Knowing Your Home's Style...
the Key to Visual Consistency and Beauty
Style Book information and graphics courtesy Andersen Windows
Years ago, I took a course in home inspection. Because of my extensive experience in troubleshooting home repair problems, I found it to be fairly simple. However, one section was a real challenge... a section dealing with the identification of home "styles".
What's important about knowing your home's style?
You might wonder, why would a home inspector need to know the style of a home? Well, I wondered the same thing and I discovered that knowing home styles can help you determine such things as the age of major renovations and also potential problems related to style, such as roof valleys that may need extra care to prevent leaks.
Still, home style can be confusing. The fact is a minority of homes are purely one style or the other. Many builders and architects will borrow bits and pieces from different styles to meet their needs. For example, they might incorporate large areas of glass, typical of a contemporary style, into a colonial style (which would not typically use floor to ceiling windows) to take advantage of a great view, while keeping to the more simple, space-efficient colonial style!
Need help? Andersen has developed what they call "Home Style Pattern Books".
These books, available in print or digital form, not only help the homeowner and builder to determine the predominant style of a home, but also help in the selection of the best possible window, door and trim options to keep design consistency.
Below are photos and short descriptions of the styles and pattern books currently (or soon to be) available.
You can download a copy of the pattern book in .pdf from our website by clicking on the links below, or if you'd like to purchase a printed copy visit Andersen's site at: http://www.andersenwindows.com/home-styles/
American Farmhouse
The Ranch or rambler home style is a single-story, long and narrow architecture, features casement or double-hung windows flanking a large picture window, and horizontal grilles or no grilles. Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Craftsman Bungalow
Craftsman Bungalow home styles developed from the British Arts & Crafts movement, featuring double-hung or casement window, exterior trim that contrasts with the window frame color, and grille patterns that create vertical proportions. Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Georgian / Federal
The Georgian Federal home style is a variation of colonial architecture, features tall double-hung windows simple window combinations and multiple divided lights with rectangular grilles. Download this FREE pattern book in PDF
French Eclectic
The French Eclectic home style features combination of French architectural styles, was popularized by soldiers returning from WW1, tall, steeply pitched, hipped or gabled roofs, and vertically oriented windows with grilles. Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Queen Anne
The Queen Anne home style emerged during Victorian era (1880-1910), features gables, bay windows, towers and overhangs, double-hung windows often with art glass, and grille patterns create geometric shapes.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Prairie
The Prairie home style is the first architecture of American origin; features casement windows that combine in horizontal shapes, brown, red and rust window trim colors, and art glass or Prairie grilles.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Ranch or "Rambler"
The Ranch or rambler home style is a single-story, long and narrow architecture, features casement or double-hung windows flanking a large picture window, and horizontal grilles or no grilles. (Pattern book to be released soon.)
Tudor
The Tudor home style is based on English folk/late medieval palaces, features asymmetrical-style architecture, window frames tend to be dark wood tones, and rectangular or diamond-shaped grilles.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Shingle
The Shingle home style is distinctly American and traces its beginnings to the late 19th Century, with interiors borrowed heavily from the Arts & Crafts style, features window height-to-width proportion of 2-to-1, a wide variety of accent windows, and 6" x 6" square grille patterns.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Spanish Colonial
The Spanish Colonial home style features a combination of Spanish home styles, stucco walls, balconies, patios, casement windows and French doors, and tall, narrow windows with rectangular grilles.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Cape Cod
The Cape Cod style home is distinctly American. It evolved from New England's early Colonial style houses in the early 1700s. A functional style, steeply pitched roofs helped reduce buildup of ice and snow and window shutters were fully functional to block our the wind.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.
Mission Revival
Inspired by Spanish mission churches built in the early 1600s, Mission Revival style architecture first appeared in California around 1885. Instead of the finely detailed styling of eastern United States architecture, Mission Revival was a splash of boldness with large arches and stucco.
Download this FREE pattern book in PDF.