2012 Timeless Design Trends for Residential Architecture

2012 Timeless Design Trends for Residential Architecture

This is really a Non-article.  As in: it takes the position that you really should Not adhere to any sort of published “Trends” in your residential architectural design.

Are you looking around your Kitchen, Master Bathroom, thinking about all the new and wonderful changes you would like to make?  Collecting photos from residential design magazines into a manilla folder, hoping to one day put them all together to have someone design your new dream house, or much-needed renovation and additions?

Welcome to the crowd.  Many people are in the same boat with you.  Are you intently following the latest design trends, wanting to make sure that your new design has all the latest colors, textures, forms, styles, appliances, window treatments, exterior appearance as everyone else that is planning to do what you are doing?  Let’s think about that for a minute… Do you really want to follow and adhere to what everyone else is doing right this second?

Design Trends for 2012 Timeless Residential Architecture

Hire an Architect.  One that specializes in residential design.  They can tell you that a design for you Begins with You.  Not what everyone else is doing.  But rather, with You.  Your likes.  Your functional needs.  Your aesthetic preferences.  Your land.  Your views.  Your situation and neighborhood.  Understanding all of these things is where a Unique design starts just for you.

Following so-called residential design trends can result in exactly the opposite of what you intended.  What if the hot color for kitchen appliance these days became “dusky rose”  or “sunset lavender?”  How would these unusual colors and treatments be perceived 5 or 10 years from now, when the latest design trend has faded and new ones become momentarily popular?  Remember Harvest Gold and Avocado Green appliances from the 1960s?  Yuck!  The same people who ended up with these hopelessly dated design features thought, in the heat of trying to conform to the latest fad, that their house would be on the leading edge of design trends.  Well… the unfortunate thing about designing to any particular popular fad is that after the Public has moved on with whatever media hysteria hyped color or appliance or feature, you are left holding the bag.  Or house.  That is now no longer aligned with yet another new “trend” (i.e.: fad), which, by its definition, is brief.

When you spend money on a new house or on significant renovations to an existing residence, you would do well to Not be overly influenced by what Sadie Jones around the corner of your block is doing.  When you engage an architect to design for you, they will begin by understanding what you are all about and your land and existing house (if a renovation), and the context of these elements.  An architect will analyze and understand your views, where spaces of your project should be private and where you need buffering for privacy (visually and auditorily).  THE POINT IS: YOUR DESIGN SHOULD BE ABOUT YOU, not what the media has highlighted as Today’s “coolest fad”.

If you do decide to conform to the latest “design trends” you may very well end up with tomorrow’s Harvest Gold design and have people making snide comments about how dated your design looks, because it was crafted to look like what everyone else was doing in that era.

Creating Honest Timeless Designs for You

What to do?  Hire a residential architect.  Click here for a good one: —> Rand Soellner Architect .  He designs timeless houses for clients all over the United States and even has projects in other countries.  Here is a partial index of some of the projects created by this firm: click here–>  House Design Index .

You will notice that a real architect will be interested in what makes your project special, in what makes you special.  Understanding these things results in a Timeless design that could have been designed and built 100 years from now, or 100 years ago.  There aren’t many cues in the design that reveal its actual age.  That is true timeless architectural design.  It is an honest expression of what you need, what you want and what you deserve: a custom design just for you.

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