I recently tore the roof off my garage and built a master bedroom addition in it’s place. Everything turned out wonderful, except that the addition is really tall and fairly plain looking from the street. I am trying to think of ways to make the addition look more like it was always a part of the house. Please take a look at my pictures and offer your suggestions.
I attached two pictures, a before and an after. You can see how the addition dwarfs the existing structure, and it is flat compared to the right side of the house which has the bay window and the front porch. I know I should have probably thought of this before I built the addition, but I am hopeful that some of you might have some ideas on how to make the addition fit in better with my neighborhood and the rest of my house. Thanks!
Franco
Replies
Nice work Franco. I especially like the scalloped look sidewall shingles. There is a white band/belt that visually separates the scallops from the regular siding. How about another identical belt right at about the level of that light over the garage door. Maybe it could be applied right over the existing siding. What is the siding & scalloped shingle material? I think the second belt would help break up the large expanse of siding and make the new addition look less tall.
.View Image
What's it look like with the garage door closed?
I'm from Indiana, a basketball hoop above the garage door is what we would do here.
I dont know how much work you are willing to do but...
I'll second the overhang above the garage door.
The problem I see with the house is that the nice "feature window" is now in the background and the smaller bedroom window is the new face of the house. Its almost like you are looking at the rear of the house
I would add a couple of flanking windows and maybe lower it while I was at it.
Another option would be to make the window a bay window and have it die into the new garage overhang the way the old bay window dies into the porch overhang.
I'd replace the bedroom window with a larger window and make it a box bay, bumped out about 8 or 10". I'd also build a small (say 2' projection) roof bump out over the garage door. Will do wonders to save your garage doors from weather too.
MERC.
I'd also build a small (say 2' projection) roof bump out over the garage door.
That was my thought as soon as I saw the photo. Also, include a couple of recessed lights in the bump out that project down...they will illuminate the garage door area.
I think the bump out would tie in with the farmers porch look on the house.
(Nice job!)
-Mark
I think the bump out would tie in with the farmers porch look on the house.
That's the direction I was thinking of, too. Except, I'd make a shallow version 2-3' deep of the porch roof to span over the garage. That would tie the look across the front.
Barring that, I'd suggest a water table band about even with the middle of the porch roof, then either a shingle, or a pattern, or a color change on either side of that.
In a perfect world, before you finished framing, I would have recommended a combined window unit in 1-2-1 or 1-3-1 proportions (1-3, 2-6, 1-3; or a 1-0, 3-0, 1-0), as that would have "looked" like a squashed flat bay window, which could then have some trim added to "fill: the wall up a little better.
But that's me, others differ.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Follow through with pitch like the porch roof over the garage, you could do it at that same height or close to it to keep it looking congruent.
Your house looks very contemporary, dont ruin it with shutters... theyve been 'out' for 20 years, it will look trashy. I would only put them if it was historical need.
The area is floating at the moment, it needs the break in space, and color. Roof shingle the new overhang with the same color as the rest of the house and that darker spot will help to ground that whole area.
Im not sure if the garage door is white, but if after the new fix it still seems like it is going to blow away, consider painting it a darker color... if you can pick one you have already used.
One other thing you could try, and you could use a mock up and see what you think is to ground the window. The bay and the porch have strong horizontal white bands throw a heavy trim skirt/apron up underneath the new window and see how you like it. If the mock works, add it.
-zen
Edited 12/29/2004 2:57 pm ET by zendo
I think some shutters on the new window would help, as would some sort of a horizontal trim detail on the front, roughly in line with the shed roof (to break up the vertical mass).
And some color changes on the trim would likely help quite a bit.
I like the idea of running another skirt board somewhere about the height of the light fixture.
I also thought perhaps, dropping the light figure considerably.....a foot or so above the garage doors.....and adding a small roof overhang in line with the porch roof. Can`t see from the photo if it would interfere, but running it all the way around the corner and tieing in with porch roof would probably really tie it all in nicely.
