“The Elements of Style”, by Stephen Calloway and others

Calloway, Stephen, Elizabeth C. Cromley, and Alan Powers. The Elements of Style: an Encyclopedia of Domestic Architectural Detail. Buffalo, NY: Firefly, 2005. Print.

An amazing, and huge, book.  Not to be confused with Strunk and White’s Elements of Style when writing, these elements were used in building and architecture.

The various chapters take on different periods, from “Tudor and Jacobean (1485-1625)” to “Contemporary Era (1975 – Present Day).  It is primarily an English book, but some chapters are specifically on American styles, such as “Colonial”, “American Victorian”, separate from “British Victorian”.  It really is elements that are portrayed; windows, doors, walls, ceilings, fireplaces, etc.  Each element has a coloured tab on the side of the page that allows you to flip through and look at a single element, like fireplaces, through time and see the stylistic changes.

Each chapter is written by a different expert in the time period, so there is a bit of unevenness in how things are done.  That tradeoff is probably worth it to have someone immersed in the era.  For my personal projects, I was looking at the “Edwardian” chapter (1901-1914).  It wasn’t clear to me whether I could transfer the British Edwardian style to Canada, but it gives me a solid starting point, and I can cross-reference the pictures in this book with other resources.  This will definitely go on my list of “best books for houses” when I finally get around to assembling one.