Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
laurensmom21_gw

please help on my exterior

laurensmom21
9 years ago

Hi all! I think we are getting closer - our floor plan is close to being finalized and we got this exterior back from the designer and was hoping I could get your feedback.

What do you think? I'm going for a cottage/farmhouse look as we are building on 10 acres of pasture in IL. We want to keep the floor plan as is so we can't change the footprint much. But what are your thoughts on this exterior?

I'm not sure I like the "wings" on the porch? Do you think the porch looks ok like this or would it be better to just bring the porch down in front of the main gable and not wrap it around? sort of like the pic below? Thanks for your help!


Comments (4)

  • amoore1205
    9 years ago

    I love your porch the way it is. Your house is very long and can accommodate the length. If your home was more narrow it would be fine to shrink the roof, but I would not mess with it. My husband and I are beginning to work on house plans for our house. We are building on 25 acres and feel like the bigger the porch the better. Good luck!

  • farmhousegirl
    9 years ago

    Yes!!! Keep the porch this way!! LOVE!! I think you will feel less wingy when it's 3 dimensional. Or, you could wrap it only on the right side and finish the left side like the photo. I agree with the other comment that your house is long and it will feel better to have more porch.
    How deep is your porch?

  • renovator8
    9 years ago

    I don't see any recognizable cottage elements but if you want the house to have a "farmhouse look" I recommend avoiding ganged or paired windows, formal pediments, overlapping gables and front door side lites. These are nice Queen Anne Victorian and Colonial Revival design elements but they distract from the farmhouse concept.

    Therefore the porch becomes a very important farmhouse element and should not be shortened and should have larger supporting beams and more even spacing of the posts. I realize you don't want posts in front of the large first floor window but featuring such a large formal window is one of the things that is in direct conflict with the farmhouse concept.

    By contrast the reference house shown is a full-blown unapologetic Colonial Revival.

  • laurensmom21
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    thanks for your thoughts everyone. I guess I never thought about the porch wings kind of balancing out the width of the house, but that makes a lot of sense so I guess I"ll keep them :)

    I do agree the porch columns need to be beefed up. I despise dainty looking columns! Thanks for that info, Renovator. I didn't know that my reference pic was Colonial Revival - so maybe that's the look I should go for?

    I wanted to beef up that center window because I thought the ext looked a little too plain without it. I like big fat trim around windows. Also I can't have a column in front of that window, because those are the windows above my kitchen sink.

    The porch depth is currently 8 ft. Due to the site layout, I imagine we'll be spending most of our time in the back of the house (south & west) and on the screen porch. We plan to put a patio on the back.

    here's a pic I like of the window details: