Style

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Something unexpected came up as we were looking at styles of houses and decor.  John and I have VERY different tastes in homes.  We were quite surprised to find this!  We are so compatible in so many ways that we were quite shocked at how passionately the other felt about some "small" details!  

John likes a very clean, modern look while I prefer a more soft, cozy county look.  We tried to find balance in things we agreed on.  No clutter.  No decor for the sake of being decor.  We both like clean and simple.  I felt like his style was cold.  He felt like mine was too country.    

Suddenly, we came upon something we both loved.  This discovery saved our house! Haha!  

The Craftsman style.  This is a very popular style from the early 1900's that started in Northern California and Oregon.  It is described as generally being a 1 story house with a low hipped roof, large porch, and exposed beam details.  The goal of the craftsman style was to bring nature indoors by using natural materials and colors.  

So, John and I are going more traditionally craftsman with the exterior and doing a clean craftsman interpretation on the interior.  The exterior colors will be green with canvas trim and ox blood accents. Here is a link to a good example of the colors we want. 

For the interior, we are going to stay true to the wide baseboards and header over the doors.  but we will paint them white.  For windows and walkways, we will have drywall returns (no trim) with bull nose corners (rounded).  This should give us the craftsman feel with a modern touch.  

We will be going with a white kitchen.  We will have an extra set of upper cabinets with glass fronts, which is very craftsman.  A craftsman kitchen was often white as it was easier to clean.  We will be going more modern with the granite tops as well as by painting the interior of the glass front cabinets.  

We will have hickory flooring throughout the main living area.  I just love the movement you get from the color variations.  

I think that about sums up the style we are going for.  We will be using a more modern lighting scheme.    Traditional craftsman would call for bronze lighting, which is so dark and heavy.  So we have tried to find a style that is craftsman but in a brushed nickel.  Right now we are thinking of the Kichler Truett line from shop.ferguson.com.

However, on the exterior, we will go totally craftsman with something like this from lampsplus.com:

So, that about sums up our style.  Of course, all of this stuff happens in the last 4-8 weeks of the build process.  The first 4 months is all digging, concrete, and lumber!  I can't wait to post pictures as the process moves along!