Wooden Houses: From Log Cabins to Beach Houses

Wooden Houses places the wooden house into a historical, social and decorative context, explores the decorative potential of wood in our homes and provides inspiration for anyone who appreciates the beauty and soul of this wonderful natural material.

With evocative text by Judith Miller and inspiring photographs by James Merrell, Wooden Houses explores the decorative potential of wood in our homes.

Wooden houses range from rustic cabins and timbered cottages to elegant North American clapboard houses with shaded verandas. Wood has always played an invaluable part in construction, architecture and interior decoration and has long been valued for its practical benefits. Its insulating qualities, for example, made it an obvious choice for Scandinavian homes, and so the familiar log houses came into existence. But the vast decorative potential of wood has ensured its continued use, as evidenced by 19th-century houses with elaborately carved gables and porches.Indoors, wood surrounds us in many ways.

Structural elements such as beams and vaulted ceilings become features in their own right. Wood can be used as further embellishment in the form of beautiful panelling or carved and turned banisters and staircases, and in original furniture designs. Whether it is left in its natural state to show the variety of grains and depths of colours, or used as a canvas for paint techniques, wood is a beautiful resource.

About the Author:

Judith Miller began collecting in the 1960s while a student at Edinburgh University in Scotland. She has since extended and reinforced her knowledge of antiques through international research, becoming one of the world's leading experts in the field. In 1979 she co-founded the international best-seller Miller's Antiques Price Guide and has since written more than 100 books, which are held in high regard by collectors and dealers. Judith Miller appears regularly on TV and radio. She is an expert on the BBC's Antiques Roadshow and co-hosts the popular BBC series The House Detectives, ITV's Antiques Trail, and Discovery's It's Your Bid. She has appeared on The Martha Stewart Show and CNN. She is a regular lecturer and contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, including Financial Times, BBC Homes & Antiques and House & Garden. She has lectured extensively, including at the V&A in London and the Smithsonian in Washington.