Thursday, June 23, 2011

Storybook Cottages

These storybook cottages were part of a short-lived design era in the 1920s.  American architects with a flair for detail built upon medievel European cottage designs and embellished them with turrets, dormers, stucco, timber, rounded doors, asymmetrically placed windows and sloped rooves among other things. These cottages are also sometimes referred to as Cotswold Cottages, Hansel and Gretel and other whimsical names.  While they were built in many countries, America had its fair share and hundreds still exist, mainly in California and particularly in Carmel by the Sea.

They are fascinating and cosy little places and exist in a world of their own!

Enjoy!


Google

This is such an enchanting little cottage in
Carmel by the Sea
Flickr

This Old House

Verbena

Google

Google

John Robert Marlow
This cottage was commissioned and built for Charlie Chaplin.

Flickr

4 comments:

  1. I am currently looking for a book about this style of architecture. i have seen some of these pictures before. It is a very narrow area of interest! And there doesn't seem to be that much written about it. I appreciate your pictures!

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  2. I have found several books at Amazon, but they are not available in the UK. "Carmel's Fairy Tale Cottages'' by Mike Barton: and ''Carmel: A History in Architecture (CA) (Images of America)''
    and also ''Cottages by the Sea'' by Linda Leigh Paul. My favourite is
    The fairy tale houses of Carmel by Joanne Mathewson (1998)

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  3. Thank you so much, Jacqui, for this information....I will definitely follow up on this search myself. Have a happy new year!

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  4. Thank you so much.i love these,my dream houses.

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