Tile-Stones Wow, what a gorgeous house! Love how the decor stayed true to the era.

Bud Dietrich, AIA The Playroom certainly makes a great spot for a Christmas tree. Thanks for sharing these.

nevadan Thank you for this beautiful treat. I have seen later Wright houses, but this is the original impulse. Very exciting!

gknee I can't help but imagine how even more amazing the interior would look with a light paint color. Love the rooms but sooooooo dreary.

mizmolly What a treat to look inside. I love Wright's desire to have his workspace so close to his family.

vee22 Beautiful place, and nice color combination, so warm and inviting.

astraea That just proves that classic design is timeless; no decorators to complain about a monochromatic palette, and "adding a pop of color", adding a ton of unnecessary pillows to the padded window benches, or getting rid of "all that old fashioned wood" paneling & trim!

Wendy Pritchett I have been to this home and it was breathtaking. Note: Frank had a mistress. Great work, but not so loyal to,his wife.

Katrina Mitchell This place is walking distance from my own home and I have never taken the time to visit. The tour looks really fun as people have a tour guide or self tour with headphones that include information. Will visit for sure. Very beautiful

Marina Klima Goldberg - Klima Design Group very unfussy and nice. I bet if we decorated like that nobody would be stressed out.

emilywinn_s I hate to say this, but honestly I'm not a big fan of the home's interior. It just seems so plain and drab to me. There is no color whatsoever and the rooms are almost empty. Sorry but I don't like it...

Jen Potter I was fortunate to have lived in Oak Park until this summer, and gave tours of the Home and Studio for several years. The content for this story is very well written. If you are a fan of Wright, or the Prairie Style, a tour of the Home and Studio is a must. The regular tour of the home is guided and lasts 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the interpreter giving the tour. The self guided tour referred to by Katrina is of the neighborhood and does not include access to the interior of the museum. Still worthwhile as it takes you by Unity Temple, many of Wright's designs in Oak Park, as well as some of Wright's contemporaries who helped to develop the Prairie Style. This area of IL is ground zero for Prairie. Oak Park alone has 22 structures designed by Wright, the largest concentration of his work.

aura60 Thank you , always wished to see the home and studio love the design lines

Barbara Laib I love Frank Lloyd Wright's style.

Arrington Landscape Architecture My wife and I spent three weeks in Wright's Hughes House in Jackson, MS. We were house sitting for the owners while they traveled to England. It was a once-in-a-lifetime event to experience the house through daylight and dark. Wright truly had the knack for designing personal pedestrian-scaled spaces!

Bolling Greene Design Its great to see this Wright house celebrated as an actual house. When its published, the studio/office always seems to get the exposure, or the playroom which was a later addition. I had never seen the foyer and staircase photos before. Very interesting about the marble frieze. Remember Wright was working for Sullivan when this house was conceived and his job there may have been doing some of the elaborate entablatures Sullivan favored. And what about that dentil molding passing under the ceiling coffers? The dining room originally was behind the living room in a space later called "study". The dining area pictured was a an 1895 addition. It certainly must have inspired the Willets house dining room. Likewise, the playroom reappears as the Dana house dining room.

http://hanser.ceat.okstate.edu/2003/final/Wright/william_morris_and_the_arts_and_.htm

(scroll down past Morris's house and see these two conveniently located together. I stumbled across this while looking for a photo of Willets)

All too often this house is viewed as an incubator of Wright's various design ideas, but little attention is paid to the way it was inhabited or the way it was conceived. I think I read somewhere that when Wright was divorced, the 1st wife got the house, which had to be split into apartments to be affordable, so its been pretty well used throughout its life. I think the simple little original house is my favorite though.

Stone & Land, LLC My favorite room is the Barrel Roof playroom and how you need to go through a tiny, tight, dark hallway and then it opens up to that spectacular room. I'm lucky to have seen this and many of his other masterworks. One of his experiments that didn't work was the hallway that he built around a tree limb. You can see the before picture in the foreground where it eventually failed and now there is a prop tree limb in its place. Similar ideas in this Houzz article.

soshiny I was born and grew up in Oak Park, Il. My family came to the town in the late 1800's, and we all lived just down the block from the FLW Home and Studio. Because of living there I grew a GREAT appreciation for architecture and history. What a wonderful life and education! I saw the home from the outside on a daily basis and when I was an adult finally went through the home! Just beautiful. Mr Wright was a man before his time, with the loft and open ceilings, the more open spaces feeling and working from home. He'd fit in during these times.

rmccr No warmth, no color, no good feelings

Stone & Land, LLC Wow rmccr, FLW homes have lots of color and warmth, very inspired by nature. Look at the wood and warm green and yellow paint. Not its not blasted with a technicolor accent wall or decorations, just cozy. You'd probably have a better appreciation if you visit it in person. This is also a look back in time but was so ahead of its time. Everyone is entitled to their opinion though.

rmccr Daniel, Sorry dear but as a great grand mother I love the presence and signs of children. More warm colors, more cloth and more stuffed furniture to obsorb sound. The wood leaves me cold. Forgive me but it reminds me of a doctors office. Just to be sure we are on the same "page" I am referring to the Wright home interior only. Thank you for taking the time to respond to me.

tsudhonimh To those saying "plain and drab", I've been in the house. It's "warm and glowing" and serene, but it's hard to convey that in a photograph.

