Spanish Courtyard Design Home Ideas

¶ A bungalow built around a courtyard facing the water. These courtyard home designs were first published in Gustav Stickley´s Craftsman Homes.

Craftsman Bungalow.
A bungalow built around a courtyard facing the water: view of the front, showing entrance, terrace and chimneys, and the relation of the house to its site.

¶ One of our earliest designs is shown in this bungalow, which has proven very popular for summer homes, especially where they are built on the shore of a lake or river; for the chief characteristic of the design is an inner court, or patio, which looks directly out upon the water. The bungalow is built around three sides of this courtyard, an arrangement which carries with it a suggestion of the old Spanish mission architecture of California.

Bungalow Courtyard.
View of the courtyard looking out upon the water. This might be used as an outdoor living room and furnished with tea table, chairs, hammocks and rugs. Being so completely sheltered from the wind it should make a very pleasant afternoon lounging place in warm weather.

¶ The original design was for a house with shingled walls, but the construction is equally suitable for stone, brick, or concrete. The material chosen, of course, would depend entirely upon the locality and the taste of the owner. Were we designing it now, we would probably suggest concrete, as the form of the house, with its straight walls and simple lines, is well suited to this material, and also because this method of construction is comparatively inexpensive as well as substantial and durable. If the walls were finished with rough plaster or pebbledash surface, the effect would be admirable, especially for the woods, if a little dull green pigment were brushed on irregularly, giving a general tone of green that yet is not a solid smooth color.

¶ The central courtyard as shown here is paved with stone, but this would be only in case of stone or shingle construction. For either brick or concrete it would be best to pave the court with cement colored a dull red and marked off into squares. This has much the appearance of Welsh quarry tiles and is much less expensive. Provision has been made in the center of the courtyard for a basin, in the middle of which a pile of rocks affords opportunity for a fountain or trickling cascade, while the pool furnishes an admirable place for the growth of aquatic plants. The court can either be paved clear up to the pool as shown in the picture, or the pavement may stop just outside the pillars, leaving the center of the courtyard for turf. In either case the patio is meant to be furnished for use as an outdoor living room, such as is so frequently seen in the courtyards of Spanish style California houses. If the house is built for a camp in the woods, the pillars around this courtyard would best be made of peeled logs left in the natural shape and stained back to the color of the bark. For more conventional use, heavy round pillars of concrete or of wood painted white would naturally be used. These details, however, are always ruled by the locality, the materials used for building and the taste of the builder.

¶ The arrangement of the interior is very simple, as from the entrance hall one turns toward the right into the living room, which occupies half the front of the building. Just back of the living room in the wing is the dining room and back of this again is the kitchen. Turning to the left from the hall, a small passage leads to one of the bedrooms, and the other two bedrooms and the bathroom occupy the whole length of the wing. All of these rooms open out upon a central court and all are lighted from the outside by casements set high in the wall. Fireplaces are plentiful, the chimneys being so arranged that one is allowed for each bedroom and one for the living room. This being almost opposite the dining room, or rather alcove, serves for that room as well.

Bungalow Floor Plans