If you grew up in postwar America, chances are you lived in or next to a ranch-style house. And the things we loved about ranches when we liked Ike are still attractive—perhaps more so—today: the liberation that comes with open-plan living, the casual feel of easy kitchen access, the comfort of having bedrooms and children near at hand, the convenience of one-level living, and the everyday luxury of smooth indoor-outdoor flow. So it’s no surprise that the ranch is in style again—and this book showcases the best of it. Whether that style is the mid-century modern of Corbusier and the Eameses, or the cross-cultural awareness of the sixties, or the Pop Art and plastic of the seventies, Ranch House Style offers inspiration and instruction on re-creating these looks in your own home. But this book isn’t just for style mavens with professional decorators. Because if there’s any one completely American, democratic architectural style, it’s the ranch house. Ranches, in all their glory (and sometimes utter lack of it), are everywhere, usually affordable, just waiting for the right shag carpet to restore their hipness, the right flea-market find to liven up that patio. And Ranch House Style shows how—with examples of the ranch’s flexibility for any decorating style, from Victorian and French Country to thoroughly contemporary, from primary homes in the suburbs to vacation getaways on the shore, from vintage gems to newly built originals. It also shows how to solve the special challenges that come with one-story living in a decades-old house, including how to expand into today’s more spacious footprints, how to renovate for modern amenities, and how best to use the ranch’s typically large plot of land. Remarkably, there hasn’t been a book on ranches available in decades. Despite the millions that exist across the entire country, the ranch has been ignored by the high-design community. To address that insult to ranch lovers, Ranch House Style also includes thoroughly researched, authoritative material on the style’s history, sociological context, architects, designers, and furniture. This is a serious work that stands alone in its field, in addition to being a beautiful, inspirational, and practical decorating book. So come visit the ranch—both the remarkably familiar and the strikingly original, from modest to luxurious, in styles from charming to mod—available in neighborhoods everywhere, here showing in all its coolness. up in postwar America, chances are you lived in or next to a ranch-style house. And the things we loved about ranches when we liked Ike are still attractive perhaps more so today: the liberation that comes with open-plan living, the casual feel of easy kitchen access, the comfort of having bedrooms and children near at hand, the convenience of one-level living, and the everyday luxury of smooth indoor-outdoor flow. So it s no surprise that the ranch is in style again and this book showcases the best of it. Whether that style is the mid-century modern of Corbusier and the Eameses, or the cross-cultural awareness of the sixties, or the Pop Art and plastic of the seventies, Ranch House Style offers inspiration and instruction on re-creating these looks in your own home. But this book isn t just for style mavens with professional decorators. Because if there s any one completely American, democratic architectural style, it s the ranch house. Ranches, KATHERINE ANN SAMON’s features have appeared in the New York Times, Vogue, GQ, Marie Claire, and Travel & Leisure, among many other publications, and her design writing in such magazines as American Homestyle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Glamor. She is also the author of Dates from Hell and More Dates from Hell, but she put those sorts of things behind her when she got married and moved to the suburbs of Westchester County, New York, where she lives in (no surprise) a well-appointed ranch house. adding on a cook's paradise It's a perfect match. First, the quiet, untouched farm and wine country of the North Fork of Long Island, New York, where tractors are more common than Range Rovers and where the signs for roadside flower and vegetable stands are often painted by hand. And second, the owners of Frog Hollow Hall, two men whose idea of a brilliant weekend afternoon is not about shopping-to-be-seen or celebrity spotting, but about poking through farm stands for the freshest locally grown produce and plumpest homemade breads, then heading home to create a satisfying meal. Their 1979 house was a simple and small 850-square-foot ranch. Charles Morris Mount and Harold Gordon chose it because its three quarters of an acre, surrounded by untouched fields, leads down a slope to a large pond. "Because we loved the pond so much, we decided to call the whole place Frog Hollow Hall," says Gordon. Mount, a New York interior designer with many restaurant clients, loves to cook. And both men prefer to socialize with friends and clients by hosting dinner parties rather