Monday, February 4, 2013

Great Period Resource

My new friend, and Laurelhurst neighbor, donaleen, gifted me with a copy of a reprinted period house catalog. I believe the original book was published in 1921 by the Morgan Woodwork Organization and was called "Building with Assurance." The catalog was reprinted in its entirety by Lee Valley Tools Ltd. in 1987, under the title Homes & Interiors of the 1920's. When donaleen placed the book in my hands, I got so excited when I thumbed through it.

This catalog is loaded with great pictures: Millwork, doors, windows, wainscoting, leaded glass, stair parts, breakfast nooks, built-ins and more. It has something like 400 pages of great detailed drawings.

I'm going to show some of my favorites, so this post is very picture heavy. I'm going to put in a page break, so if you want to load the pictures, you'll have to open the post.

Here are a few of my personal favorites.
I'm always happy to find stained kitchen cabinets. The brackets on the upper cabinets look almost exactly like the ones we put in our kitchen.

There are a number of house plans offered with color drawings.
And an amazing array of millwork and built-ins.
These table and chairs actually fold out of the way.
It's hard to stop adding pictures. There are literally so many good things in the catalog, I have to force myself to stop posting them here at the blog. I'm just going to add one more thing, because it's in color: Leaded glass.

6 comments:

  1. How cool! Those kitchen cabinets look almost exactly like the two upper cabinets that I have in my basement workshop.

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  2. Wow! So much fun and what a great resource!

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  3. It's me, donaleen....little d and an n on the end. I read an article about letters and how some are ugly ducklings; the capital D was on the list. I like how the little d makes my name look. I never liked it as Donaleen. And so I started using the little d in my name. Yes, I am fussy about how things look.

    Don't feel bad, though. People almost always spell my name wrong (Donnalee, Donalene, Donalee). And I am thrilled you like the book.

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  4. I love M-3014 stained glass. I'd like to do some glass again someday. I have the tools (I think my cutter needs to be replaced, though), but I don't have a work space set up. I'd also love to turn our sitting room into M-503. Our gas fireplace is in the corner, though...and we don't have windows there. Maybe just move the fireplace to the center and put in bookcases, and hang two pieces of back-lit stained glass. Lovely pictures!

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  5. Oh my goodness this is a stunning resource! What a wonderful gift from a friend. I hope you'll post more photos as time goes on either here or on Pinterest!

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  6. Your friend’s catalog discovery is our new (old) house! Thank you for posting photos. Now I’m excited to try to find a copy of the catalog, and get going on this huge project.
    We needed to re-wire the entire building top to bottom to qualify for replacement insurance. That’s finished. On the to do list are landscaping, repairing square copper gutters, and finding fun textiles with the help of your blog.
    I hope you’re still active.
    Sally in Ohio

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