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All Photos/exterior

Exterior Design Photos and Ideas

The 1,400-square-foot Seneca features white-painted wood cladding punctuated by a bright red front door with an original porthole.
The floating home, originally constructed in 1968 by Forbes Kiddoo, that Marka Hansen and Joe Brubaker recreated with designer Michelle Chan and builder Steve Crutchfield of True North Construction bobs in a berth at the historical Waldo Point Harbor in Sausalito, California, just north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.
A triangular pool is also terraced into the landscape surrounding the pavilion-like house.
After a fire ravaged the site in rural Portugal, architect Miguel Marcelino designed this country house on its existing stone garden terraces.
Pine and gravel sleepers follow the site’s natural slope, weaving through the existing pine trees until reaching the home’s entrance.
A massive gable roof draping the first floor makes this two-story house feel more like one.
The buildings on the property sit close together, with carefully considered landscaping connecting them into a cozy compound. The main house's deck, which sits about 15 feet above the ground, sits on structural fins. Thin stainless steel railings almost disappear against the forest views.
Although there are several houses nearby, the homeowners relish the privacy and tranquility provided by the surrounding dense forest.
Using a contemporary play on vintage ski cabins in Vermont, architect David R. Maclean designed a modern home that takes advantage of sweeping valley views and opens up to the surrounding forested landscape.
After: A new porch roof, made of metal, completes the updated exterior facade. The home’s doors and the garage door are painted a punchy pink, Benjamin Moore’s Rosewood.
“The cabin offers a lot to the site,” says architect Cristian Stefanescu. “It frames the area towards the street and gives it a presence that melts into the context. It doesn’t shout or scream. There is a quietness about it which is something the clients appreciate.” <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">The use of the stone as a foundation allowed the budget to be reduced as it minimized the amount of work and materials.</span>
“Our design fee was very, very little,” says architect Cristian Stefanescu. “That was part of the arrangement. It’s also why we tried to design something very simple—there was less demand to spend time detailing complex intersections.”
A Seattle couple built their own backyard house with a city-sponsored design—and then rented out their old home on the property to friends.
Adi and Chris chose an L-shaped, pre-permitted plan by Cast Architecture with extensive glass, and resisted two-story options to fit in better with their neighborhood.
The island of Møn in Denmark has a remarkable landscape with dramatic white-chalk cliffs, so it’s fitting that Birkedal—a vacation rental property not far from the beach—features a shape and form that matches its impressive locale.
The two-tone corrugated metal cladding helps the sheds blend into the landscape, along with windows custom-colored by the manufacturer to match.
The heart of the camp is the main residence, the Lake House, which has a stacked "cordwood wall" made from Douglas firs found on-site.
<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">When husband and wife Chris Hougie and Teresa Raffo came across a defunct campground outside of Mendocino, California, the 36-acre property’s raw beauty inspired them to embark on a new adventure. Their new</span><span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;"> outdoor retreat offers an array of adventurous accommodations from canvas tents to vintage Airstream campers.</span>
Taking inspiration from the fairy tale of Snow White and the seven dwarves, South Korean campground Haru consists of a "castle
Friends and family hang out on the back patio. “It’s kind of a fugly house, but we don’t care,” Caleb says.
The tiny house and eco resort are set on generations-old family land that's remote and completely private so guests are able to unplug immerse themselves in nature.
Jon Staff, founder of cabin rental company Getaway, and his partner Michael Thorton purchased an overgrown bayside lot in the Cherry Grove community of Fire Island, New York, in February 2020.
<span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, sans-serif;">The entrance to the home is through a timber-clad passageway, which connects the different spaces, which are all under one roof. Over time, the Canadian cedar timber cladding will develop a silver patina and the built form will dissolve further into the landscape.</span>
The summer home is located on the west coast of Zeeland in Denmark. Egelund’s son had also recently built a summer house nearby, and Egelund and Dahl appreciated the work of the architect, Mads Lund. “We felt we could have a good collaboration with him, rather than being a small client with a big company,” Egelund explains. “We started to talk with him about what we liked about my son’s house, as well as our own ideas for our summer home.”
Is it or isn’t it by the modern master? We figured it out after architects Erik Amir and Dora Chi pulled off a reverent revamp.
Surrounded by forest and accessed via a fairy-tale bridge, the resilient forever home showcases the strength of cross-laminated timber.
The couple’s three children were involved in the renovation process and particularly enjoyed the demolition process.
CollectiveProject designed a three-story home in Bangalore, India that is fashioned from blocks handcrafted out of debris from the previous structure on site. Lush vegetation including mango, avocado, and citrus trees helps the home recede into the background.
Merritt Amanti Palminteri and Rogers Hawley revamped their Monterey bungalow without expanding its footprint.
Hektor is divided into four independent suits and a central communal area.
A raised pool in the northeast corner of the building provides relief on hot, sunny days.
Zach Batteer and Carlyle Scott designed Field Cabin, a 288-square foot accommodation at Serana, their communal retreat in Paige, Texas. Wrapped in Yakisugi-treated pine, the cabin took 40 days and almost $46K to build.
You arrive at the Barn Gallery via a meandering driveway through native woodland of Fir, Pine and Alder. Twelve species of Bamboo and several different ornamental grasses integrated with wildflowers will become more evident as the natural landscaping matures. The Bamboo nearest to the house is in spiral galvanized pots fabricated from the left over culvert used for the pre-filtration tower located near the rain storage tank.
The Barn Gallery faces southwest to a secluded waterfront bluff, and is surrounded by 4 acres of woodland and a private meadow. Collection and filtration of rain water, and a focus on natural landscaping are integral parts of the Barn Gallery sustainable design philosophy. The rain garden (foreground) functions as a natural filtration system for stormwater runoff headed to the channel below, and is one of the most talked-about features.
The couple enjoy growing veggies in an on-site greenhouse, and tending to their flock of chickens.
Pablo designed his family’s home to disrupt as little of the landscape as possible.
Pablo designed his home with simplicity in mind, opting for simple geometric forms and a minimal color and material palette.
Greenway Studio designed this home addition In Victoria, British Columbia, to blend in with an existing natural rock formation.
In this temperate, oceanside climate, the house relies on natural ventilation, with numerous operable windows.
A Nova Scotia couple learn that although triangular homes may look simple, they can be devilishly complex.
Monika and Darren Bennett worked with SM Studio on their custom home in Vancouver, B.C. The main house has 2703 square feet, plus a 514 square foot garage/studio on the rear alley, with a courtyard and pool in between the two buildings.
“There is an enormous amount of glass here,” laughs Vanbesien—so much so that the design team struggled to find enough wall space to mount the heat pump.
Copper cladding will patina over time. Horizontally articulated windows and standing seams give the facade a sleek, streamlined presence.
LA-based commerical director Jared Eberhardt purchase this desert property near Joshua Tree just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It contained a small, downtrodden house that needed a full renovation to become habitable. Over the course of the pandemic, Jared transformed it into a midcentury-inspired getaway that combines the original 1958 house with a fresh, new addition.
The suburban backyard garage in Hertfordshire, England, that architect Olli Andrew of Hyper converted into a work studio is wrapped in charred larch wood pieces that give the impression of scales and foster biodiversity, providing a place for insects to nestle.
SHED also installed a large dormer on this side of the building to fully accommodate the new upper level plan, and get views of the apple orchard on the other side of the building.
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