Custom Home Design - Craftsman Lake Home

I am working on a new home for a client through our  Custom Home Design  process at Simply Elegant Home Designs.  I thought I would give you a sneak peak of our initial concept sketches.  This is a 3 bedroom home to be constructed on a wooded lot overlooking a marvelous Minnesota lake.

Our design work always begins with plan sketches and 3d massing studies.  A 3d model beats exterior elevation sketches every time when trying to communicate a design.

Garage with bonus is left - entry link in the middle - main volume of house on the right.  A pretty straight forward concept designed to work with the topography of the land.

Above and below is an initial color study.  The client is looking for a home with an arts and crafts feel appropriate for  its wooded setting.  I'll typically do several color studies - so I'll pass those along as completed.

The custom home design process I have created provides a nice compromise between purchasing a pre-designed house plan and hiring a full scope of Architect's services.  This particular client had looked at thousands of plans online and could not find a design that worked.  On the other hand he did not have the budget to spend $30,000 or more on Architectural services.  Enter our custom home design process which fit the bill perfectly.

If interested in learning more about our Custom Home Design Services please feel free to contact Ron Brenner at 877-380-9470.

Best House Plans - No Groupon Required!

Here at Simply Elegant Home Designs we are convinced that we offer the absolute best house plans in the business. To prove this point we are going to start featuring a “Home Plan of the Week”. The idea is to illustrate what makes our plans so special. Better yet, we will also offer a special discount for the featured plan for that week. And you don't even have to join Groupon!

Apple Valley Four Square

The Apple Valley Four Square is our first House Plan of the Week.

What makes this house so special? Let one of our recent clients explain through their testimonial.  I have excerpted portions below.

“Yes, absolutely: feel free to share my delight in finding The Apple Valley Foursquare. It is a darling house.  We love the prairie schoolhouse vibe and the simple elegance of the exterior. As well, we appreciate the 2-sided light in each room. We are treating the entire staircase as a room - esp the landing at the top of the staircase with the large window that will overlook the center of the property: a meadow with Grandfather Oaks, the rushing winter creek winding through the far grove of fir trees. The Master Bedroom and screened porch will overlook the orchards, herb and vegetable gardens and if looking to the right, up the hill, we'll be able to see the small pinot noir vineyard.

I've had a chance to look over the .pdf doc - so fun to see how the house will be built - and the possibilities of an exercise room in perhaps a modified 1/2 basement option.  Love that!  (along with the machine room, storage and root cellar.) Also, it's funny - most of my furniture, mirrors, and key elements are from Pottery Barn, Room and Board, Restoration Hardware (neutral energy) and decor from Wisteria, home collection from Anthropologie (http://www.anthropologie.com/) and P Barn - design, textures and characteristics that will lend itself to the design of the house.

Ron, also the interior photographs of both the Deephaven Modern, and the Excelsior Farmhouse Cottage won our hearts over, too! The photographs are wonderful suggestions of lighting, color and carpentry for our own design.

The Den will be the Library - with to-the-ceiling bookcases, comfy chairs - a place to study and write.

Thanks so much,

We'll be in touch - L&K

PS - I've read A Pattern Language and other books by Alexander Christopher (The Luminous Ground) and most of Sarah Susanka's books about "the not-so-big-house" including her Home By Design.  Also, Roots of Home by Russell Versaci and Michael Pollan's A Place of My Own. Add to that list William J. Hirsch's Designing Your Perfect House (Lessons From An Architect), and House by T. Kidder. Stacks of books! I've searched through Mascord, Garrell Associates, a whole bunch of architect's websites, purchased Designer Dream Home magazines at the market, created a vision board and pasted exterior and interior images into a journal, for years. It's not like I haven't done my homework!  Finally, we found Simply Elegant Home Designs and The Apple Valley Foursquare. Eureka!  We break ground this Spring. We're going . . Home.”

Now that is what I call a testimonial!

Home Design Ideas - 3 Tier Kitchen Island

A 3 Tier Kitchen Island is a simple Home Design Idea I have used many times over the years.  Most kitchen islands tend to be one tier or two.  On a single tier island one counter provides kitchen prep and eating / serving purposes.  On a two tier island one tier is the cooking counter and the second tier is the eating / serving counter.  I like to add a third tier because it adds another dimension and offers more storage possibilities.  See below for a few examples.

Three tiers - one for kitchen prep, one for eating and serving and one for storage.  Here we used glass doors for display.   I like the way the taller tier "anchors" the other two counters.  It also helps to define the edge of the kitchen from the hallway which is to the left.

Here (in our Excelsior Farmhouse) tiers on both ends "capture" the kitchen and eating counters.  The eating counter is highlighted with a natural walnut surface.  The taller end cabinets also provide another display surface.

Another simple example (from our Midwest Living Farmhouse) with a curved serving counter.  The taller end cabinets also help to conceal kitchen clutter from the living room beyond.  This is a good design strategy within an open floor plan.  

