It's a four square. I wouldn't call it an arts and crafts, although it probably has elements of arts and crafts inside. Wonderful house. Have you considered something else instead of those tall hedges in front?

"Have you considered something else instead of those tall hedges in front?"

Hahaha - Yes, we are redoing all the front landscaping (as noted above). In fact, I am getting advice on that right now on the shrub forum. I hate how it looks currently but my husband and I are slow moving when it comes to home improvement so we never did anything about it.

As to the style, I have always referred to it as a four square, but I read on here that a four square is just a floor plan, not an architectural style. I live in Craftsman/Arts & Crafts land, which is why I wondered. We have a ton of natural wood throughout the house, and this built-in upstairs (flanked by bedroom doors). No built-inn hutch or bookshelves though.

stillpitpat, wow, just curious, is the wood finished that way or has it been recently stripped? I am in in a historic Chicago-style bungalow straight north of you and a lot of our wood style seems similar, but ours was bleached and then received a yellow stain. We've just started stripping and staining it back to a cherry/chestnut color.

Just because your house doesn't have built-ins doesn't mean they weren't there at some point and someone ripped them out, OR your house may have been sold as a plain version without built-ins. Our bungalow seems in the moderate category where it has arched doorways and is the 'octagon' style front, but no evidence of any built-ins, fireplace, or leaded glass windows anywhere.

I agree that four-square is a floor plan, and the inside of your house does appear to be Craftsman styled. So it is more on the floor plan if you have an 'Arts & Crafts Foursquare'

I have a 1923 Dutch Colonial Revival in MN and could send you a photo of my linen closet and bathroom door that is exactly like your photo above. I've seen about a million others in homes around here.

My home is "craftsman" inside--built ins, breakfast nook, huge moldings and wood trim, etc. Remember that home builders had all sorts of interior choices, depending on their tastes and budgets. Many budgets did not allow for elaborate things. The nice thing is that you can put period-appropriate things like built ins into your home and it can look fabulous. A friend of mine just bought an intact 1920s built in dining buffet on Craigslist, sadly ripped out of a local bungalow, and put it in hers. It looks like it was always there. In a bungalow I owned some years back, I put some period-looking stained glass in the "piano windows" flanking the fireplace and it was beautiful--a prism effect when the sun shone in.

Emory, when we bought the house, it had art glass windows some previous owner had attached to the living room windows with brackets. We have kept them, of course. They are not quite period but we still like them.

kats, what you see in the wood is the natural grain (I think), but at some point someone put a thin layer of tinted varnish on a lot of the wood. It's frustrating but we don't have the time or money to refinish it all. If you count closet doors, we have 9 of those doors, door and window frames, and baseboards, plus the linen closet. It's still beautiful though.

Stillpitpat, I am a neighbor of yours (just north of Division) and used to have the same built in that you show. Many of our OP homes were originally built with the same interior finishes but have been modified through the years. If your staircase from the first to second floor has been modified and opened up, your dining room built in was most likely removed when that work occurred.

Yes, your home is a 4 square with Arts and Craft finishes. Prior to us living in OP, we lived in a 4 square in Minnesota and I stripped 7 doorframes, 1 window and a built-in in our upstairs landing. It was alot of work, but because the doors themselves hadn't been painted, it was ONLY alot of work instead of a ton of work:) We loved the end result.

Changing out your landscaping will really open up the front of your house! Does the front of your house face east or west? I work at a local garden center (not the one in Forest Park) and can also share thoughts, if you wish.

Here's some Oak Park trivia for you. FLW was pretty much the first to use stucco in home construction in our area. As other homes were built, "copycat" builders also used stucco. Until Wright hit the scene, wood and brick/stone were the common finishes. There is a house on Forest, just north of Lake, and south of the Home and Studio that is now stucco but was built with wood siding.....changed to match the popular trend of the time.

you have a great home!

Hello Jmc!

Thanks for the FLW tidbit. I love stucco and love how common it is here.

If you look in the shrubs forum, you can see my posts about landscaping. We're getting ready to redo everything in the fall. I was thinking of checking out McAdam and maybe Pesche's. Do you have another recommendation?

kats, I am adding more pics for you. The wood is definitely light. The shots where it looks more like honey or even orangy it's because of the lighting.

This one cracks me up. I always think it looks like a sand worm.

Foyer - original tile? Oh lol, there's my kitty to the left.

Emory, you'll be happy to know that when we were presented with a kitchen remodel plan that involved tearing down a wall and creating a great room, we said no. It doesn't fit with the period and I like doors and walls!

I don't think it is original tile. Original tile was probably the typical 1" hex.

I was born in Oak Park, and here in MN we have lots of homes like yours!

My late FIL was born in Oak Park in 1908. His father was an orthopedic surgeon but they moved to Long Beach in about 1910.

Yes it could be original tile but not sure.

As for the wood, from the photos it looks like you have several different kinds of wood on the doors and moldings? Or is it just the illusion?

I think most of it is the same, but I had to use flash on some of the shots, and some of it has a coat of varnish on it and some doesn't. Some of the window sashes and jams are some other painted wood, although the sills and frames match. In some cases they were able to match the paint fairly well to the natural wood, and in other places not.

Unfortunately for us, whoever paneled the kitchen way back when changed out the window sill, frame, and sash to match the (ugly) paneling. When we redo the kitchen (starting as early as this fall), we will at the very least have to strip and restain it all, as we are getting birch cabinets to match all the other wood in the house. We are also going to price out moving and replacing the window, in which case we'll just get new wood for it.

The wood grain looks like Gum, but IDK about that white color stain.

Casey

^^^ Yes but the window frames look like oak