Better Homes & Gardens Remodeling Ideas, January 1, 2000
Book Description
In this sequel to the best-selling Bungalow Kitchens, Jane Powell and Linda Svendsen turn to the second most complex room in the house. As reflected in these pages, the bathroom can—and should—be a beautiful extension of the home style—and what better examples than those from the Arts & Crafts era.
Though it may seem a self-evident feature of the Arts & Crafts style, bungalow bathrooms are truly artistic endeavors. They go beyond the traditional pedestal sink and claw-foot tub to some of the most beautiful tile work, woodwork, fixtures, and decorative elements available. Bungalow Bathrooms is a guide to restoring or designing a period-style bathroom for a bungalow or other early-twentieth-century house. It provides a wealth of information about flooring, cabinets, countertops, fixtures, faucets, and all the other elements that make up a bungalow bathroom, as well as advice on how to integrate modern technology while maintaining the bungalow look.
Jane Powell, the author of Bungalow Kitchens, is the proprietor of House Dressing, a business dedicated to renovating and preserving old homes, particularly bungalows. She is the former president of the historic preservation organization in her hometown of Oakland, California.
Linda Svendsen, a graduate of Music and Art High School and Parsons School of Design in New York, specializes in architectural interior and exterior photography. Her work has been seen most recently in Camps and Cottages, Bungalow Kitchens, Old House Journal, Old House Interiors, Victorian Decorating, and Lifestyles Magazine.
Back Cover copy
About the author
World-renowned architectural interior and exterior photographer Linda Svendsen is a graduate of Music and Art High School and Parson Design School in New York. She’s worked with Jane Powell on a number of projects in addition to Bungalow Details: Exterior, including Bungalow Kitchens, Bungalow Bathrooms and Linoleum. Her photography has also been featured in Camps and Cottages, Old House Journal, Old House Interiors, Victorian Decorating and Lifestyles Magazine. Svendsen is the author of Bicycle: Around the World, a nostalgic, international collection of bicycles and various cultures. She lives in Concord, California.
Excerpted from Bungalow Bathrooms by Jane Powell, Linda Svendsen. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The evolution of the modern bathroom is neither linear nor orderly. But parts of it are pretty disgusting, so don't read this chapter over lunch. Some ancient civilizations had bathrooms that were far more "modern" than the average bathroom of the mid-nineteenth century. Indeed, a twentieth-century Englishman was heard to complain of his Oxford college that denied him the everyday sanitary conveniences of Minoan Crete." And he was not far off--a bathroom (circa 1700 B.C.) unearthed at Knossos contains a water-flushed latrine, a basin with running water, and a highly decorated tub little different from those commonly featured in late-nineteenth-century plumbing catalogs. Recently, Chinese archeologists unearthed a two-thousand-year-old toilet with running water, a stone seat, and comfortable armrests in the tomb of a king of the wester Han Dynasty (he evidently wanted to take his throne with him). The Romans elevated bathing to an art form, and some parts of their plumbing technology are in use to this day; yet with the fall of the Roman Empire, that knowledge was lost and was not fully rediscovered until the nineteenth century. What followed was the Dark Ages, in more ways than one.
