2018 Parade of Homes

The Story of the Home Plan Design

Doriot Construction Hired Gary with Designs Northwest and ATF to create a unique award winning home design for the 2018 Parade of Homes. But the kudos also need to go to the owners as well- as the visionaries, they controlled the hiring, the budget and direction.

Together we worked as a team to think outside the box to create functional, unique solutions that captured the look and feel the owners wanted.

Let’s start with the floor plan. Have you ever seen a His-n-Hers master bathroom before? That is a neat concept for keeping the romance alive. Not only can you decide whether to go over or under with the toilet paper and how to best squeeze out your toothpaste, but you can keep a little mystery between you and your spouse!

It also has a commanding, compelling entry which creates balance with the big three car garage. (Things can easily get out of balance with front facing three car garages, trust me!)

Establishing wall heights, roof planes, textures, colors, stone and all the other home building decisions, will finalize the style of a home.

Our specialty is working with the first two items- wall heights and roof planes, because they control the space volume. How it flows and how it feels. With timber frame design, one should first look at the overall volume, proportion and flow of the architecture before starting with the actual timber design.

This is the unseen beauty of artistic timber design. Timbers could have simply been added to the original elevations shown below. But that is not what the team wanted from us. They wanted us to adjust the blueprint “canvas” to capture a good looking timber style.

Below you can see a glimpse of this process: 

Above: Starting Point Elevation

A. This mass is just too big and will compete with the focal point of the timber entrance. On the 2D elevations it is not so apparent, but it was painfully obvious once modeled in 3-D. We lowered the bonus room walls to 7′ tall and modeled manufactured scissor trusses to avoid a low interior ceiling. The garage ceiling and bonus room floor were also lowered to further reduce the imposing effect.

B. Increase the main roof slope to create more background massing. This small shift helps make the bonus room seem less imposing by changing the context.

Above: Ideas & Proposed Design Tweaks to Capture the Right Timber Look & Feel

C. Adding this lower flag roof is the lynchpin for the pleasing flow of this elevation. It repeats the theme happening at the entry and gives the final grounding or subduing touch to the bonus room which was once so overpowering. The roof pitch of the front facing gables were increased to move away from the low Craftsman style of roof and introduce Northwest flavor. As a side benefit, steeper roofs tend to make timber design easier.

D. Entry flag roof gutters lowered to align with main roof and rough slope increased.

E. Stone columns raised and tapered on the outside only, stabilizing the too tall and narrow look.

F. Timber posts dramatically thickened. Arched taper on the outside posts only, doubling down on visual stabilization. Double king posts, again with arch taper- not for visual stabilization, but to simply repeat a unique design element. Extra side beams added to complete the cozy feel created by timber entry.

G. Specially designed Craftsman corbels with double knee brace and light hanging accommodations added to the garage to get that just right look – not too much,. Not too little.

Above: Front Elevation With Ideas and Design Changes Implemented

Thinking up ideas and arriving at these suggested tweaks above do not come without preparation. During the initial brainstorm, we established Modern Northwest Craftsman as the governing style.

All in all, it turned out great for the owners and their style was reflected with the following design details: The bottom chord of the truss was simplified to its bare essence by using one big timber. The split king posts speak to the modern touch.

The lower roof slopes, deep overhangs and large timbers capture the Northwest and Craftsman feel. This project had style flexibility because it had a very strong Northwest Craftsman foundation, created by the roof lines, overall massing proportions and straightforward timber design.  

Above: Timber Entry Before & After Close-Up View

During the first model review, the clients chose an arched option for the main truss. Although arches are not usually mixed with Craftsman style, the slight curve added an elegant touch for a truly unique Modern Northwest Craftsman look.

This home plan is very personalized but yet there is very little missing for a good resale value!