Over the last few years the Washington areas taste in homes has been in transition. The conservative colonial historic home designs or the European vernacular styles are being left behind in the search for a new fresher vocabulary.
While, there is a greater demand for modern homes in all price segments, a large segment of the buying public are not comfortable in a truly modern home. This has created a large demand for homes that live modern, but have some reflection od contextualism or styles people are comfortable with. Styles like Modern farmhouse, and European transitional designs start to fill the wishes as design directions of the public.
This English transitional home, designed by James McDonald Associate Architects, for a custom home owner in Mclean, mixes familiar gables and porch forms with more modern mix of materials and window patterns. The white brick, and the large vertical windows create a nice juxtaposition to the accent stone entry and grey shake Stair tower. The sweeping roof gables come down to the first floor creating covered side porches on both sides of the home. The rear of the home plays with materials in the same way, accents of gray shake siding and a stone base.
Modern living has also created the desire for indoor-outdoor living spaces. This means people want the ability when the weather is nice to open up home and have a place they can sit in comfort and shade. People want to enjoy the outdoors while being three steps away from kitchen or family room, or three steps in the other direction to a pool or back yard patio. These spaces expand the living areas of the house, opening up large sliding doors to invite the outside in. This Mclean home not only has the two side porches, one off a office and the other off a kids hobby room, it has a large screened porch off of the kitchen/family dining room. This space is large enough for a nice sitting area around a fireplace as well as a full-size dining area large enough to entertain.
When James McDonald sits down with a client he hears time and time again, that the homeowners want their home to have plenty of light and feel open, but comfortable. Designing homes for today’s lifestyle is what James McDonald Associate Architects is good at. Each individual home owner has their specific needs and wants to meet their individual life styles. This could be unique features to make the house function (closet or kitchen design needs) or fun wish items (like a wine room, music room or slide from one level to another). James McDonald associate architects bring their design talent and construction knowledge to every project to help create a home that fits our client taste and lifestyle.
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