A breath of fresh air was blown into the stuffy, overdone interiors of Victorian houses when the Arts & Crafts movement swept through Europe and the United States in the 1880s. Gustav Stickley, who published The Craftsman magazine and sold house designs, was one of the strongest proponents of this philosophy of simplicity. In Stickley's own words, Craftsman Home plans were designed "to substitute the luxury of taste for the luxury of costliness; to teach that beauty does not imply elaboration or ornament; to employ only those forms and materials which make for simplicity, individuality and...