Aside from that...nice work!
J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
Dudes! Thanks for the great ideas! I knew I would get something useful out of this. The only question I have is what would the bump out above the garage door look like? Like a sloping roof? Anyone have a picture example I could look at?
Franco
I'm with DJ.
I think the window is out of proportion/too small. Shutters maybe??
Roof over the g door is a great idea.
Maybe something up on the gable??
EricI Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
the garage bump out sounds like a good idea, real good
my initial reaction was shutters, round top over the garage which would help fill a lot of space, singles for the tall narrow windows, and a pair for the bay
like to see shutters contrast from the window trim color but you have the purple and I don't know if purple shutters would be too much
a 4th color?
oh, and como paint the vent
Edited 12/29/2004 1:40 pm ET by Jeff2
Hey, that's not too shabby Franco! Here's a couple of rough renderings with some of the ideas proposed, and a couple of new ones for additional thought.
The problem I see with the new window is that it is too large in proportion to the rest of the windows in the house. It also introduces a prominent arch that isn't found anywhere else on the facade. Arches serve to lift the eye and increase the perceived height. In the case of your window, it causes the gable to feel like it's "looming" over head and that it's even taller than it actually is, which contributes quite a bit to the sense of disproportion.
I didn't show it in the renderings but I liked JAYBIRD's idea of wrapping the proposed garage door roof around and tying it into the existing porch. Anything you can do to flare the base of the addition out and introduce horizontal elements that fit with the existing architecture will go a long way toward pulling the height into proportion.
Edit: I'm not too crazy about option 2 but it's not quite as much of a budget killer as option 1. It's going to be tough to get that window visually scaled down enough to get the proportions "just right." Unfortunately, the replacement gable also does much the same thing as the arch visually, but it works a little better because it's not a new element to the design.
Edited 12/29/2004 2:57 pm ET by Golden Wrecked Angle
Oops - I just realised that I placed that new window about knee high on the first option. Unless you live in the land of Lillyput, you might want to try something more like this...
Very nice............now tell us how'd you do dat?
EricI Love A Hand That Meets My Own,
With A Hold That Causes Some Sensation.
About 15 minutes in Photoshop with about 15 years of experience. :-)>
Which can be better than all the fancy tooltips and service packs around.
Tougher to teach, though, "Yeah, after the first 5, 6 years, this will be almost routine . . . " But then again, most fundamentals are hard learned over many years . . .
I like the repeated bay "gable." Wish I'd thought of it. I also like the band of the purple shingles to fenestrate the window (which was in my original thinking).Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
Excellent job Angle. Very impressive. If i may, what software did you use to produce the renderings? Can that be acheived with Chief Architect?
I think it look dam good, as it is. If you want a change, I got some pink flamigos for the front yard.
I got some pink flamigos for the front yard
LoL! It's a start, but only a start.
I did some grading & landscape work for a fellow. He had a low spot that just wouldn't drain right inside of a circular driveway. While we were fixing this, there were some issues (separate from me) with the house waterline. The yard looked a mess, and for a stretch (they water-drilled under the drive way while I'm trying to grade it out with a Bobcat, kind of mess).
Poor guy starts getting "nag" letters from the HOA about "abandoned" vehicles and "unsightly" clutter. He's no huge fan of the HOA to start. About that time, all of the projects start to fall into place. I get the pond liner in, the plant materials are on site--it's "suddenly" more finished than torn up (like normal on a job). He's still getting nag letters from which ever over-nosey biddybody he's peeved.
I'm adjusting the pond pump, and fiddling with the last ofthe landscape features when a friend of the client pulls up and gives me two pair of flamingos for the pond. Evil grins all around. They go in. Client shows up--even more evil grinning. "Shoot, now I wish I had a dozen." I just happen to have connected up to this new-fangled www thing. I put him on a manufacturer of plastic flamingos. Wind up with 5 poses and three colors, and it looks like a miniature Lake Wachamacallit in Kenya.
