Ranch House Style

by Katherine Samon, Edmund Barr (Photographer)

If you grew up in postwar America, chances are you lived in or next to a ranch-style house. And the things we loved about ranches when we liked Ike are still attractive—perhaps more so— the liberation that comes with open-plan living, the casual feel of easy kitchen access, the comfort of having bedrooms and children near at hand, the convenience of one-level living, and the everyday luxury of smooth indoor-outdoor flow. So it’s no surprise that the ranch is in style again—and this book showcases the best of it. Whether that style is the mid-century modern of Corbusier and the Eameses, or the cross-cultural awareness of the sixties, or the Pop Art and plastic of the seventies, Ranch House Style offers inspiration and instruction on re-creating these looks in your own home.

But this book isn’t just for style mavens with professional decorators. Because if there’s any one completely American, democratic architectural style, it’s the ranch house. Ranches, in all their glory (and sometimes utter lack of it), are everywhere, usually affordable, just waiting for the right shag carpet to restore their hipness, the right flea-market find to liven up that patio. And Ranch House Style shows how—with examples of the ranch’s flexibility for any decorating style, from Victorian and French Country to thoroughly contemporary, from primary homes in the suburbs to vacation getaways on the shore, from vintage gems to newly built originals. It also shows how to solve the special challenges that come with one-story living in a decades-old house, including how to expand into today’s more spacious footprints, how to renovate for modern amenities, and how best to use the ranch’s typically large plot of land.

Remarkably, there hasn’t been a book on ranches available in decades. Despite the millions that exist across the entire country, the ranch has been ignored by the high-design community. To address that insult to ranch lovers, Ranch House Style also includes thoroughly researched, authoritative material on the style’s history, sociological context, architects, designers, and furniture. This is a serious work that stands alone in its field, in addition to being a beautiful, inspirational, and practical decorating book.

So come visit the ranch—both the remarkably familiar and the strikingly original, from modest to luxurious, in styles from charming to mod—available in neighborhoods everywhere, here showing in all its coolness.

Genres: Design, Architecture

192 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2003

Reviews

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great photos and simple explanations of fabulous style decisions for fabulous ranches. Love love love the Long Island Surf Shack that designer Cynthia Rowley and her family bought, along with the Airstream they park in the back as a guest house!

[Robert Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the house built by opera singer Willa Stewart outside Austin Texas in 1972. Affectionately referred to as "Elvis meets Kuwait." What a dream house!

See it here:
http://www.katherineannsamon.com/kath...
& here:
http://www.katherineannsamon.com/kath...

Post script: I had written a much more detailed review, full of lovely adjectives and big fancy words, and then a careless slip of the finger on the "backspace" key, Whooosh! the page refreshes, everything written gone into the ether! All my lovely words vanish like they never existed. Too discombobulated (A state of being shocked and/or confused) to try to rewrite it all again. Sadly, the the first time this has happened to me and, I am sure, it has happened to you as well. So, please observe a moment of silence to what might have been.

Cheers!

[Carissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

if we ever get around to re-doing the exterior of our house, this book has great inspiration photos.

[Alex]

Ranch House Style by Katherine Samon (2003)