Meet the Contemporary Classic: The Design Inspiration Behind Our Family’s New Build
I’ve mentioned our family’s new build project here and there for several months now. It’s been in the works, but I’m finally writing all about it here on the blog. I’ll be sharing the whole design and build process as the project progresses over the next year.
This post will be all about the design inspiration behind the look and style of the house as a whole, the exterior, and why I’m calling it the Contemporary Classic. But first, here’s the backstory on why we’re even building in the first place.
Credit: Lori Caldwell Designs
Why We’re Building a New Home
My husband and I were living just outside San Francisco when we had our daughter a few years ago. My parents lived in the South Bay, aka Silicon Valley. Though it was only about a 45 minute drive, it was just far enough to be too inconvenient for “dropping by” and certainly not good in emergency situations. So a couple years ago we started talking about moving to the South Bay to be closer to my parents for the benefit of everyone. It also dramatically shortened my husband’s commute time, and in the Bay Area that is a big deal.
Our family has had a piece of land in the South Bay for many years and previously were going to build homes and sell them. My parents were general contractors who have since retired after my dad was diagnosed with cancer. He has since recovered, but we’re certain retiring from the high-stress, faced-paced construction industry was everything. So the land was left empty, and more recently, we started talking about the possibilities.
We finally decided to build and move to the South Bay about a year and a half ago.
Credit: LaRue Architects
Our Home’s Exterior Design Inspiration
For the last year we have been working with an architect on the design of our house. It’s been an interesting experience being both the interior designer and the client! I’ll share more about that in a future post. For now I’ll share some of the inspiration behind the house’s exterior style that we settled on.
As probably anyone else building a new home or undertaking a major renovation to their house would do, we took to Houzz and Pinterest to look for photos of houses we liked. We also just simply drove around. Yes, we were the creepers driving slowly by homes in the neighborhood. My husband tended to lean more towards the contemporary homes. While I love contemporary homes, I also love many of the elements more traditional homes have.
After combing through hundreds of photos these houses (above and below) were some of the exteriors that stood out most to both my husband and me.
Credit: dig Architecture
Credit: Thompson Custom Homes
The Contemporary Classic
Do you see the common threads in our inspiration images? Some of the elements I really love are the mixing of different exterior materials like stone, wood, and metal and the overall light color palette with a high contrast dark accent color such as a dark trim or black windows. Overall lines are straight, in some cases boxy, and the windows are large, but simple without a lot of fuss. I imagine lots of natural light floods the interiors of these homes.
Credit: Ellen Grasso & Sons
Credit: Galle Construction
The key difference between these images and many other contemporary homes I see are that these homes still feel warm and inviting. They have the balance just right. They are current and on trend, but I don’t see them as trendy nor going out of style in a decade or even three.
This is what traditional and classic styles do best. And this is my goal — to create a house that is both current and timeless at once. Our house will be contemporary leaning architecturally, but I plan to bring in traditional elements in a current way to create a beautiful balance. And that is why I am calling our home The Contemporary Classic. Let’s see if I can achieve this!
Design Tip
When designing the exterior and the architecture of your new home, of course, dream big. This is your opportunity to make the style of home you love come to life.
Here’s what to keep in mind:
Study the homes and architecture in your neighborhood and surrounding areas.
Understand from your City what style of homes and architectural features are more acceptable than others. This will come into play when submitting your plans to your City for approval. All cities have guidelines for the styles of homes they prefer and don’t prefer to be built within their boundaries. It helps to know this so you don’t end up having to significantly change your plans which is time-consuming and can be costly from a design fee standpoint.
Work with an architect that is familiar with your city’s requirements and they can help guide you during the design process. Read the 5 things to know about building a home here. And here’s a guide to hiring for a new build.
Lastly, here is a shot of our little piece of land. Our property is just over 7500 square feet and our house will be about 3000 square feet. This is the San Francisco Bay Area, so property values are high and size of land is relatively small, but this is going to be a really comfortably sized 2-story family home with a nice sized yard. I’ll share more details about the floor plan in a future post. That large tree in front is a crepe myrtle that we hope to save during construction.
I’m sharing more about the design and build process, the floor plan, and what I have planned for the interiors in the upcoming months.
Talk soon!
Rosanna
