5 Architectural Styles with Modern Influence: Keep Your House Integrity When Remodeling  

Keeping the charm while adding convenience is a challenge for older home remodels. When you bought your home, you likely fell in love with the older character elements it has. But, as you lived in it, you started to see the downsides of having a home that wasn’t designed with modern standards of living in mind. How do you balance new and old? The best way to make these decisions is with a professional designer by your side. If you are not quite ready for that step, you can use this guide as a starting point, with tips on how to keep your home’s unique characteristics and be modern at the same time. 

1. Colonial Homes 

Colonial homes are often well-loved two-storey family homes with somewhat limited floor plans. The fireplace and chimney are often defining features of these homes. One thing you can do is take out the ceiling above the living room where the fireplace is to open up the space and make it feel larger. Adding an addition to these homes is often simple so you can make up for the lost space with the addition. 

2. Craftsman Homes 

From the outside, you’ll find that a craftsman home has a low roof and hips. It often has highly contrasting colours. On the inside, you will find a lot of wood elements in these homes. What if all of the wood is a bit much for you? Try replacing select wood elements with other materials to see if that makes the home feel cleaner and more modern to you. Focusing on smooth, white materials is especially helpful. 

Interested in adding a touch of modern elegance to your home? Let the experts at Team Shane help you. Contact us today and we would be happy to guide you!

3. Farmhouse 

Those with farmhouse-style homes are in luck. It is fairly popular for modern homes to include a lot of farmhouse elements, in white, especially in the kitchen. Plus, these homes often feature mudrooms, which are useful when trying to include some modern amenities that you may not have been able to fit in the rest of the house. Just seal up the mudroom and make it a new space with the modern features you are looking for. 

4. Ranch Homes 

Ranch homes are flat-sprawling houses with few frills and an open concept layout. As you can probably already tell, it is easy to make these homes feel more modern. You can add on a second storey for more space. Or, you can simply update the interior. Modern windows can be a particularly important development, as rooms in ranch homes often have multiple for the front and back. 

5. Victorian Homes 

Victorian homes are complex and full of character, but also usually narrow and with odd shapes and irregular rooms. Truly, the joy of remodeling a Victorian home comes from discovering the unique subset of design the house belongs to and taking into account the individual quirks it has. If you choose to open up the home, you can still keep older elements such as decorative trim, eyebrow windows and detailed railings. 

Team Shane can help you keep the great character of your home while also making it more modern. Contact us today.