11/26/2025
UPDATED 11/23/25 since originally posted:
So excited to get started on this project! It'll be (2) phases - 1st the roof & gable ends, and then the Doors/Windows.
So a friend reached out after I posted about the house I drafted in the Creole style and wondered if anything could be done with the front of their house. It sounded challenging, so of course I obliged.
It was built in the 90's, and it was thought to be an attempt at the time to attain that popular "Acadian Style" so sought after in Louisiana homes. Very few actually do. Obviously, you could do so much with endless funds, but keeping in with a reasonable budget, and a few hours later, we came up with this:
We may just have to take this to construction....
Just a few notes:
• We raised the entablature; the previous one couldn't figure out if it wanted to be a porch or an overhang. Chopped off the overhangs and extended up the fascia on both the main center (stuccoed) structure and (2) (bricked) appendages.
• Added gutters and incorporated them as part of the entablature instead of hanging on "add-on's".
• Changed out the center fan door with a pair of simple shuttered 10-lite French Doors
• Replaced the front 4/4 windows with 10x10 casement windows (as to not cause extra labor in moving or adjusting the existing bay
• Replaced the 4/4 appendage windows with 6/6 traditional single hung sashes. The appendages are brick veneered btw. You can't see it here, but by adding a wood frame around the windows within the brick, it makes the window "pop".
• Added (2) more square columns to give the bays more vericality (did I just make that word up?)
• Added handrails (even though they're not needed). They help add to the look of an Acadian style house and they also add scale. By lowering the handrails to the old height of 30" high, they make the ceiling look taller which adds to the overall look and feel of this style.
The narrative we went for was a 1790's - 1820 Spanish/French style home in the center structure, with "later added" Acadian style appendages of a different time (post 1820, maybe 1850's, sometime before Victorian is all that mattered) This is all in a few hours mind you.
Today I find that most houses being built are done so by builders with predetermined floor plans and the builder hands you a few options to go choose your builder-grade door, window, roof, outside finish, and hardware, and none of it has a narrative in mind and you end up with a modern door, metal roof, with old brick, and a Victorian window, and the house is asking, "Who am I?", and the answer is "the result of a going out of business fire sale from the local lumber yard". Who knows who you are...
Everyone's taste is different. Some like Victorian, some like French, some Greek revival - just pick one, and you'll be fine. It takes a very rare, and I mean rare person to be able to mix different ones and it still come out looking good, so it's best not to mix styles (too much that is).
That's only my opinion, and that's all it is - just sharing
