A well-lit porch helps visitors and package deliverers find your place, but also (perhaps more important) creates a warm, welcoming mood that says “home sweet home.” Aim for at least three sources of light to create a warm glow — a pair of sconces near the seating area plus a light above the door should do the trick. Even better: Add a fourth light above the house numbers (as seen here) to make it easier for visitors to find your address at night.
A common and cost-effective approach for protecting single-family homes in flood zones is called “wet floodproofing.” The floor level subject to flooding is designed to allow water to flow in during storm flooding and then drain away naturally. This house by Stephen Yablon Architecture illustrates the principle. The first floor is raised, and the open-air recreation space under the house allows water to flow through without damaging the structure.
porch to sunroom after - They removed the existing dormer and low ceiling, adding a new double-height roof to enclose the space and create the feeling of a solarium. A new fireplace and ceiling fan are the only sources of climate control in the room, with spray-foam insulation, advanced framing and high-performance windows helping to maintain a tight building envelope.
A combination of trees, tall shrubs and smaller hedge plants can be used in tandem to create a leafy barrier between the home and a busy street, or to selectively screen unwanted views. One of the advantages of using foliage to screen rather than fencing is that there are often fewer regulations on height and setback for “living fences” than constructed ones.
Flowering vines can instantly add romance to an exterior and make your home stand out from the street. But well-loved flowering climbers like wisteria and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans) grown on buildings can harm exterior siding with their vigorous climbing habit. To reduce damage, use a trellis set slightly away from the building to both support the vine’s weight and discourage tendrils from fastening onto the building itself.
Postage-stamp garden. On tight city lots, the driveway can take up much of the front yard. To carve out more space for plants, the architect of this San Francisco front yard left green strips down the driveway and planting pockets between concrete steppingstones. The neutral mixed pavers used for the car tracks and the multiple sizes of concrete steppingstones work well together surrounded by plenty of green.
Treat your driveway more like a courtyard by extending the footprint beyond the edges of the garage and choosing a stylish paving material. In this Northern California landscape, the architect used a grid of light concrete pavers to form a graphic courtyard at the front of the home. Gaps left between the pavers promote drainage. The area acts as a walkway to the front door and a space for an outdoor table, as well as a car-friendly surface to connect to the garage.
Traditional paved driveways contribute to rainwater runoff, rather than draining water on-site. This permeable surface in Maryland shows a much greener alternative. The designer laid pavers designed with hollow centers and then planted them with plugs of blue fescue (Festuca glauca) sod. The driveway visually melds right into the front lawn and can be mowed to keep fescue low.
so cute!
amazing little Japanese courtyard
This home in Orange County, California, has fake turf set between flagstones and in the driveway strip. The effect is convincing enough that passersby could easily mistake this for a carefully maintained living driveway. - good way to get drainage and stay neat!
An entire exterior clad with plants can attract bees, insects and birds, creating a mini ecosystem to replace the one that was lost to the building’s foundation. It’s obviously best to design a new build to minimize the effect on the ecosystem.
the porches, windows, clean lines, even the gravel - all works together.
BEFORE: The original chalet color seemed modest and outdated.
AFTER: The couple chose a slate gray to update the exterior.
you can't even tell there's a garage looking from the front door - nice.
view from the front
Landscape features in this project along with a thoughtful design decision make this two-car garage all but disappear. The trees and low walls are positioned to guide visitors on foot to the front door, making the drive, on the left, feel secondary.
The fence wall transitions to become the large overhead door of the garage. Because the roof plane of the garage overlaps the private pool area (to the left), it creates an ambiguity as to where the garage ends and the pool begins.
the carport - It has a minimal visual impact while still offering convenient protection from the elements and a covered means to get inside. With a little forethought, it can also address some storage needs, as seen here.