One more nag letter shows, he puts out another dozen--the letters stop.
It's down to 12-14, but with cranes & heron mixed in; a sight to see. Residents dissolved the HOA after being annexed, too.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I don't know Chief Architect but I think its a vector based CAD program. For working with images like this one, you need a raster based paint program like Photoshop.
Nice photo editing work, but the design is too much repitition for me. Almost makes it look like a duplex or something...
Matt
Yeah, nice work, Wrecked.
I don't like that little tree in the front yard though. If what you rendered had a wrap around roof to shelter the walkway, and maybe a carriage style garage door...maybe a few lights up in that roof to illuminate the path to the front door and they put that tree in the firewood pile, I think I'd like it.
I see why you added the shutters to the other rendering, to visually widen that window, but I didn't like the way the roof stopped right at the edges of the shutters.
How about some roof brackets for those overhangs. That would help widen the building too, wouldn't it?
LOL - 15 minute concepts rarely result in the perfect plan. The shutters were just a trial run - I was actually trying to narrow the window a bit by casing it with the dark shade. Like I said, I wasn't too crazy about it - that window just gives me fits.
BUT... it's probably not worth ripping the whole thing out for a redo. Very liveable with a little work. There are lots of good ideas in this thread.
Some of them are even affordable. :-)>
Oh yea, the bracket idea... good plan.
compliments to new space and hope you're enjoying it
yes you brought it up and you have a bit of a butt showing on the front of your nice house
easy but very effective fixes
bellyband equal in size to the white cross gable above your halfround window w/ its top edge at the top of the light
a fourth color could be added for your 2nd story area ( above new bellyband ) all around the house - probably best to maintain a deeper / darker color for the ground floor area
looks to me like a verdant area so I'd suggest an open light trellis bridging the garage door halfway between header and new bellyband and feed that clematis vine
good luck John
I'd move the garage to the right side and have a wide front porch, or, build a wraparound porch to the right side.
That garage is really imposing on an otherwise nice house.
or, build a wraparound porch
I like that--I'd be inclined to go over the garage door, the wrap back to where the existing porch is. That would give sheltered access from the driveway, and also do a little to bring the main entarance "to the front," decrasing the dominace of the garage.
A yard feature, complimenting the dimension of the garage might not be a bad idea, either, "framing" the front elevation a little better.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
In addition to all the coments regarding proportions, I suggest victorian accents, especially to the porch railing and posts. It is a victorian shaped house and the accents would work well. Just don't overdo it.
Like others, I think the new window is malproportioned. I strongly agree with the recommendation to replace it with a 3-gang window with an approximate 1:2:1 ratio in the sash width (see CJQA pic below). Note that the windows in the photo still retain a strong vertical emphasis, which is very important in Victorian architecture. You could also use a true Palladian window (see photo), but I'd have to see it drawn up before I could get a feel for how it would look on your house. If you decided to use the Palladian window, get it custom built and copy the geometry of the original style as closely as possible.
The CJQA photo also suggests that you could put a small accent window in the gable if you were inclined to do so.
As others have stated, some sort of horizontal detail over the garage door would help break up a large monotonous space, and possibly tie in with the existing porch. I've attached two photos of an old Victorian to communicate the idea. This particular house also proves that it is possible to place a matching gabled bay under a gabled roof and have it look great. (On your house, however, I think the gable is too wide for such a treatment.)
Although I think the wrap-around porch idea is a good concept, I think it would look too tall over the garage. This is because the actual porch has a floor that is raised several feet off the ground, whereas the garage is at grade elevation.
I think Zen is right about the shutters --- it's too easy for them to look tacky.
Finally, the remodel looks good already; I hope you don't think that I (or anyone else here) is being overly critical. It's great that you're open to constructive criticism.
