesitate to jump right into the project. The result is a blend of Prairie and Craftsman architectural elements that rises gracefully from a wooded Connecticut site.

Architect Peter MacPartland already knew the clients, having designed a vacation home for them in Maine. The homeowner, he says, was an Arts and Crafts connoisseur and showed MacPartland a book about the Gamble House, pointing out the details to incorporate into his new home.

The builders, Gary and Donna Baylor, weren't content with looking at photos of the famous residence. They decided to see it for themselves while visiting friends near Pasadena. “Once I was there, it all came to light for me,” says Gary. “We were in the process of framing [the Connecticut house] at the time. The finishes were very, very important, and that's what I specifically wanted to see in the Gamble House.”

MacPartland created the basic design concept but left the fine details to Baylor, who produced the construction drawings and coordinated the various trade contractors, designers and artisans. “For example, to do the built-in drawers under the stringers of the main staircase, I drew sections of the stairway in that enclosure with the windows so that all the components would work,” Baylor says. “That one section of the staircase was a collaboration between the homeowner, myself, my stair designer and my millwork guy.”

A slope at the rear of the lot was turned into a walkout tower level that the owners use as a family recreational space.

One feature of the Gamble House that's actually borrowed from Frank Lloyd Wright is a sunken inglenook: an alcove with built-in seating around the fireplace. MacPartland's favorite space is the great room, partly because of the inglenook but also because it's a grand, two-story space with clerestory windows that draw light from the second floor. Two balconies overlook the great room. The light fixtures are Arts and Crafts style, as is the chair rail, a motif repeated throughout the first floor. In most new homes, the chair rail is placed about 3 feet off the floor to prevent damage to the wall when chairs are pulled away from the table. Here, the chair rail is 6 feet off the floor — authentically Arts and Crafts, as the architect explains: “When the style was in vogue, people would hang open-back chairs high up on a rail so they could mop the floor without having to move the chairs around the room.”

The clients wanted an entire wing of the L-shape house devoted to their children, MacPartland says. “They wanted that wing to have a real identity to it, which is why there are two staircases: the grand stair in the front and a back stair that leads up to the kids' bedrooms.” From the stair landing, an octagonal, foyer-like space with a skylight, they descend to their domain: a TV/media room and study. Down one more level is a music room, a family room/playroom and nanny's quarters. The interior finishes are a mix of African sapelli woodwork and built-ins; Brazilian cherry floors; and American cherry kitchen cabinets. The windows have custom grille patterns, some adorned with stained, leaded glass inserts. Complementing the wood is an earthy paint scheme that changes in color from top to bottom on some walls.

Drawers and cabinets under the main staircase are typical of much older homes. The bench seat is an extension of the stair assemble.

“The house is designed on what I would call a cross axis, which Wright did in his Prairie style houses,” says MacPartland. “Two-story spaces are criss-crossed with one-story spaces, and if one is on an east-west axis, the other is on a north-south axis. It's almost a cruciform shape.”

Shallow roof lines with large overhangs that make the roof appear to float are also reminiscent of Wright's Prairie style, but the tapered columns on the wraparound porch, with stone at the base, are Craftsman.

Follow the Sun

Much of the five-acre site was not buildable because of the woods and wetlands. “There wasn't a lot of room, actually, once the septic system was put in,” says MacPartland, whose challenge was to figure out how to orient the house.

“I thought about it not so much from the outside in as from the inside out,” he says. “I spent time on the property tracking the path of the sun and sited the home to maximize natural light.” The breakfast room, which faces east, gets early-morning sun. The dining room and great room get afternoon light.

At the rear of the sloping site, MacPartland carved out a walkout basement.

The design phase took about nine months; construction took about 15 months. The painstaking efforts of everyone involved paid off in the clients' delight with the finished product — not to mention the 2007 Custom Home of the Year award from the Home Builders Association of Connecticut. “It took a lot of extra work to make sure everything would fall into place,” says Baylor. “But the communication from the homeowner was extraordinary. He really knew what he wanted and was able to clearly demonstrate what he was looking for.” 

FIRST FLOOR KEY: A kids’ study: 15’8” x 7’6” B tv/media room: 11’6” x 16’ C breakfast nook: 9’ x 7’6” D butler’s pantry E kitchen: 19’6” x 18’6” F dining room: 17’6” x 17’6” G mud room H guest bedroom: 13’8” x 10’ I guest bathroom J great room: 18’2” x 21’6” K front hall L powder room  M two-car garage: 22' x 28'	SECOND FLOOR KEY: A play room: 16’ x 14’ B bedroom 1: 14’6” x 12’6” C bedroom 2: 11’ x 16’ D shared bathroom E bedroom 3: 12’ x 12’ F octagonal hall: 8’ x 8’ G master bedroom: 16’ x 16’6” H master bathroom I dressing room: 10’ x 16’6” J study: 12’6” x 16’6” K study/loft: 9’ x 21’6” L laundry	BASEMENT KEY: A future home theater: 18’10” x 27’ B play room: 17’6” x 17’6” C bedroom: 18’6” x 10’ D music room: 15’ x 23’ E bathroom F mechanical: 10’ x 13’6” G storage

For more information about Gamble House and the Arts and Crafts movement, visit these sites:
www.citycent.com; char.txa.cornell.edu; houseofantiquehardware.com; and www.craftsmanperspective.com.

What's That Wood? The wood used for the light fixtures, interior woodwork and built-ins in this home is sapelli, a hardwood indigenous to western Africa's Ivory Coast. sapelli is a fine-grained, light brown wood that darkens over time to a deep red-brown or purplish brown. Builder Gary Baylor says the wood is readily available and less expensive than the ebony and teak used in the Gamble House. “We were able to [create] a look for a lot less by using sapelli. It's in the mahogany family and will get some of that striping that waves and curls slightly. And unlike a lot of other hardwoods, sapelli is very easy to work with.” For more information about African Sapelli wood, visit these two sites: www.blusterbaywoodworks.com and www.pattersonfurniture.com.   Photo Finish Jim Balcom has been a designer for 11 years, but he had never been asked to create a kitchen quite like the one in this home. “The client brought us a photo from a magazine and said, 'This is what I want my kitchen to look like.'” Balcom works for Crown Point Cabinetry in Claremont, N.H., a custom cabinet shop that specializes in traditional styles. The look the client wanted, though, was distinctly Prairie. “It required a lot of thought on our end,” he says. The cabinets were made out of stained Appalachian cherry with an astragal (beaded) pattern rabbeted into the sides. To contrast with the cabinets, the moldings were left unstained. Crown Point also made a matching table for the built-in dinette in the breakfast nook.   In the kitchen, custom-designed cherry cabinets are complemented by a backsplash made of 4-inch, field-cut onyx squares. “I went down to the site to take measurements and talk over the details, such as making the tabletop work as a window sill,” says Balcom. Crown Point's product designer provided conceptual drawings for the range hood. Balcom also notes the island's tapered feet and the retractable doors on some of the cabinets. Behind one of the doors is a message center with letter slots and a place to charge cellphones. “I'll bet I put over 100 hours of design time into this kitchen,” he says. “That doesn't count any phone calls or site visits. But it turned out beautifully.”