Wendy Pritchett This home is warm and inviting.....to all of you that have not been in it, please don't hash it. Remember this, it was not built to instill today's decor......Thatnis what makes it so special. My walls are colored, but in that house? No way! The wood is beautiful!

casarona I am impressed with the inclusion of the family and the details of the children in his daily work life. I thought the bonus rooms of today were a thing of the 90's. I now see where the inspiration came from and what a great idea that has transgressed through time. The natural wood colors are also timeless and warm. I imagine they would have been covered partially by rugs due to the climate.

peachy44 Would love to visit this place someday. Quirky yet inspirational, especially the strange tree in hallway!

cappy1114 One of my favorite architects. I love these pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Lauren Elyse In other photos I'd seen of this house, I wasn't a fan. But this article, I absolutely love the home-y, lived in feel

Carolyn Zone9alady For those of you that complained the Wilderstein home was overdone...well this one's for you. I just adore FLW but this home needs more Christmas cheer!

pamweston Remember that Wright left his wife and children to live with a client's wife who lived down the street from his home and studio. He may have been a great Architect but the comment that he put his studio in his home to be near his family is hardly true.

Fine Art & Portraits by Laurel How can anyone say it's warm and inviting with straight-backed benches and chairs? These interiors sneer 'You won't get comfortable here, and you won't be staying long."
He's an icon, but that doesn't mean his homes are actually livable; they're theoretical.
Yes, I'm stepping on the hooves of an architectural sacred ox.

Bolling Greene Design don't worry Laurel. you are not the first. Just remember, you are not looking at an actual house here to be lived in by a contemporary family. It's a museum reflecting the home/office of a very particular individual circa 1909. Notions of "comfort" or being "comfortable" were very different back then. Enjoy it for what it is, not for what you wish it to be.

baha All I can say is wow--imagine being able to grow up in that house!

jrizzuto I was fortunate to have toured Frank Lloyd Wrights house and studio, along with many other homes and buildings of Wrights in Oak Park.
Being a long time fan of the Architectural Icon, I was overwhelmed excited and most of all, humbled. I could almost feel Wright in the room looking over drawings and contemplating the next design.
I would recommend it to anyone visiting the Chicago area.

fabia Ok, I get the fact Wright had visions, and his design was inspired. BUT, he was not a God, he was a tyranical man who did enjoy his life. He dictated to his clients, had affairs with the wives of his clients and would walk into one of his designs, while the family was home unannounced. He would scream bloody murder if any one removed one of his peices. he made his homes almost impossible to live in, due to his demands.

If he placed the bed in the middle of the room, and you moved it, he made you move it back. Then he slept with your wife!! :) in it.

I have visited Wright homes and I was always struck by how his scale was based around him. Egocentric, brilliant, ahead of his time... but a mere mortal.

I do love his designs, his thought process and love of whimsy and solid design. His use of materials and changing it up was incredible. I saw downspouts that where genious, for his time.

Everyone should visit his houses. They are inspiring.

sevenzeroseven i very much enjoyed this! thanks so much for posting.

kellystevens Fabia, I was about to post those thoughts but you beat me to it. Yes, brilliant, but also a flawed mortal man. I toured this house in Oak Park and my main feeling was he put a lot of space and luxury into his own office and studio while his poor wife and growing family were crammed into some cramped and very plain quarters. I left the tour thinking "what a jerk"!

To me Wright is a bit like Picasso - a name people know when they don't know anything else about American architects (or painters). Talented, yes, but not the only one.

jrizzuto I think too often we judge people from the past based on today’s morals and values.
Wright may not be the perfect husband in 2012 terms, but one hundred years ago he would have been ideal.
His behaviour was the norm not the exception. As for his work, he set the standard for North American residential
Design and his work is still applied today in many cases.
That is the reason that he is still Americas best known Architect (at least in residential terms)
Tour more of his homes and buildings and try to visit Falling Water. You will see his genius.

wantsideas Open concept, built-in’s and light filled entry’s in 1889 is remarkable. Love the overhead light fixture in the dining room. Thanks for sharing these pictures.

oldblackdog Nice photo spread, thank you. This is to me - quite warm and cozy when you are inside - and there is that alternation of the lower ceiling entries leading to expansive interiors, always changing. So, maybe if you were so lucky as to own a Wright design, you would probably rebel and introduce some seating that was more " comfy" but not out of place...

Mary Pat Holtschlag Lived in an area of Chicago where there were a few of his homes and a few of his student's home built. One day when I was in grade school, a friend who lived in one of these homes came running over to our house covered in plaster dust. The expansive ceiling on their first floor fell down. What a wreck. No one was hurt, but I'll never forget my friend calling her dad at work to tell him the ceiling fell. It was like living an episode of "Lucy."