Once again, thanks to everyone for taking the time to look ar my home and help me fix it. Before you can fix a problem you have to be able to define it, and I couldn't even do that when I first posted. I just knew that something didn't look quite right on the addition. Now I know what is wrong, and I have some great ideas on how to fix it.
I didn't want to limit anyone's imagination from the start, but whatever I do will have to be cheap, after all I am an airline employee! Hell, another couple months like the last few and I'll have to sell the damn house! The shutters are not going to work because none of my neighbors houses have them and the ARB wouldn't go for it. Changing the window won't work because of the expense. What I'm left with is some sort of horizontal detail to break up the expanse of siding, and lowering the light to just above the garage. Instead of just a white skirt board, would using the purple scalloped siding I have in the gables look better?
BTW, can anyone tell that this is a manufactured home, built in a factory in Martinsville, VA, and trucked to Alexandria?
Franco
I think you are on the right track. It easy for us, sitting here at our computer's wielding keyboards and pointing devices to say "Tear it out" "Replace it", especially since we don't have to pay for it... :-) It's a decent looking house - just needs a little tweaking.
BTW - did you ever say what the siding material is? and no - I wouldn't have guessed that it was a factory built house. Matt
Ok, affordable... That was kind of my suspicion on the tail end of a major remodel like this one.
Try this-
Change the blinds, add a couple of skirt boards to create a freeze above the garage door and darken the siding between them.
great photos, ragnar
reminds me of a Cape May,NJ Victorian
Angle,
Could you give us a faked in garage door in a color similar to the scalloped shingle to see if it helps ground with/without the new additions we made?
I didn't take the time to make it look like a door but here are a couple of versions with different colors blocked in. I thought the plumb color on the garage door might look nice myself but I don't think it is going to work after all.
Jackplane,
The photos are from Port Townsend, WA; kind of the Cape May of the west coast.
Here's one of my favorite houses from CM -- I love that triangular detailing over the dormers.
I love that kind of architecture and workmanship... Too bad almost no one can afford it any more. And if they can, they usually end up going for a 7000 sq ft box instead. :-( The one in the first set of pics with the skirt around the house - I had never seen anything like that before. Very interesting.
Matt
Consider an arbor spanning the front, above the garage door. Two or three feet deep. This would accomplish the same thing visually as the pent roof suggested earlier, but much less clunky.
Keep it simple and classic, in the same late Victorian/early Craftsman style as the house. Could be supported by brackets or columns. Painted the same color as the trim. A bit of wisteria...
One might even create an arched arbor to fill more of that blank space between the window and garage door, while echoing the curve of the arched window above.
An entirely different solution could be to add french doors and a balcony, but that's without knowing what's going on inside.
A very simple solution would be to make judicious use of trellises, and perhaps a flower box below the window.
Does that SUV even fit in the danged garage? Does parking it inside require exiting through the tailgate?
To answer a few questions, the siding is cedar, and yes, the Expedition does fit in the garage, by a few inches on each side, but we've never kept it in there because of the Barbie Jeep, the wagon, plastic swimming pool, the motorcycle, etc. Someone also asked about what it looks like with the garage door closed; I can't find a picture but it's wood, white, with no windows. It is also rotting pretty badly, so I'll have to replace it soon.
Franco
Ok, after Kevin's machinations, and your input, the solution I see is to take 5 courses of the siding out where the exiting light fixture is, and use the scalloped shingles. That would make a band similar, visually, to the porch roof. I'd probably start with them painted in the same body color as the siding, and just let the texture show through. If that was not "enough," it would be simple enough to bring in the shingle color as well.
I might be inclinde to make a "picture frame" detail for the light fixture while I was at it. Or, it'd be worth mocking up and looking at.
I'm, on with the awning type roof over the garage door, move the light into the soffit there, and add shutters. A couple of carv ed corbles there and at the porch posts wouldn't hurt either.
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