From Paint to Landscaping, These Home Exteriors Pack a Punch

Though this home—actually our 2018 Idea House—is chock-full of tech innovations and modern conveniences, the classic look of the Craftsman-style exterior nods to the past. Small touches keep the look from being trapped in amber. The succulents and native grasses are very much of this century, and the green door keeps it playfully modern, too.

You can make the argument that circles are found more than straight lines in nature, and that the shape brings a certain harmony to the home. Or, you can think practically and consider that with a round facade, there’s always a window getting warming sun—a real consideration for this small house, located outside of snowy Park City, Utah.

When the couple who brought this flapper-era Montana farmhouse back to life first saw it, the place was so dilapidated that their own real estate agent tried to talk them out of the purchase. But what made them persevere was this spectacular wrap-around porch. Though the square footage of the house itself is modest, the covered porch greatly expands the living area for three seasons out of the year.

When these two homeowners bought this 1885 cabin, it was in such a run-down state that it had been on the market for several months—unheard of in the red-hot California Wine Country housing market. Structural work was done, but almost as dramatic was the facelift given to the facade and trim in the form of fresh paint in a contemporary palette. The stately dark paint restores dignity to the long-neglected building.

Homes that date from the Victorian era, like this one, are full of charm but can be dark. Here, the homeowner banished gloom in a clever way that did not significantly change the floor plan of the existing rooms: A 10x10-foot section of the patio was sacrificed to build a light well that channels natural light into parts of the home that could use brightening up.

This cabin is small—less than 400 square feet—but it doesn’t feel constrained thanks to the picture window looking out toward the water. The tiny square window above serves as a bedroom window for the owners, who sleep in a space-maximizing loft. We like the use of the nearly black exterior stain, which instead of making the building stand out like an emo teenager, actually makes it blend in with the lush greenery in this part of British Columbia.

This exterior of this Eisenhower-era ranch house is saved from being humdrum by a lot of contemporary touches—the unorthodox choice of paint color is the most obvious. Other choices made by the homeowners keep the darkness from getting to be too much: Cacti ensure that there’s always a touch of green in front, and the striking slatted door provides a pop of lighter color and keeps the decor rooted firmly in the here-and-now.

This mid-century modern home in Palm Springs is quite beautiful—in fact, it’s enough of a looker to have been featured in a mid-’60s issue of Playboy. But it’s the Dr. Seuss-meets-Coachella Valley landscaping that really does the heavy lifting in creating the house’s wow factor. The owner enlisted the help of a landscape architect to create a look that’s fantstical yet perfectly at home in the California desert.

It may not surprise you to find that an artist (fiber master Windy Chien) lives in this San Francisco house. But you don’t actually need to be artistic yourself to make this look work—you just need boldness. (And a good house painter.) Remember, there’s no rule that says your exterior can only be one color. If you’re comfortable with the attention, go multi-hued. (Of course, this is easier if, like Chien, you live in a place already famous for its Painted Ladies.)

The family that owns this structure has utilized two strategies to make the most of the 500 square-foot space. (To be clear, this is not the family’s primary residence; it’s their pool house!) The first is to make one wall almost entirely door or window, opening up the house to the world. The second is to have killer hardscape compensating for lack of interior room—and what’s cooler than a swimming pool?

Black might seem like the last color you should use to paint your home, but don’t count it out. This A-frame, for example, already has a dramatic silhouette and the angles might have seemed out of place in this natural setting. But the dark color actually minimizes the contrast between the house and the dark trees around it. That’s right: Straight edges plus a goth color scheme equals perfect harmony.

This A-frame is located out in the open, in the desert. There’s no hiding it, so why try? The couple who live here opted to give the whole house, stone facade and all, a coat of bright white paint, which reflects light and heat away from the sun-exposed home.

Sure, it’s sleek and modern looking. But the other remarkable thing about this house is that it’s a so-called passive home, meaning that it requires almost no active heating or air conditioning. These handsome, expansive windows are triple-paned and when closed are essentially airtight to maintain climate control. (They do open, though.)

The hard mid-century angles of this exterior are softened up by using a variety of textured materials. Vertically striped wood, pebbles, a succulent patch, and a stone column could have gotten too busy, but the muted color palette keeps the energy in check.

Repainting the front door may seem like the oldest trick in the makeover book, but judicious use of color can add drama—and sometimes a whole new style—to an otherwise staid exterior. These homeowners used a bold hue and added some matching film to the surrounding windows. Now their house looks lit from within and the vibe has changed from cool to warm and inviting.

This classy A-frame was originally cherry red; the new black paint gives off a much calmer vibe and allows the house to blend into its surroundings more easily. Certain penny-pinching moves, like using an inexpensive salvaged door, allowed the homeowner to splurge on other touches, like a custom-made, extra-long table for the deck. One feature the owner is particularly proud of is the decking material, which looks very much like the interior flooring and blurs the line between indoors and out. The landscaping looks like it evolved organically, but the owner planted most of it to make the plot look like even more of a woodland Shangri-La than it already was.