The Value of an Architect 2 - Architects have great Tools!

A recent project I am working on at Ron Brenner Architects gives me another example of how a good designer can add value to a project. The home is in the Design Development stage, so the basic form and plan have been finalized but the details are still being adjusted. The images below illustrate how Brenner utilizes 3d visualization tools (in this case Google Sketchup) to study variations in design to communication options to the client. With better visualization the client is able to make more informed decisions.

The image above depicts the completed Schematic Design - a classic midwestern farmhouse exterior. Narrow gable forms, 1 1/2 story height, shed porches and box out bays, white clapboard siding, black shingle primary roof and galvanized metal porch roof.

This image depicts a taller plate height and a modification of the roof eave detail to provide more of a midwestern greek revival aesthetic.

Image above represents mostly a color study variation of the original farmhouse vernacular design but also makes subtle adjustments to column sizes and porch beam detail.

This last image depicts the concept of an "original" brick farmhouse being added on to with subsequent white clapboard additions.

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

The Value of an Architect

While at my regular job - Ron Brenner Architects - I received a phone call a few days ago. It was from someone who had been designing their own cabin. Subsequently the design was given to a builder who's draftsman tried to complete the design and drawings. Well it turns out that he did not like the design. He was still enamored with the floor plans, but not the exterior appearance. The image below is of the original design.

I was asked to see if I could take a shot at improving the appearance of the home without significantly altering the floor plans. He also wanted to maintain the basic chalet style roof line that he had started with. I agreed to work on an hourly rate basis to provide the services. I modeled the plan quickly in Sketchup and did several minor alternatives. In the end we landed on the final solution as shown below.

Hopefully this is illustrative of a little bit of value an Architect can bring to a project. They can turn an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan. Good design is not easy. It takes training, creativity and experience. There are many aspects of design that need to be considered including:

• form
• scale
• proportion
• rhythm
• pattern
• texture
• shade and shadow
• color
• spatial qualities
• quality of light
• function
• circulation patterns
• furniture placement
• construction related issues
• cost / budget

A good experienced Architect will be considering all of the above while creating beautiful design solutions for you. So next time you decide to build a new home, or remodel an existing one; you really ought to consider hiring a design professional. Your project will be better off for it.

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

http://ronbrennerarchitects.com

Home Design Ideas - Cozy Fireplace

Here is a another post from our Home Design Ideas category.  Create a Cozy Fireplace with an Inglenook layout.

Below is an interior remodeling of a home I did a couple of years ago.  The house was a classic 1950's Ranch - enclosed spaces, dark, uninviting.  As part of the remodeling we opened things up, brought in more natural light, and added a few more traditional details to the living room and other spaces.

The Living Room was the one large space in the house.  It was actually uncomfortably long which made planning an intimate furniture arrangement difficult.   So on with the Inglenook idea.  Think of an inglenook as a cozy kind of alcove space; which is exactly what we created.  See the pictures below.

The Inglenook was created by adding the new formal opening with columns just a few feet in front of the fireplace.  This served to shorten the room while still maintaining an open view to the fireplace.  In fact it even strengthened the fireplace as the focal point in the room.  

On either side of the fireplace we crafted a bench with recessed bookshelves above.  Detailing of the fireplace surround, paneling and columns is a spare level of traditional.  Color tones are subtle allowing the natural wood floor and brick fireplace to stand out.

All in all we were successful in creating the type of space our client was looking for - Simple, Unique and Elegant.

Copyright 2011 Simply Elegant Home Designs

Home Design Ideas - Squatty Front Door!

Here is a Home Design Idea for you - Buy a Squatty Front Door!

I had someone call me yesterday looking for some advice (not one of my own clients).  She told me that her house is in construction, and she is very concerned about her front door.  "The framed opening for the front door looks out of proportion - it looks squatty".  The door was to be about 40" wide x 6'-8" high, but she is now uncomfortable with her decision.  I could actually feel her agonizing over it.

I told her that the proportion of the door may in fact look squatty now, but might not once the door is actually in place.  That's because the door has paneling, details and textures within it that begin to visually alter it's own proportions.  You also need to look at the door in context with it's surroundings because it needs to be in balance with the overall composition.  I have a feeling she is just staring at the door opening only, which is a common issue amongst homeowners during construction.  This is where a good design professional could help her gain confidence in her decisions.

Here is a Cape Cod style house plan I designed with a "squatty" front door.  3'-6" wide x 6'-8" tall.  Looking at the door in context with the surrounding composition, it feels about right.

The vertical paneling treatment, vertical wood grain pattern and the dentil detailing below the glass all conspire to break down the visual width of the door.  The result is a "squatty" door that does not feel so.

So the moral of this particular story is twofold:

1. Always consider design issues in their full context.
2. Hire a design professional.  He / she can save you much agony.

PS - The Cape Cod House Plan illustrated here is available for purchase at  Lakeland Cape Cod