There aren’t many things in life we get to control as much as the design of a custom home. Maybe that’s why we at Babb Custom Homes and our happy customers have been drawn to it (Did you see the accidental pun? We’re leaving it. It’s a Friday.) You can pick the model and color of a car, you can pick the personality and appearance of a mate, but ultimately you’re choosing between things that are already made. With a custom home, you can design the size, shape, color, materials, features, floor plan, and what kind of screws go in the handle on a garage basin sink. That’s fun! Today let’s look at some custom home exterior design trends for those of you wondering what other people are doing with the outside of their new home plans. (For interior inspiration, check out our guide to organizing your interior design.)
There are some elements to a custom home exterior that are widely popular and not likely to go away soon. Such as:
- Soft Neutral Shades of blue, green, tan, white, and gray will continue to be popular for the foreseeable future. They blend in well with natural settings and provide enough variation to help similar houses stand apart.
- Traditional Building Materials are not going anywhere. Brick, stone, wood will likely always find a place in custom home exterior design due to their durability, accessibility, and preferred aesthetics. They aren’t cheap, so although people are looking for ways to reduce their environmental footprint, vinyl siding and asphalt shingles will stick around as well on many homes.
- Some other resilient features are an emphasis on Good Outdoor Lighting, Landscaping, Hosting (decks, patios, etc.), and the move toward Eco-friendly Home Plans. While it will change a lot going forward, we already see the beginnings of environmentally-conscious design in the form of solar power, high efficiency windows, geothermal systems, and more. That newish trend is destined to thrive and pick up speed as we go forward.
Some burgeoning trends that are roaring into prominence are:
- Stark Contrasts in Color are a theme you see on so many new builds. In color, dark trim highlights and pops the lightness of siding and often-white painted brick. Even something as stark as a black home in a neighborhood of pastels or neutrals will become more and more popular most likely (although many think it is a short living trend).
- A Contrast in New and Old Materials and design will continue to develop. For example, it’s not uncommon now to see a rugged, cedar post next to modernistic windows and smart doorbells. You can see the timeless dignity of stone next to super trendy colors. In this postmodern, hodge podge era, old/new, bright/dark, timeless/trendy, opulent/simple, and so on coexist perfectly.
- Focusing on Longevity and Sustainability, homes are now commonly designed with higher quality materials that require less maintenance and have a longer lifespan. The motive is that people want to limit the materials that end up in landfills and also reduce the use of fossil fuels used to make plastic or asphalt. Consequently, copper or other metal roofing is usurping asphalt, and fiber cement and other materials are replacing vinyl siding.
- Blending Textures and Style is moving through the custom home exterior world. It’s not uncommon now to see brick, wood, vinyl, copper, and other building materials all on the same home. This creates a physical and focal texturing.
- Prioritizing Both Modern and Natural Influences is the controlling theme of the era in custom home exterior design. What this looks like is a meshing of nature and contemporary life into daily activities, such as zero entry walls onto decks or patios. The walls can be glass or even retract to create a seamless transition from a living space to an outdoor area. We also now have the technology for Passive Homes, which are designed to be net zero in environmental impact.
At Babb Custom Homes, we love our jobs. From the dreaming phase, to planning phase, to building phase, to even the paperwork, we love it. (Whoops, we went too far there on that last one. We get excited.) So whether you want to know how to save money on a custom build, how to do interior or exterior design, or just our opinions on screws for garage basin faucets, contact us. Give us a chance to show you what we can do to make your dreams realities!
