Medium Sized House Exterior Ideas and Designs
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TFQ ArchitectsThe Goat Shed - Devon.
The house was finished with a grey composite cladding with authentic local stone to ensure the building nestled into the environment well, with a country/rustic appearance with close references to its original site use of an agricultural building.
Sophie Nguyen ArchitectsNew project for the extension and refurbishment of a victorian house located in the heart of Hammersmith’s beautiful Brackenbury Village area.
Design Studies in Progress!
HEYDT DESIGNSPhotography by Golden Gate Creative
Photo of a medium sized and white country two floor detached house in San Francisco with wood cladding, a pitched roof, a shingle roof, a grey roof and shiplap cladding.
Photo of a medium sized and white country two floor detached house in San Francisco with wood cladding, a pitched roof, a shingle roof, a grey roof and shiplap cladding.
Croft ArchitectureIn brief
Location, location, location
When looking for your perfect home where you can put down your grass roots and start a family there are many ‘must haves’ that we all have on our wish lists. The obvious contenders are price and location with many other niceties, like the number of bedrooms, layout and decor taking a back seat. As we all know, location can sell a home to those who strive to be in the right area, for transport links, local amenities and the all-important school catchment areas.
Like many other families throughout the UK our clients chose their house for its excellent location. Just ten minutes from the centre of Stafford by car, our client’s house is in a popular and sought-after suburb of the town for couples and families alike. They have always loved the location of their house for its easy access to work, schools, leisure facilities and social connections, but they were becoming increasingly frustrated with the layout of the ground floor of their home.
It’s inevitable that families will evolve and our needs from our properties will change too. Since the young family of four moved to their large four-bedroom detached house a few years ago, their property has been unable to meet their lifestyle needs and living patterns.
Although their property has adequate bedroom space for them and their two children, the layout of the downstairs living area was not functional and it obstructed their everyday life, making entertaining and family gatherings difficult.
Our First Meeting
Upon our initial consultation with our clients it was clear from the outset why they sought to make changes to the layout of their house. The property had been extended to create extra space by the previous owners, but unfortunately the design and build hadn’t been executed well at all. The rooms and layout were awkward in size and shape and it didn’t allow the family to come together and enjoy their home. They had the floor space, but it was sectioned off into separate rooms, some without a purpose.
The garden surrounds the house on all three sides and is of a good size in its entirety with different areas on each aspect. We could clearly see that the house itself didn’t address any particular aspect of the garden in any way.
Moving to a new house wasn’t an option, the family were happy with the location and size of the property. What they wanted was a modern, functional, stylish space for everyday family life, with the flexibility to accommodate their large extended family when needed and to ultimately add value to their property.
We were appointed by our clients to create a design solution to redesign the ground floor living area with a modern, light filled, open plan space that connects with the garden. It was clear from outset that our design intention was to break down the room barriers and to respond to the needs of the family, supporting their lifestyle now and for the future, bringing them together and creating a house they could call a home.
Delivering a project on time and within our client’s budget are always a top priority for our team. The family decided to stay in their house during construction, therefore it was even more essential to minimise the level of disruption to their daily lifestyle with a young family living on site.
The family needed help from our team at Croft Architecture to swiftly and successfully acquire Building Control Approval for their project to progress rapidly, ensuring project completion on time and to their determined budget.
Our Approach
Surveying the site
The client’s home is located on the entrance to a quiet cul-de-sac on a mature, leafy, suburban housing estate. Their home nestles into its well-established site, with ample space between the neighbouring properties and has considerable garden space to the rear and both sides.
During our initial visit we spent a long time with the family observing the existing layout, talking about how they currently live in the property, their annoyances with the house in its current form, how they would like to be able to live in their family home and how they aspired it to feel, look and live.
We walked through the house and it was clear that the existing layout didn’t work downstairs. The house had been extended onto before they had bought the property and the space hadn’t been well thought through in terms of how it would be used effectively.
