Houses I Tend to Like

It's difficult for a person without a fundamental education in design to figure out what kind of design-intensive stuff he/she really likes and why. This is not very important to know (you can always just rely on your gut feeling), but one day it can save you a lot of time if you are able to cut the space of alternatives, clearly articulating what you would enjoy. It is especially true about things that require large investments.


Today---a sunny, windy day in the end of February---I had a modest walk through one neighborhood and started noticing criteria that define which houses I like more than others. Some factors for preference popped up immediately:

• Size of a house: not too big, but also not too small; probably 2-storey houses I liked the best. 
• Color: very bright colors like white and beige don't seem to work well for the general color of a house, as far as I'm concerned. It's easy to make dirty, and in general it looks like either a temporary house or just a non-residence building. Plus, plain red brick sets my teeth on edge already.
• Complexity of structure: I would go with something in the middle. It shouldn't be Gates-Hillman Center, but it shouldn't also be a box with windows.

One thing that is less trivial is a porch, or a front terrace (see pics below). A lot of houses have it, but very often it looks either deserted and useless or overly populated with awkward decorations, like huge paper garlands. Sometimes, people stack their tools and not needed stuff in porches---and that's terrible. However, a porch adds a nice irregularity to the structure of houses, and (I think) it's just a question of making it look nice.

Let's look at examples.

A kind of empty and not really useful porch, and it's too visible from outside.

Weird junk here: white trays and pots with tatty plants.

It is not even a question of whether a porch is used or not, but what it looks like for those passing your house. It should fit into the overall composition. Another way to go about a porch is to have it covered, not open-air. Looks cool most of the time, but a bit unwelcoming and closed from strangers.

Closed porch #1.

Closed porch #2 (the one in the middle).

The really fancy way to have a porch is to put a bush in front of it. There's something in this that I really enjoy. Now, a porch doesn't look cheap or abandoned, but also not too distant and cold-hearted. Having it offset by a line of plants, you say to people, "I'd be glad to see you here, but you'd better mind your own business."

Looks great, if you ask me.

This bush needs some cutting, but it's still fine to me.

This sort of offset with plants can work even without a full-sized porch.

Creates a distance between you and the window, making you enter through the door.

Well, that's about it. The last thing I have is a fantastic two-storey porch with an ivy on it.

I bet it looks even better when the tree gets some leaves.