Listening to Your Home’s Design Needs
Every home has a “voice.” This idea is not new to me and is a concept that I came across several years ago. This idea is that every home, your home, has an architectural style. For your home to look its best inside and out, it is wise to have an understanding of and respect for that style. This does not mean you must become an expert in all architectural designs, but having a broad grasp of the types of homes is useful and interesting!
Our little brick home was built in the mid-1960s. The exterior is simple with heavily louvered “shutters” flanking the windows on the front. If this were our permanent home we would remove these, install larger windows, and fill the space between the new windows and the brick with stone.
Understanding Your Home’s Architectural Language
Every home has a distinct architectural style (e.g., cottage, colonial, mid-century, farmhouse), or sometimes a mix of styles. Having a feel for the style your home has been designed in is valuable when considering renovating. In our neighborhood, there is a trend running where the homeowners are pasting a modern facade on these cottagey, bungalow style brick homes. The result is rather forced and garish. The warm tones of the brick have been painted stark white, the trim is a harsh black, and all the charming character, like shutters and scalloped trim, has been stripped away. There is a place for modern color palettes and architecture and they work beautifully on the buildings designed for them. The downside to these trendy “updates” is that they will be dated rather quickly, and become obvious poor design decisions.
An awareness of, and respect for, the architecture of your home is important for both the exterior and the interior. I’ve become fascinated by learning more about the design of homes inside and out. Because of this Matt gave me these two books for Christmas. I’ve already enjoyed several evenings by the fire learning the names of different styles and how they were applied to a home inside and out.
The Role of Scale and Proportion
In interiors, I’ve noticed the importance of scale in home decor. Small rooms benefit from lamps, rugs, and artwork scaled to the size of the room. Especially in small rooms, it is important not to use tiny, ditty little pieces of furniture as it can create a feeling of a busy dollhouse. Medium-sized art and lamps feel “right.” Large sofas can also work well in smaller rooms. In large rooms, however, oversized furniture and art, lamps, etc. can create an uncomfortable space that feels as if you’ve come to visit a giant’s house. One of the best ways to get the hang of what is a good size piece for your room is through trial and error as well as studying similar rooms that you are drawn to. Furniture, lighting, and art should be proportionate to the space.
Letting the House Guide Your Choices
As you learn to listen to your home for what is appropriate in architecture you will come to “hear” even more particulars such as the right trim, art, furnishings, and colors. How exterior materials and natural surroundings can inform interior color schemes. Trim sizes should be in keeping with the style of your home. A home with very high ceilings and ornate Victorian architecture will call for chunkier more ornate trim, large detailed richly colored oil paintings, and decorative vintage or antique furniture. A smaller simpler home would look best with lighter simpler trim, plainer furniture with straighter lines, etc… These are general examples, but hopefully will get you thinking in the right direction.
The architecture of our brick home is congenial to mixing with a cottagey, country style. We’ve chosen the trim colors to complement the warm tones of the brick. On the patio, we added shutters and country-style screen doors painted in a rich grassy green color with ivory trim. It was a wonderfully fun project that gave us such a great transformation!
Listen to Your Home
Let me encourage you to step back and observe your homes before making design decisions. You might just be surprised by what your house “says” and how working within the framework of the architecture will become a natural, easy way of improving your home. There is a satisfaction that comes from a home that feels cohesively designed and true to itself. Your home, every home has a voice and can “tell” you what it needs. Until next time, take care,
Warmly,
Rachel
