craftsman
house plans home | search house plans | house plans news | sitemap
 
Home Plan Search:
craftsman
craftsman
craftsman
HOUSE PLANS BLOG

Popular Home Architecture Styles

When it comes to choosing your house plan design, the architectural style of the building will lend feeling and grace to the final product. There are four extremely popular home architectural designs. These include Craftsman, Traditional, Southern, and Northwestern.

The Craftsman Home

The Craftsman style home is one of the most popular designs used in home architecture. This is due to the easy, laid back feeling of the design. Unlike other home designs, this design depends on the least complicated ideas and the least expensive materials. The most common characteristics are low ceilings, straight lines, and shallow roofing.

Building a Craftsman style home is all about being hands on. These home designs were built by wood worksmen with hand held tools of the manual sort. Today, with the advent of retro-electric tools, some of the same Craftsman designs can be created without the months of intensive labor.

Each Craftsman style home most often exhibits the same style and function. Nearly all include chimneys, porches, symmetrical windows, masonry foundations, and stairs leading to the front door of the home.

The Traditional Home

When designing a home of traditional style, the area the home will be built within will denote the traditional characteristics of the home. In the south, for instance, there are classic design elements that make the home design traditional. The expansive front porch, pillars holding up the facade of the home and tall stair entryways are all common in Southern traditional architecture.

On the other hand, a traditional style home in the New England states will not hold any of the same qualities. The key to designing a traditional home is to find homes in the area that were built 25 to 50 years before. These homes were stick built and offer a style and grace embracing the locality. These homes can be used as a template for your traditional style.

The Southern Home

When it comes to the south, bigger is always better. The Southern home is one of grandiose measures and plantation-esque features. The front porch extends the outdoor living space of the home by hundreds, if not thousands of square feet. The stairs leading to the entryway of the home are tall, providing the home with a sense of height unlike any other home style.

This huge home may evoke a “Gone With the Wind” image. But, this style of Southern home is not really that southern at all. The old South home is actually based upon Greek or Roman architecture used all over the United States. After the Civil War, the southern homes were not torn down and rebuilt like much of the United States and thus they are considered Southern style architecture to this day.

The Northwestern Home

A Northwestern style home is often contemporary in design.  Large windows and open spaces offer views of the great outdoors.  There will usually be a fireplace in the living room, further adding to the enjoyment of a natural setting.  Often built in mountainous regions, a Northwestern style home is a beautiful choice for vacation or everyday living.

The house plan you choose should not only present a beautiful finished product, but a connection to your heart. Your home is an extension of you and finding just the right home style whether it be Traditional, Southern, Craftsman, or Northwestern, only requires learning a bit about these extremely popular styles.

Find dream houses of all architectural styles here!

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • Bumpzee
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Furl
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google

Trackback URI Comments RSS

Leave a Reply

 
Customer Testimonials:

House Plan Purchased: SHPCOM-2200C-1

"We were so happy to have found the SHPCOM-2200C-1 house plan. It met all of our needs and has absolutely no wasted space. We have already started the building process and its coming along great. The team at Stock Home Plans.com was a pleasure to work with, and we can't wait to move in!"

Ann Holman
Cleveland, Mississippi

House Plan Purchased: SHPCOM-1848-1

"Y'all helped make dreams come true! Our new home is both beautiful and functional for our family of 6. We had it built on a full (daylight) basement so that 2 bedrooms and a bathroom could be added to the wonderful floor plan. It was EXTREMELY affordable, and our builder loved the way the plans were written out-they were perfect! He said he has never before built a house when he didn't have to modify the plan; that's because the floor plan was perfect! I would be glad to lend a positive word for your company in any way I can. And as we are showing our new home, I am always sure to give your company the credit!"

Melissa Hood
Atlanta, Georgia

House Plan Purchased: SHPCOM-2755-1

"We had a good experience with StockHomePlans.com; we chose a stock plan and wanted to make a few modifications. Your staff was very helpful with this and provided objective insight into the pros and cons of various modifications we thought we wanted. In the end, we ended up changing the plan some and realized some of our ideas should be left on the drawing board. We were happy with the quality, service, and value that we experienced throughout the process."

Chris Johnson
Hattiesburg, Mississippi

 


View Award-winning home designs, house plans, floor plans and home plans