New Home Planning Phase 1 - Inspiration

Start with Inspiration

Hello and welcome back! The days are getting longer and the hope of spring is growing once again! As some of you may already know, we are beginning a new adventure this spring, we are #Homesteading! The journey of our new home build has left us crazy busy with planning, drafting and number crunching! When we first started out, I had so many ideas and dreams about how I would love to see our future home unfold. Of course I have thousands of Pins, screenshots and saved inspiration from the past 5 years! If you think a girl dreams big about her wedding day her entire life… try asking her about her dream home! OKAY at least that was me! ;) I would dream about homes as a little girl and thought it was the coolest thing. I would wake up running downstair yelling, “Mom! I dreamt about the coolest house last night!” (said no child ever!?) Yep that was me. I have always been inspired by both the home and the garden. Materials like wood, stone, soil and plants, whether living or naturally preserved, they all inspire me! My hope is that these elements come through in the home that we build.

So, I thought I would hop on the blog to create and condense all our ideas and inspiration for our New Home!

Style

To start we knew we were inspired by the following styles: Cottage Style, Farmhouse Style, Craftsmen Style and Max’s favorite (and probably every man on earth) Mission Style. We lean towards a more modern twist on all these styles but not 100% modern…. oh we are so strange!? How on earth do you combine these styles? I am not sure on that quite yet… but I believe our house will be a beautiful mix of them all without looking too much like any of these styles. At least we can sort that all out on the drawing board and not put an architect through our crazy ideas and plans…!

Exterior Design

This home from New Old has gone viral at least hundred times. Its best charm is the cedar shake roof and sweeping roof lines. Its really amazing what sweeping roof lines can do for a home! This is one of my top picks because of the beautiful roof lines. Although the cedar shake roof is AMAZING we can’t have a roof that requires so much maintenance… trust me when i say it will NOT look this pretty in 15 years, or even after 5 years of weathering (especially in MN) it will show up looking so worn you will cry… ! So unless you have a personal roof guy that you can afford to pay every 2 years… you’ll need to pass. We even know how to maintenance this and could do it ourselves and choose not to.

Sloped- Curved- Sweeping Roof Lines

This is one element that WILL make it into our design. All the exterior house plans we have looked at have it and this design element really gives it that cottage feel we love! Another design to include in your roof is steep pitches. It doesn’t need to be a church steeple… but a 12 12 pitch will make your home stand out among the rest! So that brings me to example #2 below!

Aww the Oak Abbey- Design by Donald Gardner, has been our favorite from the beginning! This beautiful home encompasses much much more than we need but still has so many design details that we love. See the small detail of the sweeping roof? And those tall roof pitches! 5 stars for sure. We will have an attached garage like this shape as well and a front porch with arches. Basically, we are imagining a house much like this just on a smaller scale!

Interior Design

The following pictures are from a designer I found just recently. Her name is Lisa Furey, you can visit her website here for more inspo! This home called Country Farmhouse is easily one of my top 5 for its beautiful brick kitchen, dark stains, white accents and not to mention all the natural light that pours into this home! Amazing.

Kitchens

This kitchen has the most simplicity I’ve seen in awhile. Designed by Bartelt, I found this home on Houzz and you can see the whole house in this article. I’m obsessed with the windows that come down to the counter top! Its small and cozy yet bright and spacious. i don’t know what else i would need for a kitchen! You’ll notice were obsessed with wood… there will be a lot of wood accents in our home and this kitchen has a lot of it! Its also a great example of how a vaulted great room can come down and meet the ceiling of the kitchen nicely with a beam! Something we have decided is to have a vaulted great room but not a vaulted kitchen. We like the cozy vibe in our eating place.

Another Kitchen on Houzz I am obsessed with has this beautiful rustic reclaimed chestnut cabinets by Crown Point Cabinetry

“Rustic meets contemporary in this beautiful kitchen and adjoining living area. Custom cabinetry is handcrafted from responsibly reclaimed Chestnut. The natural grains of the wood stand out in stark contrast against the white subway tile with gray grout. A large island is handcrafted from Maple and finished in Blackened, by Farrow & Ball.”

Couldn’t agree more!

The picture below i found on Pinterest with no source… but this wooden range is my absolute favorite! Again the wood against the white tile… it gets me every time! Then the windows (again extending to the counter top) on either side of the range and the lights above complete the look perfectly I love it when the tile extends all the way to the ceiling giving it an open and textured feel.

Windows above the sink are a must for me, much like my absolute favorite IG page to follow Chloe at Boxwood Ave. If you don’t already, go follow every facet of social media she has (she’s on it all!) and tell her I sent you! Her homestead and ranch in CA is one you’ll be scrolling for days. Her kitchen is a beautiful inspiration to me and her entire life style to make it blunt! :)

https://boxwoodavenue.com/blog/farmhouse-kitchen-white-shaker-cabinets

https://boxwoodavenue.com/blog/modern-farmhouse-remodel-country-home-magazine

To end: I’m just going to throw this rolling ladder out there because I’m short and I’ll need a ladder in my kitchen to reach all my tall cabinets that Max says are being built to the ceiling just like this!

http://lynnkleonidas.com/

Still So Much More To Plan

This is what we have been inspired by so far! I never thought I’d say this but I’m envious of our little flip home projects because at least we had boundaries to stay within and only a certain amount of plans and floor plans can work. With a new build, it’s a blank slate! It’s good to be challenged in life though!

Will be sharing more of the house plans soon! Thanks for stopping by!