Embellished Door Curtains called Portieres

Sharon believes these curtains were used for doorways and were called portières. She's collected quite a number of examples from all the issues of "The Craftsman" magazine she scanned for photos.

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Nov 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Nov 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1903

Craftsman Magazine, Mar 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Mar 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Mar 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Jun 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Ju 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Aug 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Dec 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Feb 1908

Craftsman Magazine, Apr 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Apr 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Apr 1904

Craftsman Magazine, Apr 1904

Craftsman Magazine, May 1905

Craftsman Magazine, May 1905

Craftsman Magazine, May 1905

Craftsman Magazine, May 1905

When I was trying to research how to actually make a portiere (to answer questions like whether it was lined, or suspended by rings), I went and dug through a number of period texts. I share the best of them below.

More Unpainted Woodwork

Sharon cruised around old issues of "The Craftsman" magazine and found some examples of bedrooms with unpainted woodwork. Dates from left to right, top to bottom: 1905, 1904, 1913, and 1914.



And here is an example of how to wallpaper a bedroom wall, published in 1905. While it's impossible to tell if the woodwork is stained or painted a darker color, it's certainly not white.

Playing With Stained Glass Designs

When we bought this house, many of the leaded glass panels in the cabinet doors were broken. (It's hard to get photos; believe us there are several chunks missing.) When we remove the doors to have them dipped, we'll also need to remove the glass. One option is to repair the glass by disassembling the panels and put in new glass and put them back together and replace them in the door. But, the glass panels are really boring, basic grid panels and we think we'd like to jazz them up a bit with new glass panels.

So, one of our DIYer projects during this remodel is to make replacement stained glass panels for the living room and dining room and two new panels for a couple cabinet doors in the kitchen. Sharon likes this photo of a stained glass panel she found online at a salvage business and she's currently planning to adapt this pattern into these different sized panels. Though, we're planning to use clear, wavy glass for the background so we can still see through to the contents of the cabinets, it will depend on what glass we're able to find. We've already blown the budget on the remodel, so we have a more limited budget for this project.

This morning Sharon is trying to combine elements from our chosen stencil pattern into this stained glass pattern—and having problem with the technology. (She has a cold right now and is muddle-headed, so CorelDraw seems to be beyond her this morning.)

Basically, Sharon's plan is to substitute the upper flower in the stained glass design with a flower similar to the stencil flower, sort of like this sketch she did this morning. She'll also adapt the side flowers by making the center petal a bit more rounded, and more like the new middle flower.

Hopefully there will be time to focus on this project once the contractor gets started on the remodel and we're confined to our small living space. While Sharon will still be in school next quarter, she'll only be taking two classes so should have plenty of time to get going on this project. Hopefully over the six month project, we'll be able to finish the 8 needed stained glass panels. (Yes, we're not always good at finishing projects that we start, but this one is important! We're pretty committed to getting this project done by the end of the remodel.)

Update Thursday evening:
Sharon was pretty excited to discover that two of the big art glass manufacturers are located in Portland!

Bullseye Glass
and
Uroboros Glass

More Kitchen Inspiration Photos

Sharon has spent hours and hours researching our kitchen remodel. We really wanted to redo the kitchen consistent with the character of our 1912 Craftsman, but with modern appliances and conveniences. Sharon also wanted to figure out whether we could use stained woodwork in the kitchen because she really didn't want a white kitchen.

While her research did find that (probably) most kitchens in the early 1900s were white—it was not unheard of to have stained wood kitchens. For others who also want to convince themselves that it's OK not to go with white, she thought she should share some of her picture resources.

This image is a picture of a Kitchen Cabinet from the 1914 Aladdin House Kit Catalog (page 90).


This is a drawing from a 1915 House Kit Home catalog. (This is the Sears Wabash built from 1915 to 1922.) That woodwork sure doesn't look painted white—otherwise there surely wouldn't be wood grain. We're actually using this photo as inspiration for our remodel. We're going to go with stained woodwork, with white subway tile. (Sharon did finally bow down to the overwhelming ceramic subway tile evidence.)

This is another kitchen from 1912. Apparently the original source for this photo was from "House Beautiful." Sharon grabbed the photo from a set posted at Flickr by American Vintage Home.


This image is from the Sears Kit House Catalog. This particular house was called The Marina and was sold in 1917 to 1921.

This is a photo of a kitchen pantry dating from 1911. Apparently the original source for this photo was from "Ladies Home Journal." Sharon grabbed the photo from a set posted at Flickr by American Vintage Home.


Found this first (left) kitchen in the Craftsman Magazine in the July 1914 issue and the second (right) kitchen in the April 1915 issue. Unfortunately, kitchen (and bathroom) pictures are few and far between in the Craftsman Magazine, but they did include a few and the kitchens were not all painted.









This unpainted kitchen was grabbed from a free, period ebook titled "Inside the House of Good Taste" by Richardson Wright published in 1915. They were talking about the sink, but Sharon was excited about the unpainted woodwork in the rest of the kitchen.

In addition to internet resources, Sharon heartily recommends Bungalow Kitchens by Jane Powell as a starting point in your own bungalow kitchen remodel research. And if you're more concerned about the budget and less about historic accuracy, The New Bungalow Kitchen by Peter Labau is also decent. Though maybe check it out of the library first before you invest in a copy, just in case the ideas don't suit you.