At 1,500 square feet, this Washington home isn’t as big as it looks. It gets a feeling of expansiveness from the high roofline, designed to suggest an alpine lodge. The floor of this weatherproof area is concrete, as is the interior. The continuity helps link the indoors with the outside, amplifying the illusion of space.

Swimming pools usually go in the backyard—but there’s no rule. The family that bought this 90-year-old house decided to make the water, not landscaping, the focal point of their front yard. They kept a lot of original features, respecting the vintage Spanish Revival style. But the pool really helped them put their own energetic stamp on the property.

The roof is sloped because it snows a lot in the part of Oregon where this home is located. The window, though? It just looks cool that way. According to the owners, all that glass makes you feel like you’re inside a snow globe when the white stuff comes down. And that’s how the owners approached the design of their home: with one eye toward functionality, and one focused on making the house look and feel really cool.

Classic midcentury modern lines—a flat, thin roof and low-slung angles—get an exclamation point from the bright orange door. This home further updated the house by painting both the brick and slender vertical paneling white, and adding large pavers from the front door to the street.

Concrete steps lead the way to this Oakland, CA house on a hill—much more modern than the busy red bricks that used to be in their place. Charcoal-colored concrete retaining walls are the perfect neutral color to show off the chartreuse details, from window trim to plan life.

Before a renovation, this bungalow had an aging stucco finish and an unfriendly chain-link fence. The architect maintained the modest exterior but made it more welcoming with a front-yard vegetable garden and a low horizontal fence.

When your house sits on a body of water, “front” and “back” are hard to distinguish. This house on Washington’s Lake Chelan solves the problem by making the driveway side of the home a private area with a lawn and a separate entrance to a guest room. The glass living room doors still allow the homeowners to see the lake the second they drive up."

High on a hillside in Portland overlooking snowcapped Mt. Hood, a modern house clad in Northwestern wood stands. The architect stained the wood matte black to contrast the natural setting and let the creative window placement shine.

The ranch house is as quintessentially Californian as Yosemite and artichokes—and it’s proven to be the most versatile architectural icon we have. This architect homeowner left the shell of his ranch but chose finishes that give it Old World character, including reclaimed weathered wood and plaster siding.

Barn red siding stands out in the often-gray and misty sky on Oregon’s coast. This house is a short walk to the beach so the architect chose a metal roof for more durability against wind, water, and salt.

Huge expanses of glass. Exterior walls that roll up and virtually disappear. Almost 2,400 square feet of deck. This pre-fab house opens wide to the Montana valley where it sits. Industrial touches—like the mechanics to lift the wall open to lead to the deck—nod to the land’s hard-working ranching roots.

Walls of windows frame Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains on one side and a dense forest on the other. The wide-open nature of the home is inspired by the homeowner’s South African roots. The cantilevered roof allows for a deck up top as well.

The back of this San Francisco Edwardian received a contemporary addition clad in white cedar shingles for low maintenance. The shingles will eventually fade to a silvery gray. Copper gutters and black trim add contrast.

This historical Laguna Beach, California, home got a fresh black and white palette, drought-resistant hardscaping, and cheeky touches like the “Adios” sign by the back door. The changes modernized the home without stripping it of character.

To create the feeling of a wraparound porch, the architects outfitted the enclosed porch with wood windows. All the frames got a coat of yellow-gold paint to update the exterior.

The gracious entry that’s a signature of Mediterranean-style homes begs for greenery for even more romance. Dainty Clematis montana hangs from the tiled roof line here, while pots of rounded boxwood and sculptural Agave attenuata enclose the porch and pyramid-shaped wax-leaf privets flank the front door.

To protect the natural landscape of Washington’s Mystery Bay, the architect vaulted this house on an elaborate structure of tripodlike stilts. A wide open-air porch extends across the entire lakeside of the home.

Silvery gray reclaimed wood helps this tall lake house stay unobtrusive. Bonus: It’s basically maintenance-free. Board-formed concrete pillars on the home’s corners accent the barn-like façade.

A remodeled bungalow in Oakland, CA, gains a little formality from grand wide steps and the beautifully painted railings and pergola. Matching palms and pots frame the staircase perfectly.

This Washington cabin’s shed-style pitched roof is a contemporary version of a traditional shape. The architect designed a combination of glass doors and fixed-pane windows, providing big views at less cost than expanses of solid glass.

Gorgeous views of the Santa Ynez Mountains are provided by this glass-walled Montecito home. The steps pan almost the entire length of the home, making them useful for ad hoc seating in the outdoor living space.

Floating concrete platforms lead to the front door of this mountain home, sheltered beneath a large loggia. The exposed beams nod to the ski lodge style in the area. James Hardie siding balances the rustic touches with a smooth, all-weather finish.