Identify Architectural Details

This California cottage is a conglomerate of two different historic architectural styles.

When you ask someone about the architecture of a historic cottage,

there’s usually one answer. For this home in Tustin, California, however, the answer is two-fold.

“The house was built in 1889,” says architect Carol Tink-Fox of Stratos Form. “The main house is Victorian Italian, but the front porch was added in the 1920s, and they used Craftsman style for that.” Carol and her team made the home livable for the 21st century while maintaining its doubly-historic curb appeal.

Located in the historic district of Tustin, there were limited changes Carol could make to the home’s footprint and exterior. The original 1889 structure was only 600 square feet, and the addition from the 1920s had added on an additional 500 square feet, but the whole home is still tiny at 1,100 square feet.

So they came up with a solution. “We built a carriage house behind the main house,” Carol says. This was more acceptable to the city, with the priority of keeping the historic nature of the home. “Changing things is hard, which is why they were open to doing a detached structure,” Carol says. “Tustin has an Old Town district, and they do have standards you have to adhere to.”

For the exterior, Carol was able to paint the home, update the siding so it all matched (some of the siding was different than the front of the house) and change out the front door. “We wanted to change out the front door because it wasn’t historic before,” she says. “It looks more Italianate. Craftsman style would have had smaller windows.”

Between the paint, front door and charming landscaping, this cottage continues to show off double the history and remain true to its origins.