Solar panels double as shade devices and overhang protection for the doors of this Seattle house. Traditional architecture, as seen below, can include solar panels just as easily. Look for a future in which any house can be retrofitted with a myriad of technologies, as the solutions likely will be fluid and flexible.
narrow house with privacy wall and side yard
Monopitched roof. A monopitched roof is a single sloping surface or roof plane angled in only one direction. A split monopitched roof, as on the house seen here, has two separate, unattached, nonintersecting planes.
Sawtooth roof. A sawtooth roof is a series of ridges composed of a vertical glass window that meets a pitched roof. The name, obviously, refers to the fact that these roofs look like the teeth on a saw; they may have a single “tooth” or many “tooths.”
Rain screen - exterior siding material spaced from the sheathing. This airspace creates a slot of lower-pressure air behind the siding, providing wind-driven water a place to slow down and drop away before it hits the weather-resistive barrier on the exterior sheathing. This air gap is ventilated at the top and bottom of the wall to allow the siding to dry. This is good for both the long-term performance of the siding and the home’s exterior. This detail is again slightly expensive to install but has a lower life-cycle cost.
Decorative screen door. A screen door with decorative metalwork by artist Susan Wallace of Austin, Texas, lends an artful touch to this entry. Choose from ready-made designs or work with an artisan to create something especially for your space.
Compact sliding screen door. Fitting a door and screen door into a narrow passageway can pose quite a challenge. These creative homeowners found a solution by using a sliding screen door that tucks into a pocket behind the refrigerator when open. The barn-style hardware and cheery red paint job up the charm.
Many midcentury houses have carports that lead right to the front door. The carport then functions as a covered entrance and parking spot in one, as it does in this California Eichler home.
Both the first and second floor are clad in cedar. The top is stained black, while the bottom has been left in a more natural finish. The home’s east cantilever functions as a carport.
The modern addition to this old chateau in Dijon, France, is made out of blackened steel. Designed by Athias Architecte, it has a balcony off the second-floor guest room that swoops down to become one of the carport’s walls.
neat front door - the side panel still allows privacy, as the viewing angle is minimized, but still lets in lots of light.
Dark gray and pink make a killer combination on this Toronto front porch. The designers at Post Architecture also painted the Adirondack chairs to match the front door, and pink flowers and a pink watering can round out the color grouping.
Johnston Millwork, in Redwood City, California, crafted this custom front door using cherrywood and art-glass panels from Kersey’s Glass Works. River rock inlays fill the front path.
driveway made of cast in place concrete - Scored pattern: A score is a ¼-inch-deep line that’s drawn into the concrete to help prevent cracking. Scores can create many different patterns: squares, rectangles, diamonds, flagstone, stripes and more. water-permeable concrete is now avail.
A metal trellis is a great way to give your container design more structure and prominence. Here, a metal sphere acts as the frame for a design that includes spruce and juniper boughs, a spray of redtwig dogwood and ornaments tucked around the base.
Tasty window boxes. You can also celebrate the bounty of the season by tucking in edible fruits. Apples (the ones here are artificial) give this window box a cornucopia feel, and natural lotus pods, pine cones and eucalyptus add interest in the center. Sprigs of eucalyptus add height. Noble fir (Abies procera), Port Orford cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) and eastern white pine fill out the box.
This grouping of curly willow (Salix matsudana) branches creates quite a modern, festive and long-lasting entry vignette. Branches at least 4 feet tall emerge from a bed of pine cones. For extra pizazz, wind a string of twinkle lights through the pine cones. At night, the curly twigs will glow from the base.
Though Sabrina initially wanted to leave the exterior exposed, she decided early on to clad the existing brick exterior with a custom rain screen system. This allowed her to achieve high insulation standards without sacrificing precious interior living space. She chose the cement fiber panels and cedar siding, seen here in the backyard, for their durability in the wide-ranging Canadian weather.
love the natural Christmasy look - having white lights interspersed in the greenery adds a nice touch
Garage in front but done so well it looks great!
Q