The rooms directly to the left off the hallway, didn’t really have a proper function. The previously extended space had resulted in the house with too many rooms and subsequently this had led to a series of impractical spaces.
The long and narrow extension was home to a small U-shaped kitchen at the front of the house, which led onto the dining area and then onto a small room at the back of the extension. For the size of the house the kitchen and dining room in a much smaller and narrower area, leaving larger living areas to the rear of property with copious amounts of dead space. The small kitchen was tucked away at the front of the property which made life difficult for our clients to observe their children playing safely in the garden whilst preparing food and carrying out work in the kitchen. On the opposite side of the property there was another old extension which had a step down into it. This living area had a tiled floor and large glazed windows on all sides which made it feel almost like a conservatory.This area was rarely used by the family as it had no real function, plus it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It had become an under utilised space.
We walked around the property and it was clear that the house itself didn’t address their private garden space to any particular aspect in any way, meaning that the garden space was under used because of the poor connections.
The family wanted a combined kitchen, dining, lounge space for daily life and also for entertaining their family.
Design Approach
The size of the property presented the opportunity to substantially reconfigure the family home to create a series of dynamic living spaces oriented towards the large, south-facing garden.
Our team suggested removing the little kitchen from the front of the property and re positioning it within the unused glazed space at the back of the house.
The glazed room had internal French doors with a step down into the space separating it from the lounge. We proposed to remove the French doors, level the floor and make it into one room with the existing lounge.
To connect the new open plan kitchen and living space to the rear and side garden sliding and folding doors were the solution, extending the family’s usable living space by creating a seamless indoor-outdoor flow. There was already a patio area there and it made sense for the kitchen to move to the rear of the house to be close to the patio for easy outside dining.
It was therefore logical to retain the existing living space in it's current location next to the new kitchen, maintaining the natural flow of the house for the family after eating and entertaining in the kitchen.
When making decisions regarding the kitchen design, we worked closely with the family. They thoroughly enjoy spending time cooking and entertaining with their large extended family. To assist with their culinary preparations our clients had aspired to have an induction hob within their new kitchen. As they were working through the design with us, they weren’t sure about an induction hob because of different cooking methods required for certain meals that they like to produce. They particularly like making chapatis which require a round pan and a gas hob. We didn’t see this as a problem and suggested having a single gas burner for purely this purpose whilst still installing an induction hob. They decided to go ahead with our idea, choosing a single gas burner and an induction hob, and it looks great!
The existing lounge space had a corner aspect at the rear property that protruded into the garden. Positioned next to the kitchen and dining space it seemed logical to us for the living area to also open out onto the patio, thus connecting the garden to the house on a wider aspect. To enhance the connection between the garden and the living room we thought that a corner door would work extremely well to really open up this space. The clients really liked the design concept to create a feature of the corner with glazed sliding doors that would completely open the house up to the garden. They were excited about the prospect of the allowing huge amounts of natural light into their home and the flexible access it would provide to the garden.
Once the new kitchen, dining and living space had been concluded, we then had to consider what the previous kitchen and dining area was going to be used for within the small, long side extension. We talked with our clients about a few possible uses. We noticed that the family have a piano and few other musical instruments. It made sense for this space to become a quiet part of the house for them to escape to, play music, read and generally relax in a snug area.
To shorten the length of the new music room and make an additional feature in the newly created open plan kitchen, dining and living area, we reclaimed some of the space from the back of the side extension and opened it up to the main open-plan space, thus creating another new snug. We added an additional design feature within the snug by creating a timber window seat. Not only does it provide extra seating, but it’s also created a snug within a snug, a haven for reading, napping and gazing out into the garden.
As part of their brief our clients also wanted a to incorporate a log burner into their newly remodelled home. To connect the new music room and snug to the living space we proposed to position a two-way log burner where the existing gas fire was located. By retaining a fire in the original location it would minimise the disruption and work required to install the wood burner. However, the theory didn’t turn into reality and the new fire resulted in being quite a task to get it to work. When the contractor began to strip back the existing fireplace, they discovered that fitting the pipe within the building was going to be more challenging than they anticipated because of the poorly constructed extension. It was difficult to execute but it was ultimately achieved.
