Fireplace Ideas for Bungalows

Recently published in Old house Journal:  Jane Powell's  look at the wide array of Arts & Crafts-era fireplaces.  

Green Motawi field tiles are combined with landscape and other decorative tiles in a seemingly random layout designed by Guild Member Michelle Nelson

"Fire fulfills a deep and primal role in the human psyche. Even today, when fires are no longer needed for heating or cooking, fireplaces are routinely installed in houses. In Arts & Crafts homes, the fireplace took on almost religious significance, and even bungalows in warm climates were built with one. Gustav Stickley was a big proponent, writing in The Craftsman, “The big hospitable fireplace is almost a necessity, for the hearthstone is always the center of true home life.”

Read the rest of the article at Old House Journal.

Children's Mural at Burlingame Public Library

Muralist Lynne Rutter's recently completed major commission for the Burlingame Public Library.

The Burlingame Library is a charming Spanish Revival style building, designed by architect E. L. Norberg and completed in 1931.
The storybook mural was commissioned by the Burlingame Library Foundation to commemorate the centennial celebration of the Library. The Children's Wing is a large space with soaring, beamed ceilings, textured plaster walls, and a lot of odd angles. This presented a challenge as there is no one focal point to the room, nor is there an uninterrupted space where one might normally site a mural.

Design consultant and guild member Michelle Nelson brought Lynne Rutter into the project to create a site-specific work that would incorporated the room's architecture. In Rutter's design, the grates, arches, and doors were integrated into the painting, so that the architecture became part of the composition of the mural.

Faraway Castles, approx. 9 feet wide
"The room becomes a story; its walls the pages of a favorite book."

The Burlingame Library is located at 480 Primrose, Burlingame. It's a wonderful building well-supported and well-used by its community, and a well worth a visit from you.

above: The north wall mural with life size-figures was painted on canvas and finished after installation on site. photos by Lynne Rutter.