Linda Leigh Paul, author of Ranches of the American West, proves the durability and everlasting style of stone houses in her latest book.
From Italy to Scotland and Newport Beach, California, to Possum King Lake, Texas, stone houses span the world. In Linda Leigh Paul’s latest residential volume, Stone Houses: Natural Forms in Historic and Modern Homes, newfangled design concepts feature alongside old-fashioned architectural stalwarts in places near and far, including some of our favorite outposts in the West. Although time tells us that a great many things aren’t what they used to be, Paul sets out to prove that building a house with this solid, sturdy standby will create a home that lasts forever.
“The stone houses in this book include remnants of forgotten, abandoned, or displaced stone architecture,” writes Paul in her introduction. “They are built with materials that were discovered by accident or salvage and used with a laborious and yielding eagerness to rejoin them with a knowledge-bearing existence.”
Conserving resources—and finding a use for discarded yet viable, in fact worthwhile, materials—harkens to a way of life that many folks from the American West aspire and that plenty live and breathe. Waste not!
Accompanied by luminous surroundings, planks of wooden floorboards and ceiling beams, industrial accents, and a certain grain of homestead glamour, these are just a few of the stone houses we’re loving from Paul’s latest project.
(In cover image: House at Grishipol on Isle of Coll, Scotland. Architect: William Tunnell, WT Architecture; Photographer: Andrew Lee Photography and Michael D. Harding Photography. From Stone Houses: The White House at dusk, seen on approach from the south, with Grishipol Bay beyond. The line of the original stone walls encloses the house site in the landscape.)
Possum Kingdom Lake | Possum Kingdom Lake, Texas
Architect: Richard Drummond Davis | Photographer: From Sarasota Herald-Tribune, August © 2013 NYT Regional Media Group. All rights reserved.
From Stone Houses: The great room is one of the two French barn building styles the owner used to define the structures. It is a light-filled open space designed for entertainment. Simple in structure, the room looks on to Possum Lake and shares an adjacent space with the kitchen and food preparation areas. A picnic table in the center of the room signals that relaxed attire is appropriate and all are welcomed.
Indian Gap Retreat | Napa, California
Architects: Tony Martin, Inc. | Photographers: A.F. Payne Photographic, Inc., and Jason Liske
From Stone Houses: A steel-cased opening leads to the kitchen. The cabinets are made of antique cypress. The steel island cabinet fronts are guided by a steel ball and a recessed track in the concrete floor.
Casa de los Peregrinos | Newport Beach, California
Architects: Paul Bertelli, JLF Architects | Interior Designer: Tracie McCloskey, TLM Interior Designs | Photographer: Audrey Hall Photography
From Stone Houses: The entrance foyer is a charm of lacquer, bamboo, and timbers with an antique Chinese desk, a crystal chandelier, and view of the ocean.
The Creamery | Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Architects: JLF Architects | Photographer: Audrey Hall Photography
From Stone Houses: The kitchen and family room are made informal and cozy by utilizing flat timber planks in the ceiling and a soft, reclaimed fir as flooring.
Silverleaf | McDowell Mountain Preserve, Arizona
Architects: OZ Architects, Inc. | Interior Designer: David Michael Miller | Photographer: Werner Segarra Photography
From Stone Houses: Thee arrival to the home is informal and intimate. It evolves through an orderly maze of small spaces. Antique granite cobbles and terraces of differing levels, open loggias and patios, a few arches and gates all recall the enjoyable character of the village scale.
Paul is also the author of Ranches of the American West (one of our favorites), Haciendas: Spanish Colonial Houses in the U.S. and Mexico, and Casa Bohemia.
© Stone Houses: Natural Forms in Historic and Modern Homes by Linda Leigh Paul, Rizzoli New York, 2018.
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