What lies beneath?
It’s not until you uncover the fabric of the building that you fully understand what’s going on underneath. When the contractor exposed the structure of the house, we found out that the property had been poorly constructed, and they uncovered a lot of poor workmanship from the original builders. As the build progressed the inner skin of the extended structure was exposed, we found that it wasn’t actually strong enough and we needed to make it safe in order to proceed. Going forwards we ensured that the structure was safe, and all issues were identified and immediately rectified.
The previous extensions to the house also presented further challenges as the build progressed. We found that the floors between rooms were not level. We wanted to create the appearance of one space rather than lots of chopped up areas. To do so we needed to alter the floor and ceilings to ensure that they were flush right through the new open plan living space. Also, after removing the internal French doors, the down-stand beam where the doors had previously been were subsequently left prominent down from the ceiling. The design required careful planning and attention to detail to achieve the best looking finished results for the client.
For us, in principle our clients’ scheme at the outset was quite a simple project but when the strip out commenced there was actually a more going on underneath that needed attention before the project could start to take shape. A lot of things needed to be considered to make it work structurally and properly for the family.
When the carpet was initially lifted, we found a parquet floor underneath. The family and our team were extremely excited at the prospect of having a traditional parquet floor that could be sanded down and made good. However, when ‘all’ of the carpet was removed only half of the living room had been covered in parquet flooring and the other half was actually a solid concrete floor. Unfortunately, we couldn’t proceed with the flooring and our clients chose another floor finish.
Making connections
Our team at Croft Architecture have created a new, sleek, spacious family ‘hub’ that’s light with clean lines. The open plan space unites the family of four whilst providing the ability to gather the wider family and seamlessly connecting their home with the garden through the new full length sliding doors. Although they now have plenty of space to gather with the family, they also have areas of seclusion to spread out and escape to when needed.
A strong working relationship between our team, the client and Building Control enabled us to gain the necessary permissions promptly. We enjoyed working with the project team and we’re extremely pleased to successfully deliver the completed project. Although it wasn't in accordance with our client’s timescales with the discovery of hidden structural challenges, we spent the time carefully resolving the issues to unsure that our clients home was not only safe, but also looks great and functions perfectly.
Clifton SMRGraham Gaunt
Design ideas for a medium sized and white contemporary two floor render and rear house exterior in London.
Design ideas for a medium sized and white contemporary two floor render and rear house exterior in London.
Francesco Pierazzi Architects
This detached Victorian house was extended to accommodate the needs of a young family with three small children.
The programme was organized into two distinctive structures: the larger and higher volume is placed at the back of the house to face the garden and make the best use of the south orientation and to accommodate a large Family Room open to the new Kitchen. A longer and thinner volume, only 1.15m wide, stands to the western side of the house and accommodates a Toilet, a Utility and a dining booth facing the Family Room. All the functions that are housed in the secondary volume have direct access either from the original house or the rear extension, thus generating a hierarchy of served and servant volumes, a relationship that is homogeneous to that between the house and the extension.
The timber structures, while distinctive in their proportions, are connected by a shallow volume that doubles as a bench to create an architectural continuum and to emphasize the effect of a secondary volume wrapped around a primary one.
While the extension makes use of a modern idiom, so that it is clearly distinguished from the original house and so that the history of its development becomes immediately apparent, the size of the red cedar cladding boards, left untreated to allow a natural silvering process, matches that of the Victorian brickwork to bind house and extension together.
As the budget did not make possible the use a bespoke profile, an off-the-shelf board was selected and further grooved at mid point to recreate the brick pattern of the façade.
A tall and slender pivoting door, positioned at the boundary between the original house and the new intervention, allows a direct view of the garden from the front of the house and facilitates an innovative relationship with the outside.
Photo: Gianluca Maver
Cottage Home CompanyThis is an example of a medium sized and blue traditional two floor detached house in Jacksonville with vinyl cladding.
