Golden Statement : The Arts and Crafts movement from the turn of the century gave us a distinct design identity, and the style has gained favor in recent years. The Laguna Beach house of the Eliel family reflects this California heritage.
At the turn of the century, California design meant cozy bungalows on large yards that complemented this area’s incredible climate and natural resources.
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There were Craftsman bungalows, as well as Mission Revival, Spanish Colonial and other styles that used references from other lands but still created a house that was particular to California.
During this time the California Arts and Crafts movement was in full swing, with artisans creating furniture from oak, lamps from copper and pottery from natural clay.
The intervening 90-plus years have taken their toll on true California home design. There are few houses remaining that exemplify those original Craftsman ideals; those that remain are found largely in older neighborhoods in communities such as Tustin, Santa Ana, Orange, Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach.
Much of Orange County’s housing since has turned to Europe for inspiration, but the home of Alan Blake Eliel, his wife, Lynda, and daughter Joanna deliberately takes its inspiration from the Craftsman era in the Golden State.
Inside and out, their home in a secluded canyon in Laguna Beach is a reflection of things Californian: The structure itself is a simple wood-frame house; the furnishings and paintings are from the Arts and Crafts movement; the plantings are indigenous to this area.
“A feeling of homogeneousness is missing in architecture locally. When you’re in a village in France, you know you’re in France. When you’re in Switzerland, Italy or England, you know where you are. Here, you’re not quite sure where you are architecturally,” Eliel said.
“We keep looking past our great California heritage that some of the original architects in the area used.”
From the street, the Eliel home is unimposing and blends into the natural surroundings. The home, built in 1976, is not unlike many other small, single-family dwellings in the county. What is different about the house is the way Eliel has applied the principles of the California Arts and Crafts movement to it.
Eliel, who is a landscape designer, has made a few structural changes to the home--such as adding a wooden staircase--and has surrounded it with drought-tolerant plants.
The yard, primarily full of plants indigenous to California or native compatible, is in the best tradition of the Arts and Crafts movement, which believed that nature is an integral part of our lives.
“The Arts and Crafts movement was steeped in philosophy,” Eliel said. “It was all about learning to live in harmony with nature. This 100-year-old movement was a reaction against both the excesses of the Victorian Age and machine-made objects from the Industrial Revolution.
“One of the reasons for the re-emergence of this movement is the very same. People are searching again for meaning in life and looking to nature.”
The Arts and Crafts practitioners went even further. They believed that the honesty of the materials used would promote honesty in the people who used them.
“This house in the canyon has had a profound influence on everything I’ve done since I’ve lived here,” Eliel said. “I believe a relationship with nature is like a relationship with people. The closer you are, the better the relationship. In my own humble way, I’ve tried to use California’s heritage in both the house and the garden.”
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To that end, Eliel has been collecting Arts and Crafts furniture and lamps, as well as California plein-air paintings, Craftsman pottery, antique Spanish serapes and Native American blankets.
“I put my collection together because I thought it would be nice to have items that reflected California’s art heritage. I’m not a heavy-duty collector. I’ve really emphasized good decorative art, landscapes and flowers that reflect my love of nature,” Eliel said.
He bought his first Arts and Crafts piece in the early 1970s at a used furniture store. It was a Morris chair and he paid $150 for it. “At that time it was hard to find good, big, comfortable chairs. I liked the design, and I liked the fact that it was so sturdy and comfortable.” (Last summer, an oak Morris chair and ottoman by Gustav Stickley sold for $3,450 at an auction at Christie’s.)
Eliel has left the walls of the house white so that the artwork is shown to its best advantage, giving the home a light and airy feeling.
In the small entry hall, Eliel has placed a Gustav Stickley quarter-sawn fumed oak server with hand-hammered pulls that was originally meant to be used in a small dining room.
Atop the server are a hammered-copper pot executed at Roycroft Shops, an Arts and Crafts candleholder, a hand-colored photograph of Mt. Whitney from the turn of the century, a gold-tone image of the redwoods painted on glass and a Dirk Van Erp hammered-copper lamp with a parchment-like stained mica shade.
“The lamp was marketed in San Francisco at the turn of the century as a boudoir lamp. Its purpose is to create a glow. It’s not for any kind of direct lighting,” Eliel said.
On the wall is a watercolor of yellow roses and bees by Paul de Longpre. “He is Los Angeles’ first noteworthy watercolorist. He was originally from France and painted mainly flowers,” Eliel said.
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The home’s dining room perhaps best exemplifies the Arts and Crafts movement’s philosophy, which valued simplicity of style rather than lavish expense.
The room is furnished with an oak Stickley table and chairs, a James Swinnerton desert painting, a Stickley sideboard, copper owl candelabrum and Hampshire art pottery.
“Frankly I think that some of the Craftsman pieces are too heavy and clunky looking for California, so I try to use the simpler pieces and give the rooms a more minimalist look,” Eliel said.
With the Craftsman pieces, he uses Native American blankets and Spanish serapes, which add color, informality and a particularly California feeling to the rooms.
Among items in the living room are a plein-air painting of Indian Wells and a Gustav Stickley hammered-copper oil lamp that was converted to electric. The lamp has a shade made of mineral mica that was crushed and then had resin added to it to harden it into a block. The pressed mica was then cut into thin sheets with a band saw and fitted into the templates of the shade.
The couch in the living room was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, but it is a contemporary piece that doubles as a bed for guests.
Original Stickley furniture can be quite expensive. (In 1988 Barbra Streisand paid $363,000 for a 1903 Stickley sideboard, although prices have gone down since then.)
More affordable is new Stickley furniture, which is still manufactured at L. & J.G. Stickley Inc. Using the original plans, this New York company continues to make the furniture almost the same way it was made at the turn of the century, but it sells for a fraction of the cost of an original piece.
“You can tell the difference immediately because we use three guides on each drawer, whereas the original ones had one,” said Aminy Audi, who bought the Stickley Co. with her husband, Alfred, in late 1973.
“Stickley furniture and the items from the Arts and Crafts movement really took off in 1988, and the market continues to grow.” Audi said. (The firm’s furniture is available locally at Homestead House Inc. in Laguna Hills and at Baker Knapp & Tubbs at the Design Center South.)
It’s also possible to achieve the pared-down, natural look with items from other time periods. Eliel, for example, has combined the Arts and Crafts pieces with native textiles that enhance the Craftsman feeling but are highly livable and keep the house from looking like a museum.
The underlying principles of the Arts and Crafts movement--respecting nature, conserving materials and getting rid of unnecessary ornamentation--can still make themselves very much at home in California.
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Those interested in a closer look at California style can visit the Gamble House in Pasadena. Completed in 1908 by the architectural firm of Greene and Greene, it is a monument to the Arts and Crafts movement.
The house at No. 4 Westmoreland Place is open to the public Thursday through Sunday, from noon to 3 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors, $2 for students; under 12 free. Groups of 10 or more need to make advance reservations. Call (818) 793-3334.
