Photography by Erin Little for Remodelista, except where noted.
A few weeks back I went to Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire on a frosty morning in search of smart, simple design and storage ideas for the home (and found plenty; read about that here).
The Shakers injected order and repetition into just about everything they built.
1. Find beauty in order.
In his essay on Shaker design in The New Yorker Adam Gopnik writes Everything in the Shaker world from brooms to villages is laid out in rows grids tightly packaged and...
...formatted This includes the outdoor world with neat fences pathways and stone walls and shown here a neat alley of sugar maples framing the gambrel roof Meeting House
When it came to paint, indoors and out, the Shakers worked within a muted, limited palette.
2. Adopt a muted palette.
For Shaker style curb appeal consider the following paint rules from “Shaker Village Color,” a brochure published by the City of Shaker Heights in Ohio Choose a subdued color for the walls appropriate for the style Muted neutral...
...earth tones such as buffs browns grays ochres and off whites harmonize and complement one another and in general are the best choice for exteriors Bright vivid colors call attention to themselves detracting from the overall effect
The Shakers lined nearly every room in peg rails, one of their most versatile inventions, which they used to store everything from clothes to brooms to chairs. Source a few of our favorites, including the one shown here, at Object Lessons: The Shaker Peg Rail over on Remodelista.
3. Line the garden shed with peg rails.
4. It takes a village.
The Shakers lived communally, and their villages were designed like small towns, with one shared dwelling house (where they slept) and separate buildings for the laundry, broom-making workshop, creamery, and schoolhouse, plus fields, gardens, and orchards.
Also look at surrounding houses to visualize the relationships of color in the neighborhood,” advises a pamphlet on “Shaker Village Color.”
The Shakers, many of whom lived in New England where the days are short and the winters long, masterfully splashed yellow against their otherwise-muted palettes, indoors and out, for a sunny effect.
5. Use yellow.
6. Keep a broom at the ready.
It’s wise to take housekeeping advice from the Shakers, arguably the best cleaners in American history.
7. Cut down on dirt.
For the Shakers, creating paths through the village was another way of imposing order: Paths directed community members where and how to walk, saved shoes from mud and muck, and minimized the amount of dirt tracked into buildings (and, therefore, the amount of cleaning).
When laying a garden path, take the opportunity to be artful: use it to create order in the garden, and align it with the front door for cleanliness and efficiency.
8. Save (or give) seeds.
Among many other inventions, the Shakers were the first ones to put seeds from their gardens in paper packets, which they then distributed (along with herbs and botanical medicines) to local shops and farmers.
Photograph by Mimi Giboin.
Photograph by Erin Boyle.
9. Cut flowers without stems.
The Shakers grew flowers in their gardens, too, but only for making tinctures and medicines. In order to resist the temptation to loop a flower through a buttonhole or drop one, covertly, in a vase on a bedside table, flowers were picked without stems.
The Shakers planted robust vegetable gardens for feeding their community (and relished in the task of gardening, like other chores).
10. Plant in threes.
Photograph by Jeanne Rostaing from the vegetable garden at Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky; see A Modern Shaker Garden for more.
For drying herbs for cooking and medicinal use, the Shakers designed artful wooden drying racks (cousins to their ingenious clothes-drying racks).
11. Dry herbs artfully.
The sign of a “prosperous farmer,” according to The Shaker Manifesto of 1848?
12. Stock up for winter.
13. Practice minimalism everywhere.
Excuse the morbidity, but we think one of the most striking aspects of the Shaker landscape is the cemeteries, where they (usually) did away with individual markers and stones, opting instead for a simple, minimalist lot with one central marker.
Photograph of the South Union Shaker Village in Kentucky by Rob Thurman via Flickr.
We’re not suggesting you install a graveyard, but when it comes to landscape design, remember the Shaker maxim: ’tis a gift to be simple.
The Shakers designated buildings for specific purposes.
14. Think of outbuildings as accessories.
Photograph of the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill in Kentucky by Timothy Brown via Flickr.
15. Build to last.
When it comes to building the foundations of a garden, take this lesson from the Shakers: do it once and do it right.