If it looks like it belongs in a bungalow, you’ll find it here.
Some may remember Bungalow Pros from when it was on Madison’s east side at 229 North St. Since 2010, the shop that revels in bungalows and their historic style has been in Lake Mills. Last September the store moved around the corner from its first spot there, to 109 W. Lake St.
The turn-of-the-century building with its intricate patterned tile floor and vintage oak shelving makes an atmospheric backdrop for the Arts and Crafts-style goods that owner Jill Kessenich stocks.
Kessenich, a residential designer who also helps clients remodel and create house plans, fell in love with bungalow style early on. “My grandparents owned a bungalow in Milwaukee, and I loved it when I was a kid. There were neat built-ins, a fireplace and a glassed-in porch,” she recalls. “It was just different from the mid-century house that I grew up in.”
Kessenich says she didn’t truly appreciate the layout of bungalows until she was in design school. “I love how efficient they are. And they were built with the thought that you could add on when you had the money or a larger family.” The style originated in India; the British brought them back to England, where the working class adopted them. The style came to our shores soon after.
A Craftsman-style addition and remodel designed by Kessenich for a 1915 American Foursquare.
The Arts and Crafts movement was one of the first reactions against mass-produced art and furnishings. Bungalow Pros focuses on accent pieces rather than large furniture: stained glass and jadestone accent lamps, art pottery, decorative tiles, framed prints and letterpress cards, to send or to frame.
Kessenich likes the “very sculptural” quality of the nature-inspired tiles from Medicine Bluff Studio, of Cincinnati, on which sea turtles and other animals seem to be rising out of the two-dimensional plane. The shop also carries Motawi decorative tiles.
Residential designer Jill Kessenich.
The shop sells some Ephraim pottery, made right in Lake Mills. The Ephraim Pottery Studio Gallery is located just down the street, where much more of it is available. “The real serious collectors come to town looking for Ephraim, but also see Bungalow Pros and think, ‘Oh, this looks like it might be a cool shop, too,’” says Kessenich.
More art pottery is on hand from the Pratt Clay Studio of Lake Geneva. Mary Pratt’s hand-thrown vases feature sensual insects and frogs. A more contemporary take on art pottery comes from Venice Clay, which Kessenich describes as “a cross between Arts and Crafts and mid-century, also sculptural, with really great glazes.”
So whether you’re a bungalow owner or long to be, a period fanatic or just shopping for a gift, the trip to Lake Mills — about a half-hour’s drive from Madison — should provide a dose of inspiration.
Bungalow Pros, 109 W. Lake St., Lake Mills, 920-945-0114, bungalowpros.com, 10 am-5 pm Tues.-Fri., 11 am-4 pm Sat. or by appointment
[Editor's note: as of May 2016, Bungalow Pros has a new address: 136 E. Lake St., Lake Mills.]