DeForest ArchitectsJohn Granen
Medium sized modern bungalow detached house with wood cladding and a flat roof.
Medium sized modern bungalow detached house with wood cladding and a flat roof.
Shaddock Custom Builders and DevelopersInspiration for a medium sized and white classic two floor render detached house in Dallas with a pitched roof and a mixed material roof.
Mahoney Architects & InteriorsAn inviting entry
Design ideas for a white and medium sized traditional two floor house exterior in San Francisco with wood cladding and a pitched roof.
Design ideas for a white and medium sized traditional two floor house exterior in San Francisco with wood cladding and a pitched roof.
PURE Design Inc.When Ami McKay was asked by the owners of Park Place to design their new home, she found inspiration in both her own travels and the beautiful West Coast of Canada which she calls home. This circa-1912 Vancouver character home was torn down and rebuilt, and our fresh design plan allowed the owners dreams to come to life.
A closer look at Park Place reveals an artful fusion of diverse influences and inspirations, beautifully brought together in one home. Within the kitchen alone, notable elements include the French-bistro backsplash, the arched vent hood (including hidden, seamlessly integrated shelves on each side), an apron-front kitchen sink (a nod to English Country kitchens), and a saturated color palette—all balanced by white oak millwork. Floor to ceiling cabinetry ensures that it’s also easy to keep this beautiful space clutter-free, with room for everything: chargers, stationery and keys. These influences carry on throughout the home, translating into thoughtful touches: gentle arches, welcoming dark green millwork, patterned tile, and an elevated vintage clawfoot bathtub in the cozy primary bathroom.
HAUS | Architecture For Modern LifestylesNortheast Elevation reveals private deck, dog run, and entry porch overlooking Pier Cove Valley to the north - Bridge House - Fenneville, Michigan - Lake Michigan, Saugutuck, Michigan, Douglas Michigan - HAUS | Architecture For Modern Lifestyles
Willow HomesTommy Daspit
Medium sized and white classic two floor brick house exterior in Birmingham.
Medium sized and white classic two floor brick house exterior in Birmingham.
J Taylor DesignsPhoto of a white and medium sized country two floor house exterior in Nashville with wood cladding, a pitched roof and a white roof.
Whitney ArchitectureAaron Leitz
This is an example of a medium sized and gey classic split-level house exterior in Seattle with concrete fibreboard cladding.
This is an example of a medium sized and gey classic split-level house exterior in Seattle with concrete fibreboard cladding.
Luther Paul Weber AIA, ArchitectA new Tudor bay added to the front of an existing red brick home using new stone to integrate the base with the existing stone base. Fir windows and cedar trim are stained complementary colors. The darker window color draws out the dark "clinker" bricks. The roof is Certainteed Grand Manor asphalt shingles designed to appear as slate. The gutters and downspouts are copper.
The paint of the stucco is Benjamin Moore Exterior low luster in color: “Briarwood”.
Hoachlander Davis Photography
Jackson & LeRoyPhoto of a medium sized and white classic bungalow brick detached house in Salt Lake City with a hip roof and a shingle roof.
Aspect Design BuildWith a main floor master, and flowing but intimate spaces, it will function for both daily living and extended family events. Special attention was given to the siting, making sure the breath-taking views of Lake Independence are present from every room.
Patrick Ahearn ArchitectGreg Premru
Photo of a medium sized and white country two floor detached house in Boston with wood cladding, a pitched roof and a shingle roof.
Photo of a medium sized and white country two floor detached house in Boston with wood cladding, a pitched roof and a shingle roof.
Rosalind Brinn Pope Interior DesignCottage Style Lake house
This is an example of a medium sized and blue beach style bungalow detached house in Indianapolis with wood cladding, a pitched roof and a shingle roof.
This is an example of a medium sized and blue beach style bungalow detached house in Indianapolis with wood cladding, a pitched roof and a shingle roof.
Medium Sized House Exterior Ideas and Designs
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