When people first meet a house that is unloved and failed, or out of bloated and date, the trend can be to rush to demolition or take everything away and start from scratch. But tearing down a house usually means that a few of the best features and charm will be lost forever. Additionally, a huge quantity of waste is created. And everyone’s houses begin to look exactly the same when the old is substituted using exactly the exact same, off-the-shelf new.
Whether your budget or your own love for older houses prevents you from altering the roofline, tile and walls, it’s often required to get creative and utilize what you already have. Sure, it’s difficult to see past a first bad impression, but with patience and a practiced eye anything is possible.
If you’ve ended up having a house that befuddles you or appears less than perfect, do not despair. The challenge of making something wonderful and unique out of something others may take down can truly be the fun part! Let us look at three cases of houses the owners worked with rather than tearing down.
Before Photo
1. Creative Vancouver Cabin
I grew up in Alaska, and this type of house is all of the rage there. This is a house that I would have walked up to and said, “Thank you, I’ve seen enough.” And I usually wish to save all. Many people told the owners, Canadian designers Ian McLeod and Kerry Johnson, to rip it down.
Johnson + McLeod Design Consultants
AFTER: However, McLeod and Johnson found good bones and an amazing location. With bold black exterior paint along with a few subtle layout moves — such as adding a more contemporary porch railing and staircase — they broke up the boxlike texture of the exterior and added architectural interest without making any major changes.
Johnson + McLeod Design Consultants
And they get to wake up for this.
Before Photo
In the interior McLeod and Johnson made a few decisions that completely changed the texture of the house. In this before picture, the wall dividing the kitchen and living room blocks a whole lot of light. As it’s dark, it isn’t difficult to believe the ceiling and floors may need to be replaced or refinished.
Johnson + McLeod Design Consultants
AFTER: Taking down one wall and framing the opening out altered the look of the room without drastically altering the design. The couple added a cool contemporary island, painted the walls bright white, replaced the cabinets with family members and added fresh furniture and lighting. These basic changes allowed them to depart the floors, ceiling and basic form of the room exactly the same.
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Popp Littrell Architecture + Interiors
2. Vintage Tahoe A-Frame
Another house from my youth is your A-frame kit dwelling. It is beginning to seem interesting to me again, but there was a time when I would have run the other way. You want me to live where? In a triangle?
Before Photo
But owner and architect Curtis Popp, of Popp Littrell Architecture and Interiors, saw beyond this house’s oddly shaped walls, awkward windows along with forest’s value of timber paneling, and utilized everything to his advantage.
Popp Littrell Architecture + Interiors
AFTER: Popp described the angles of the beams with black paint, took out the laminate and added much more timber, ingeniously using the beams as a framework for open shelving to highlight the cool lines of the A-frame’s form.
Popp Littrell Architecture + Interiors
Popp also utilized a relatively inexpensive black slate flooring tile from Dahl from the kitchen and bath. It came laid out on net, making it easier to install.
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Before Photo
3. Beautiful Virginia Cottage
Another common impulse would be to bring an improvement that changes the scale and charm of the original house, or tear down the initial completely and build out the lot edge to edge. However, the best parts of the coveted place can be ruined that way: the color tree cut down, the sight point destroyed, the lawn to relax in gone.
The owners of this 1940s cabin in Virginia wine country maintained the modest scale of their cabin intact and added a little bathroom. They transferred the entry door, installed energy-efficient windows, added siding and trim, and shut the existing metal roof.
Then the owners, who are landscape architects, attracted in 20 dump-truck heaps of fill to build up the incline and make beautiful gardens and outdoor spaces. Keeping the footprint of the house little gave them the budget and space to make the most of the cottage’s amazing picture possible.
They used stone gathered from the property to construct backyard walls and steps. Past the budget and environmental friendliness of free rock, I believe saving and using material found on a house is a great design decision — it’s less likely to check out of place, and it reasons the layout from the area’s natural surroundings.
Working with a small footprint may mean making compromises, like a steep ladder to an attic bedroom. But saving an original construction means obtaining a built-in lighting quality and history that do not come with new construction.
Honoring the original charm of a place and making easy, modest changes can make the house the one everybody stops and admires, because it’s a certain something individuals can not put their finger. More significant, it can increase your spirits a bit every time you come home.
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