Do You Know Your Design Style?
You may be wondering…
“Design style? I just want to put in a new kitchen or add another room to my house. What does style have to do with it?”
Style is important. If you are renovating, it is important to know the style of your existing house, even if you don’t want to use the same style for your additions or renovations. By taking what you do like about your home, your designer can help you incorporate those into your design plans.
“What if I don’t know what style of home I like or know what style to use?”
Again, your designer can help. However, to help you determine what your style is, a quick search on the internet yields a number of sites that can help you with that.
One website that has a fun quiz you can take is Houzz.com. Houzz is also a great place to find professionals in your area to help with your renovation or building your house; you can find us listed there too.
Another source with a quiz that can help you determine your style preference is Southern Living, but where did these different styles come from, and how long have they been around?
Better Homes and Gardens (BHG) has a blog post, House Styles, that talks about ten different styles and a little of the history and influences of each style. They also have pictures that help you get a sense of what makes that style unique. (If you need help determining your decorating style, they have a link for that too.)
What are some of the home styles that are out there?
BHG lists ten styles of homes in their blog post. They include Cape Cod, country French, Colonial, Victorian, Tudor, Craftsman, cottage, Mediterranean, ranch, and contemporary.
One of the styles that have been popping up around the Lower Mainland in recent years is contemporary. With lots of glass, open floor plans and mixed-use of contrasting materials, a typical contemporary home lacks ornate features and needless details but instead focuses on the flat-faced facades that are distinct in appearance. They make use of different elements such as “materials and textures, exposed roof beams, and flat or low-pitched roofs.” according to Better Homes and Gardens.
The DIY Network website, in their blog post, 26 Popular Architectural Home Styles, has a similar list of different styles of homes, adding such styles as log homes, Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern, Neoclassical, and they go so far as to differentiate between the different styles of Colonial homes.
The DIY Network’s description of a contemporary home adds a little more to what we have already discussed by saying, “Some folks consider contemporary and modern architecture to be essentially the same. However, contemporary refers to today’s building styles, which can vary in design and appearance. Both styles are similar in that they look to connect indoors and outdoors, but contemporary homes tend to emphasize energy efficiency, sustainable materials, lots of natural light and the use of recycled non-toxic materials.”
Have you decided?
There is so much to choose from, so to keep things simple, take a drive through your neighbourhood and see what the local styles are, what you like, and what you don’t like and write them down. Cut out some pictures from magazines and put them in a folder or make a ‘dream board’. The key is to select a few ideas and sit down with your designer and get their input.
To make things even easier for you, we have some ideas right here on our website that might help you with your style choice. Have a look and let us know if we can help in any way.
