Small Home Gazette, Winter 2020
Letter From the Editor: Out With the Old, In With the New
A new year brings fashion trends, and not only for clothing, but for your home. Watch enough HGTV, and you will start thinking your life is incomplete without an open living space and gray walls. The constantly evolving design trends don’t return us to an historical period; they re-invent it—putting a contemporary spin on history, and sometimes destroying historical details.
Consider these words from a current fashion leader: “A new year means a fresh start…it’s also the perfect time to revamp your home. If you’re trying to figure out what to do with your home this year, here are a few trends.”
Really? I don’t know about you, but we don’t approach a new year, looking for something to change. We do tackle what needs to be repaired or is a safety issue. That said, Gail does want to paint our kitchen walls—just not as often as an aunt who re-painted her bungalow kitchen every year!
We object to the more destructive trend followers. We bet all of you know a bungalow in which walls have been removed and ceilings opened up to create one of the most widely embraced home design changes, the open floor plan.
In both of these homes, the open floor plan gives you a view from the kitchen to the dining area to the living room. It is difficult to tell from the interiors, but both homes are classic Minneapolis stucco bungalows, one built in 1923 and the other in 1924.
As you entered one of these open floor plan bungalows—pretty as it may have been, did you sense a conflict, that something didn’t feel quite right? A bungalow was not designed with an open floor plan, especially the kitchen. (Gail would find it challenging to cook with guests chatting around her and would prefer not to have a messy kitchen visible to all.)
There is something to be said for maintaining “historical integrity.” We like those words. The “bones” of your home reflect a design style that has value. And your bungalow was built with durable, old-growth wood never to be seen again and with carpentry and joinery most contractors don’t bother with today.
Should people change the bones of an old house to follow a trend? Wouldn’t it be better to buy a different house that better reflects their lifestyle? We think the best remodeling work on old houses always involves identifying how any new work can complement the old, including preserving original elements and restoring others.
Older homes have quirks and flaws. We know older homes aren’t for everyone and aren’t without a few inconveniences for those who live in them. While there are some issues we wish could be fixed, there’s an even bigger list of our favorite things about living in a bungalow, like the oak woodwork, the built-ins, wood floors, and the coziness of smaller spaces—all part of our bungalow’s past. And we are now part of its story.
