Good House of the Week: St Charles County, Missouri
Added 2017-07-14 01:22:37 +0000 UTCI'm going to be up front with you: there are two things I don't like about this house. One is, of course, the shutters. The other is the brick veneer which I find unnecessary as it clashes with rather than compliments those amazing wood shingles. Limiting the house to (what I assume is) fibre cement siding and wood shingles would make the exterior seem much less busy.
The main lesson to learn from this house is how important consistent window shape, size and placement is. Despite the somewhat chaotic mix of different materials, the windows manage to tie everything together into a cohesive whole. The windows on this house (shutters withstanding) are themselves gorgeous - high quality construction with real muntins that cast exterior shadows. They make what is obviously a new house have that much more authenticity.
Windows aside, the architectural composition of this house is also lovely. The little breezeway attaching the garage to the main house is charming and keeps the garage from swallowing up the main house. The matching oriels (second story bay windows) give the second story the visual weight it needs to balance the heavy portico on the first floor. The lines are simple and, importantly, the gables are all the same pitch.
