#customhomedesign Archives - David Small Designs

Traditional Design

July 14, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

Traditional Design. Its familiar, elegant, and timeless. We typically use “traditional” to describe any style of architecture that lacks modern details. From Georgian to French Chateau to English Country, traditional design is about detail and symmetry. Here are some of our favourite traditional homes and interpretations of this architectural style.

Balancing an elegant appeal with a warm and welcoming presence is Old Oakville. The cottage-like exterior blends rustic stone with refined details. The second storey is enveloped by the cedar shingled roof, giving the home a cozy and intimate feel. The copper eaves and downspouts add character and maturity. The double column entry creates formality and the double chimney design adds strength.

The prominent characteristic of Georgian architecture is symmetry. The proportion, balance, and simplicity of the symmetrical massing make it a timeless architectural style. This Toronto home is a true Georgian Classic. The use of copper detailing, double hung windows, and the traditional use of red brick further emphasize the purity of this style.

We designed the Ravine Estate House over 15 years ago, and today, it still acts as a source of inspiration for many of our clients. Constructed on a wooded ravine lot, this sprawling bungalow produces spectacular views to the valley below. The rustic stone and warm, earthy colour palette enhance the home’s continuity with the natural environment. The wide lot allows the house to be extended laterally, producing its understated grandeur, while the resulting shallow depth offers maximum natural light to all interior spaces. Together, all elements work together to create a truly timeless design.

Our project, The Curved Lot, is a great example of a traditional home forming a harmonious relationship with its property. The location of the property is unique, tucked into the intersection of a busy major road and a winding side street. As a result, the positioning of the home was equally unique, with a direct focus on the best attribute of the property: a curved side yard lined with beautifully matured trees. Great care was taken to ensure the home didn’t feel like it was dominating the land with its sheer size. Large gables and a steeply pitched roof help conceal the second floor, giving the home an overall grounded, yet formal appearance.

French Chateau, a style known for its grandeur. Over the past several years, we’ve seen this style reinterpreted across the GTA, often with more modern detailing. We kept it classic with this design, using intricate yet subtle detail in the dormers, cast iron accents and rooflines to capture the architectural style. The combination of exterior materials – heavy masonry, brick and stucco – all in a neutral colour palette, emphasize the stately nature of the home.

To see more of our traditional homes, click here to view our portfolio.

The Architectural Toolbox

July 10, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

A well-designed home means all the pieces were put together just right. You can’t put your finger on what makes it great, because it isn’t just one thing. Its many decisions, thoughtfully made, that result in a cohesive vision. When the architectural tools of materials, colours, scale and proportion are properly deployed, the result is a beautiful home, regardless of style.

Selection and application of materials are a crucial part of accentuating and enhancing the desired architectural style. Materials work in tandem with other components to create interest and draw attention to detail. The juxtaposition of crisp details with textured finishes adds complexity and interest to the façade.

In this Natural Modern home, a mix of smooth, refined materials, like metal panel and glass, are contrasted with rugged stone and natural wood.

Exterior colour selection can make or break the design. Colour can be used to emphasize an architectural style, call out a detail, channel the homeowner’s personality, or evoke a certain mood. It’s not just about what colours are chosen, it’s about how they are applied. For this home, colour was used to emphasize the Arts & Crafts architectural style. The contrasting sage green serves as the key background colour, allowing the details to be accentuated in white.

A clean but dramatic colour scheme creates interest and an Arts & Crafts appeal in our project, The Window Box.

Site integration is all about connecting building with land. Elements such as views, topography and sun orientation are critical factors in the design exercise. A key part of the home design process is creating a home that is unique and custom to the land. For this Seattle design, it became apparent that the topography of the land would dictate the narrative of the home. Three storeys were required to accommodate the living space, featuring a glass office on stilts, and an above grade basement leading to a back walkout.

Our Sloped in Seattle design allowed for unique aspects of the property to be showcased.

Scale and proportion. The balance of thoughtful, functional space with aesthetic appeal. Scale is about size and its relationship with the human form, while proportion is about balance and the relationship between all the components. Both are crucial in great architecture. The best example of this is a renovation, where the design should be seamless, unclear where the existing home ends and the new addition begins. The goal of this Mississauga renovation was challenging: to add a second storey without overpowering the property and surrounding neighbourhood. The success in scale is seen with the embedded gables, a staple of the arts & crafts architectural style.

This Mineola Makeover conveys a sense of coziness and approachability using a split level second floor hidden in the tiered roofline.

To view more of our home designs, click here to view our portfolio.

Natural Modern: The Definition

July 8, 2020/in Design Showcase /by Rebecca Muise

Natural Modern. We use this term to describe a modern home that exemplifies the ideals of comfort and family living. The Natural Modern aesthetic combines the simplicity of modern design with the warmth and elegance of traditional architecture.

A key example of the Natural Modern style, David’s House is a functional, welcoming family home that espouses the very best of contemporary design.

Our Natural Modern design philosophy is rooted in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture. A key characteristic of Prairie Style is horizontality; it’s an architectural tool that ties a home to the landscape, grounding the home to the property. We use horizontal lines in the Natural Modern style to bridge a contemporary building with the natural landscape. Horizontality can be seen in all elements of the design, from the extreme roofline, to the window orientation, to the linear nature of the stone and siding.

Our Modern Landscape design takes advantage of every opportunity to reinforce horizontality.

Materials. The Natural Modern aesthetic is a mix of opposites: rustic stone juxtaposed against smooth, refined elements. These familiar materials not only create interest and complexity, but they connect a modern home with its (typically) traditional neighbours.

Aptly named Natural Modern, this home uses materials to accentuate the architectural style and draw attention to detail.

Large overhangs. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style architecture is celebrated for its integration with the natural environment. A characteristic of Prairie Style is the exaggerated eave overhangs, which reinforce the linear quality of the design. Large overhangs help to ground the home and create a sense of approachability.

The home’s overhang is further emphasized by applying the same wood siding from the façade to the extended soffit.

The floating roof. A consistent architectural element of the Natural Modern style is that stone or wood siding never connects with the roofline. By only having window or dark metal panel touch the soffit, it creates the illusion that the roof “floats” above the home.

The Glass Room articulates the floating roof perfectly, with glass separating the roof from the walls.

To see more of our Natural Modern designs, click here to view our portfolio.

Posts

Traditional Design

The Architectural Toolbox

Natural Modern: The Definition

Design Matters