When it comes to the exterior elevation and your new home having excellent curb appeal that your neighbors will envy, it is all about attention to the details.

For example, it is not just about selecting a front door; does it have glass? What shape is it? What type of glass? Can you see through it? Does the door have side lights? Is the door metal, fiberglass, wood, etc? What color will it be? What hardware will be installed? Another example is windows. Window style, wind grids, window color and window trim all play a very important role in the design style. For example, if you are building a traditional home style, double-hung windows might be the best choice.

Often, clients want to pick their own colors and materials, but we discourage that unless the client has some design experience. Poor color choices and materials will make or break the home. These last touches are what make a home come to life. At Amaris, we offer design services to assist our clients in making the best choices.

A great book to read on this is called “What Not to Build” by Sandra Edelman, Judy Gaman, and Robby Reid.

Tomorrow, we get started back on the green specifications part of the process.

Before you make your final decision on your design style, there are a few more things to consider. One major consideration is the surrounding neighborhood. If you want to build in a subdivision of modified two-story homes that are primarily earth tones and vinyl-siding you probably shouldn’t build a cutting-edge contemporary with a flat roof, smooth exterior hard panels and metal railings. It doesn’t have to be that drastic, even a simple two-story home in a neighborhood of single level homes will look out of place.

Another consideration is exterior colors. The color of your home as compared to the neighbors is important too. If you are in a neighborhood of earth-tone colors, you will need to be careful with your selection of exterior colors. Color also affects the design style. Some design styles demand deeper colors while on others a deep color would make the design look totally incorrect. If you are biased to particular colors, you should think about this now. Waiting to the house is built and you are four weeks away from moving in, is not the time to think about exterior colors.

If you are building in an eclectic neighborhood, color and style will not be as big a problem as if you build in a suburban type development where there is sameness. In those situations the color and design style cannot veer too far away.

Overall, you don’t need to build the exact same homes as your neighbors, but the home does need to fit it in the neighborhood. The last thing you want is to the one house that sticks out like a sore thumb.

There are all kinds of home styles to pick from. Examples include Contemporary, Cape Cod, Colonial (French, New England, Georgian, Etc) , Victorian, Prairie Style, Arts & Crafts, Greek Revival, Frank Lloyd Wright, Queen Anne, Tudor, Neo-Classical, Ranch, Split, Traditional, Modern, Country, Farm, Bungalow, French Country, Craftsman, and the list goes on. What is your design personality?

Often, builders steal home plans back and forth from each other adding different design elements to try and make them look like one particular design style or another. Everyone has seen these homes; they are a cross section of a contemporary design with a large sunburst window over the entry door with craftsman style corbels and a brick exterior. The home looks “OK”, but there is something lacking. You know it doesn’t look quite right, but you are unable to articulate exactly what the problem is.

The same thing can happen when a client designs the interior floor plan and then asks the designer or builder to make it look like a specific design style. To make a design style look atomically correct and eye appealing, the design needs to consider things like massing, window placement, window style, window grids, window trim, roof pitches and styles, roof overhangs, garage and garage doors, colors and materials. Because of all these considerations, it is best to settle on a design style before you start designing the interior floor plan.

A home does not have to be historically accurate to be eye appealing, but there does need to be enough design elements to tie the design together.