Come And Knock On My Door

Most people would associate an Interior Designer with only the furniture selection for a residence. The common misconception is that we just pick out pillows and chairs and sometimes paint colors. That's why we stress the difference between a "decorator" and a "designer". On a ground up construction the Interior Designer is often consulted on the smallest design aesthetics like door knobs and base boards, and usually continuously works with the architect revising the floor plan.

Why meddle in the floor plan? Well, a designer often understands the way in which we move around furniture and can see opportunities for architectural details. Sometimes a designer can understand the need for privacy in certain areas (if you're sitting on the sofa are you looking into the bathroom?).

I'm working on a remodel of a Central Coast home and we are in the final steps of deciding on the look of the residence. This means creating multiple exterior elevations of the home based on the desired style (Spanish) for the client to see how different design elements will come together.

My focus in this process is to establish the front door and let the rest of the home build off of that. If the front door is heavy in stone, where else can we use stone elements to unify the look? Which windows will be arched? Where can we apply decorative metal over small windows? Are the roofing beams exposed? And so on.

Above is one of three front door options I've worked out so far. This option is a stone surround with a rectangular wooden door. The ideal goal is to provide some sort of shelter over the front door without building out too far from the house.

Below, the other two options.

This option is very simple, and is meant to be more of a back-up plan. It's still being determined by the city if we are even allowed to build off of this wall and approach the property line. This is a simple Spanish style commonly seen where the door is surrounded by decorative tile. The tile impacts the elevation by clearly indicating a point of entry.

And the final option is another heavy stone surround, this time implementing an arched door and playing off of those lines. If you notice the window on the left follows this shape and this time I featured a square decorative iron panel over the small window on the right to break up the shapes.