Architectural Tutorial: Storybook Homes

"On they walked and walked, till suddenly they came upon a strange cottage in the middle of a glade. "This is chocolate!" gasped Hansel as he broke a lump of plaster from the wall. "And this is icing!" exclaimed Gretel, putting another piece of wall in her mouth. Starving but delighted, the children began to eat pieces of candy broken off the cottage. "Isn't this delicious?" said Gretel, with her mouth full. She had never tasted anything so nice."

~Hansel and Gretel

http://theliterarylink.com/gretel.html

Having a home look so good, you could eat it? That is what storybook homes are all about. Also known as Fairy Tale, Disneyesque or Hansel and Gretel architecture, this style was popularized in the 1920s in England and the United States, especially on the West Coast. These homes were designed by architects and builders with a distinct flair for theater, a love of fine craftsmanship and, not least, a good sense of humor, the most famous of which include Harry Oliver, Walter W. Dixon, William R. Yelland and Carr Jones (Gellner and Keister 1). The three characteristics that set this style apart from others of the 1920s include...
1) Exaggeratedly plastic and often cartoonish interpretation of medieval forms
2) Use of artificial means to suggest great age
3) The indefinable quality known as "whimsy"
These homes aimed to elicit an emotional rather than rational response and adjectives like picturesque, charming, cute and quaint come to mind when viewing them.
Here are a few notable examples of storybook style homes...

The Spadena House, also known as the Witch's House, was designed by Harry Oliver in 1921. According to the book, Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the 1920s, this home's entire design is a cleverly wrought caricature of dilapidated antiquity. Image source: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/fOtgZSaiSEiHf6y4NYMlHw

Architect-builder Carr Jones designed this Oakland, California fairy tale home. Image source: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t307/xmojorisinx/IMG_5261.jpg

Even the surrounding landscaping of Jones' storybook residence is filled with whimsy. Image source: http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t307/xmojorisinx/IMG_5261.jpg

This eight-unit apartment building a few steps from the University of California at Berkeley, called Normandy Village, is the realization of William R. Yelland's dream of building a unique residence for students and teachers patterned on villages he had seen in Northern France. Image source: http://berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/thornburg.html

Visbeen Homes recently designed a series of homes in this storybook style - full of whimsy, charm and almost good enough to eat...

Canterbury

Buttermere

Chatham

Cambridge

Wellington

Sources:

Gellner, Arrol and Douglas Keister. Storybook Style: America's Whimsical Homes of the Twenties. New York: Penguin Group, 2001.