Decorating Tips from Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867 – 1959) is often described as the greatest American architect of the 20th century. But he was much more than an architect. He designed furniture, stained glass windows, tiles, ceramic blocks, sculptures, and decor. Wright thought of his buildings as environments in which every element should work together to create a cohesive and harmonious whole. A peek inside Wright’s own home and office provides practical and evergreen design tips that still work today. Let’s look at a few of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs from the first home he designed, now a museum known as the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio in Oak Park, Illinois. Viewing Wright’s first house can help us see how his insights and personal practices can continue to work in the 21st century.

Wright’s First Home & Studio

A native of Richland Center, Wisconsin, Frank Lloyd Wright lived in Oak Park, Illinois from 1889 to 1909. During this time he worked under the great Chicago architect Louis Sullivan—that is, until Sullivan learned that Wright was taking other commissions on the side. After that, Wright went on to build his own practice. Wright designed or remodeled 25 buildings in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb, while he lived there. As a result, Oak Park has the largest collection of Wright-designed buildings in the world. These include Wright’s first house, which he designed for himself and his young family.

The facade of Wright’s house is covered in dark brown shingles and stands behind a low brick wall. The influence of the then-popular Arts & Crafts style is evident. | The entryway’s style is unlike the Wright style we recognize today. However, the Art Nouveau ceiling decorations in the living room were fashionable when the house was built in 1889. | Dentil molding, a classical frieze reproduction, and a copy of the Venus de Milo remind us that Wright designed this part of the house when he was in his 20s, before he developed his mature style. | All photos by Laura Grey

The development of Prairie style

Prairie style, an offshoot of Arts & Crafts style, developed in the Midwestern United States. Its horizontal orientation and open floorplans echoed the horizontal flatness and openness of Midwestern prairies. Prairie style also encouraged the connection of buildings to their environments by using plentiful unpainted wood, natural materials, and colors found in nature. Wright believed that architecture should feel organic, and that buildings should appear to be “married to the ground.”

Wright favored functional and attractive built-ins throughout his career | Wright built an inglenook—an area with built-in seating around a fireplace—off his living room. Unusually, it has openings above each seat that look into other rooms in the house. | The study off the living room features built-in and freestanding Wright-designed furniture. | All photos by Laura Grey

Wright believed those who lived in and used his buildings should follow his artistic vision. This often left little room for inhabitants’ personal style. Today most people want homes that reflect their own personalities, so Wright’s vision of completely architect-driven environments didn’t become the norm for modern home style. However, many of his guiding principles adapt well to modern living.

Wright’s horizontal, open, grounded houses

The Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio are within an easy walk of a number of other houses designed by Wright. These houses are private homes and are not open to the public. However, they make for a fascinating walking tour. Their perfectly tended exteriors show Wright’s inimitable style. They also how the Prairie School of architecture influenced Wright’s work.

The Arthur B. Heurtley House is one of Wright’s most important Oak Park works. | The Frank W. Thomas House was one of Wright’s first true Prairie School designs. | The Laura Gale House features a prominent cantilevered front that foreshadows the design of Wright’s later 1935 masterpiece, Fallingwater. | The Peter Beachy House was completely remodeled by Wright in 1906. | All photos by Laura Grey

Design Tips from the Master

Feel free to repurpose rooms

Wright and his first wife Kitty had six children. As their family grew, their home needed to grow and change as well. The kitchen was converted into a dining room, and a new kitchen was built at the rear of the home. Wright’s large office had to be repurposed as a “dormitory” for his children. The room was cut in half by a wall, with the boys sleeping on one side with the girls on the other. Do you have a large bonus room or playroom, or a big basement not being put to good use? It doesn’t cost much to build a wall to bisect the room and add a new doorway. This can give you a whole extra bedroom, a walk-in closet, or a new study.

The severe dining room features a large square oak table and eight tall wooden chairs, a brick floor, and a large brick fireplace wall. The windows and beautiful lighted grill above it provide elegant lighting and lovely views. | The largest room in the Wright house is this large and airy playroom built for his children. It features a balcony for puppet shows, and many windows for natural light. It made for an elegant party room for adults, too. | Deep window seats in the playroom provided plentiful storage, seating, and natural light. | All photos by Laura Grey

Make room for fun and relaxation

With their large family, Kitty and Frank Lloyd Wright needed space for their children to play. Wright built a large, beautiful playroom with a tall ceiling and plentiful windows. Best of all, it had a balcony from which the children could present puppet shows. They could also play music or put on plays on the main floor while an audience observed from the balcony.

The playroom could be converted in a room for grown-up parties. Surprisingly, the room had its own built-in piano. The bulk of a full-sized grand piano was hidden in the wall, with only the keyboard section visible. The majority of the piano was suspended in air over a stairwell. Wright loved playing the piano, and encouraged his children to make music, too.

Design multipurpose spaces for versatility

Happily, Wright’s lot was large enough to allow him space to build a separate building for his work. He designed an expanded office for himself, space in which to make presentations to clients, and a workspace for his assistants. But not all of us have the space or money to build additional out buildings. So take a tip from Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs: Create dual-purpose spaces. Wright’s children’s playroom could be used in multiple ways, and your rooms can be, too. Here are modern ways to make a large living area do double or triple duty:

• Use furniture that can be moved around to create separate seating areas for parties or holiday gatherings.
• Create a section of the room dedicated to children. Include toy and game storage in shelves, cubbies, lidded footstools, toy boxes, or coffee tables with built-in storage.
• Provide floor cushions or pillows for seating for little ones.
• Store cushions in a pile in the corner, under a grand piano, behind a sofa, or under a console or coffee table.

