Greene & Greene design resources.


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Can anyone reccomend good books, websites, etc for Greene & Greene design ideas. I've spent many any hour on the UC archive site and poured over Darrell Peart's site. I have a couple of books that just have a chapter or two on the Greene brothers.

I'll be building a whole houseful of furniture in a year or so and we want to carry the Greene & Greene motif throughout. It'll be my handywork and designs, but I definately wish to capture the Greene & Greene flavor. The more resources I can find the better.

Any and all suggestions welcome

Thanks in advance.

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Dyami mentioned Darrell Peart’s book, which you can order here or here. Darrell’s site also has a recommended reading page which lists quite a few books on Greene & Greene, as well as Arts & Crafts furniture. You can look through these books for possible purchase or even check some of these books out of a library (if they have any of them of course).

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I've got a couple of Darrell's recommendations and have found them very insightful. I would heartily recommend as you embark upon your journey to take a step back from G&G and study the A&C movement to appreciate the G&G derivatives. I have Darrell's book as well as:

Bob Lang - "Shop Drawings for G&G Furniture"

William Varnum - "Industrial Arts Design: A Textbook of Practical Methods for Students, Teachers, and Craftsmen..."

Varnum - "Arts and Crafts Design"

Best of luck!

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Thanks Fransikaner. I have been devotee of the Arts & Crafts school of design since the early '80's. I have built a few Stickley inspired pieces, restored an original Limbert bookcase and drew up and constructed a coffee table of the Roycrofters school.

This series of projects I'll be embarking upon will be my first forray into Greene & Greene. I have loved their designs and style for years but have never had the opportunity to really jump in with both feet. Before I cut one piece of lumber to begin construction, I just want to do my homework and truly understand their design philosophy, techinques and methods.

Just to clarify, my wife and I are in the early stages of building a new home. The contractor is scheduled to break ground in September and we should be able to move in before Christmas. Our current furniture situation is dire. Two kids, two dogs and a cat have pretty much left us with with furnishings not fit for firewood. We are disposing of all of it.. Not a scrap of our current stuff will ever see the new property line let alone get inside the new house.

I don't do upholstery so we're going through Ethan Allen for new couches and chairs and whatnot. But... all the hard furnishings I plan on building myself. The home itself is a Craftsman design. As I stated above I love the G&G style and my wife concurs, so G&G it will be. Since I plan on dying in this house (quite a few years down the road I hope), I just want to make sure I get it right the first time. I have designs for a few pieces that we really like the idea behind, but they are not G&G. I'll be needing to modify details and possibly construction techniques to bring them in line with G&G standards so everyting works together.

Hopefully this clarifies a few things for folks.

Again, thank you all so much for your suggestions and reccomendations on reference materials. This forum and all you guys are a real treasure.

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Dave, it is wonderful that you and your wife are continuing your A&C journey to such an exciting destination.

There was a gentleman in California who recently commissioned a complete G&G home involving a lot of research, design, craftsmen and effort. If you can, try to run down his project. It was absolutely amazing, particularly the staircase and other millwork. The exterior may also give you a few ideas.

If I could be so humble as to offer an opinion on Ethan Allen - I have invested a dollar or two in their products over the years and would not recommend them before you have conducted a thorough review of the market. EA is a great place for signature one-offs or pulling together a design approach, but I would not rush into their upholstery selections because they are above average, but not great - particularly for the price. They have also sent a lot of their case good production to China over the last decade at the expense of some of their domestic factories. In my opinion, their traditional level of quality has not been maintained.

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Good to know, thanks Franiskaner.

We'll be getting a few pieces from them, and I really think the designer we've been working with is really top notch. She knows G&G and "gets" us, which is a big plus.

I have a meeting with her tomorrow and I'll inquire as to the origins of the pieces we're talking about.

My parents had (still have) quite a few EA pieces. I can only hope what we end up with will be as durable.

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Just as an FYI... (and I really like showing this to people)

This is the house we will be building this fall. This photo was a model home built by the architects.

Very nice. I'm actually very envious. I really want to build a new house out in the woods.

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