Multi-use spaces in Wright’s studio complex: The oak table in Wright’s client meeting room and workspace was flanked by four substantial armchairs of his design. Here Wright would work and show clients his designs or the Japanese prints he sold | A classic Wright stained glass window skylight hangs over the gathering area just inside his studio building. | Windows were kept above eye level to provide natural light but avoid distracting from Wright’s work. | All photos by Laura Grey

Create serenity through openness and order

Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs often show the influence of Japanese art and architecture. Wright was an avid collector and dealer of Japanese prints. For many years, he made more money by selling Japanese art than he did from designing buildings.

Wright loved the regular rectilinear wood framing and repeating squares and rectangles found in Japanese homes’ shoji screens. These separated rooms from each other and opened to create extra room at a moment’s notice. Wright loved the horizontality of Japanese design. He appreciated its use of simple natural materials. He also followed its emphasis on placing a home within a natural setting.

Wright appreciated and used much more applied decoration than European modernists like Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, who led the Bauhaus in the 1920s and 1930s. But he believed in leaving enough open space around decorative elements to set them off to best effect. He avoided crowding rooms with one decorative pattern on top of another.

Wright’s kitchen features simple, functional, floor-to-ceiling glass-front oak cabinetry and brass drawer and door pulls. | Wright’s penchant for beautiful pierced-metal or wood skylight surrounds is visible in the house and studio. | Beautiful wooden millwork—simple, never florid—surrounds elegant leaded windows in Wright’s house. | All photos by Laura Grey

Emphasize horizontality

Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs often use repeated grids of squares. These were often made of natural materials like wood, clay, or stone. He also liked creating long, low horizontal lines in his homes’ interiors and exteriors. Like other Prairie School architects, he believed they evoked the low horizontal geography of the Midwest. In his dining room, he hid radiators lining the room’s walls behind wooden cabinets. He topped these with shelves just below the room’s many windows. The shelves create a practical serving area upon which to place dishes at dinnertime. It also makes a long horizontal surface that can hold vases or small sculptures for display. It can also be left unadorned to create an open expanse.

Choose a consistent style throughout

Built-in china cabinets, sideboards, dish storage, and art and candle nooks were popular in early 20th century homes. Creating built-ins wasn’t original to Wright. However, establishing a single design aesthetic in the architecture and then echoing throughout the home in furniture and decor was unusual. The very wealthy of the time might have a room designed and decorated by the same architect who envisioned the room. However, the architect would not normally design all the room’s elements, as Wright did once established in his career.

Wright’s decorative style was quite angular and geometric as opposed to the swirling, asymmetrical Art Nouveau style popular when he built his first house. The rectilinear wooden cabinetry and built-in seating of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs echoes the Arts & Crafts style of the time, but the style used in his house and study is particular to Wright. At first he made room in his house for elements inspired by classical architectural designs. But over time, his style became so specific and different from the norm that conventional decoration no longer looked right in his houses. He ultimately created entire interior spaces right down to the floor tiles and building bricks. Only then did his homes feel entirely consistent and complete according to his own vision.

Wright’s small office in his studio complex features a series of angular, rectilinear wooden furnishings and design elements. The Navajo blanket on his desk hints at his love of Southwestern art and design. | A view of the octagonal ceiling above the drafting room where Wright’s assistants worked. | Photos by Laura Grey

Finding your own style takes time

Wright’s first house differed from his later houses in that he incorporated conventional artworks along with his own designs. It’s surprising to see a classical frieze decorating the upper walls in the entryway. Also unexpected are reproductions of the famous sculptures Aphrodite of Melos (Venus de Milo) and Nike of Samothrace (Winged Victory) in his entryway and children’s playroom. These seem out of place against the home’s solid oak tables and millwork, angular stained glass windows, and Arts & Crafts-style ceramic vases. But it’s touching to get a glimpse of Wright’s surroundings before his confidence in his own aesthetic swept away evidence of other artists’ styles.

Let spaces expand and contract

Modern architecture often emphasizes spaciousness and openness in a home’s floorplan. However, Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs often added drama by attaching rooms to each other via smaller, narrower spaces. He created a sense of openness, space, and grandeur when moving from a small connecting space to a larger one. However, he also liked making the connections between rooms clear. In his home, he has open walls and doorways that allow long views within the house.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs often have built-in seating or shelving. His Oak Park house has a long built-in cushioned bench lining the walls of the living room off the main entry hall. Banks of windows hang above the benches. These built-ins allow for plentiful seating without requiring furniture in the center of the room. This leaves the room feeling open and spacious.

Taking down walls to make larger spaces has been more common in the past decade. But after being stuck inside during pandemic quarantines, many rediscovered the value of separate, private spaces. This is where Wright’s idea of adding walls to create privacy and coziness comes in. Off Wright’s living room is an inglenook, a recessed area with a fireplace flanked by built-in seating. This nook is set off from the main living area to create a small, cozy spot. Wright added openings above the seats that allow views into the dining room and study.

A Glimpse into the Future of Design

Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs of the later 20th century are the ones we most associate with him. However, a visit to his first house lets us see how Wright grew into his aesthetic over the course of his two decades in Oak Park. The conventional 19th century style seen in the sculptural reproductions and frieze in the entryway were soon overtaken by Wright’s stronger vision and fully consistent style. Walking through Wright’s 1889 house and studio gives us a glimpse into Wright’s growth and development, and his vision for the future of American architecture and design.