Beautiful Emerging Home Exterior Trends

I have been SO excited to talk with you all about some of the beautiful emerging home exterior trends that I have been seeing in the last 12-18 months. If you’re looking to update the exterior of your home or planning to build in the next few years, I have a lot of inspiration to share with guys today that I think you’re gonna love!

Modern European Home Style

It’s so interesting how we move through home exterior trends and how the most popular design style will evolve over 4-8 year period and morph into a whole new home style, while still having elements from the original style. That’s what we’re seeing in a big way with the farmhouse style that has evolved into modern European (farmhouse) style. I put farmhouse in parenthesis because with this emerging European trend, some of the new homes I see have very little farmhouse elements and are more refined. However, I am also seeing new homes that have a mix of European and traditional farmhouse, so I would add “farmhouse” to a modern European home style if it has a lot of farm house elements.

Just to show you what I mean, the Millhaven house below has all the elements of a traditional modern farmhouse style:

This house below is modern European farmhouse because it has elements of both European and farmhouse; less board and batten, more stone and arched entry.

 

However, this house below is a modern European (without adding farmhouse) because it has very few farmhouse elements:

This is the same house below, just a side view of the house. That door, entry and all the other elements are 100% European influenced. No farmhouse here.

The warmer roof shingles, all of the home lighting and refined lines are also European design elements.

Modern European (farmhouse) is so much of what I am seeing today and I really love it. I do still see some traditional farmhouse in new construction but it’s now mostly in more rural areas and in the country with land. I live in East Texas and the traditional farmhouse style is still the top design trend right now in new construction like this below:

Let me show you some incredible examples of beautiful European home design elements that I have run across.

One of my all-time favorite builders is Cambridge Homes in Utah and I love all of the European elements in this coastal manor style home below that they featured in the 2022 UV Parade of Homes.  It was such a treat to get to walk through it.

While yes, this custom home is very large (10,000 square feet) but there are so many stunning European inspiring details that could be incorporated on a smaller scale or even on an exterior remodel. That mix of composite shake and painted creamy brick was so perfectly balanced and inspiring. By the way, adding composite shake in small accent areas on the exterior is a great way to break up painted brick or stucco in both new construction or an exterior remodel.

Chell and Chad at Cambridge Homes build incredible and truly inspiring homes. I always go to the Cambridge Homes first when I do the UV Parade of homes because I know that I will blown away.

Some of you may remember when I featured the amazing Cambridge home tour from the 2019 UV Parade. I still dream about that charcoal composite shake they used on the stunning exteriors:

 

A modern European home style exterior will usually have a mix of elements including stone, stucco, shake and even painted brick. We’ll also see more arches, warmer roof shingle colors and just more of a refined design style when it comes to European influences.

 

Larger Outdoor Living Spaces

Another strong emerging home exterior trend that I have been seeing is larger outdoor living spaces. This trend has really exploded in the last few years in new construction and I can’t help but think being stuck for so long in homes during Covid has played a big role with what we’re seeing today. 5-7 years ago, when I started touring Parade Homes and new construction, I rarely saw anything more than a covered patio and maybe a pool. However, in the last 18 months, almost every new home I see has larger spaces dedicated to outdoor entertaining, whether an outdoor kitchen, putting green, pool house, fire pits and multiple outdoor conversation areas.

I am also seeing a lot more pool houses or open covered separate spaces with an outdoor kitchen and seating. This pool house or guest house below had a second floor with guest suites. In fact, I’m also working on a project for a client right now with a separate pool house/guest cottage very similar. It’s so interesting that we are seeing so much more of these separate dedicated spaces.

Some of you may remember that a few years ago, I too added a large outdoor pool house/structure with an outdoor kitchen, seating areas and fireplace. Like so many others jumping on this outdoor living trend, we did it because we dreamed of living outdoors as much as possible and we do. I work often from the kitchen island and we grill almost every night.

The best thing we ever did was add our outdoor kitchen/pool house. We knew we would spend all of our time out there and we really do. So I first hand understand why this outdoor trend has really grown over the last few years because we all want to live, play and entertain outdoors as much as we can. A local builder told me he is now building smaller homes with larger outdoor areas and separate outdoor structures like mine.

If you’re interested or have questions about building an outdoor space, I shared all of the pros/cons here.

By the way, pools are getting bigger and more elaborate as well.

 

These outdoor spaces are really getting elaborate and I’m seeing a lot more retractable doors incorporated to open the house up to the outdoor spaces.

I have no doubt that this outdoor living trend is going to continue to explode and I do think we could see smaller homes and larger outdoor areas and separate structures with open kitchens and guest suites. Makes a lot of sense!

More Windows

Speaking of our love of being outside, we’re also seeing this outdoor trend reflected in new homes and remodels. The windows are getting bigger, taller, wider, stacked and a lot more of them. Again, this is another trend that has really blown up in the last few years. In fact, not only am I see this trend when I tour new homes, I’m seeing this with my own design clients as we draw up home plans and my clients wanting floor to ceiling windows everywhere that we can fit them in.

 

We want to feel like we’re outside and we want all that beautiful natural light. If I were building today, I would seriously have a glass house! LOL!

 

Just look at this home that I toured in the last year. Even 3-4 years ago, we would have never seen this many windows and they would have been smaller.

 

 

 

I am also seeing some very creative ways of stacking of windows and transoms. I really love it! We have so many more beautiful window options today than we did even just a couple years ago. The window manufacturers are really listening to consumers to meet this big trend in windows.

 

This home below had the most amazing natural light flooding throughout all of the main floor because of all of their stacked windows.

 As long as the window stacking fits and works with the overall exterior design, it really is beautiful inside and out. AND.. so many people are adding more windows in remodeling. It’s one of the best home remodel updates that you can do. I did it with my own house by add three double glass doors across the front of my house to add more light and update my exterior.

This is my house BEFORE below:

This was what the house looked like after the remodel:

If you want more natural light in your existing home, while at the same time updating, switching out windows is a fantastic option. Pricy but well worth it. BUT, I would recommend having a designer give you specific recommendations because design style, size and scale will impact the look of your home.

Those are the biggest emerging trends that I have been seeing in the last 12-18 months. I didn’t get the chance to share inspiration on painted brick and beautiful examples of exterior layered texture mixes. Let me know below if you guys have any interest on me doing a full post on those topics. I have hundreds of beautiful exterior images taken in the last two years that I haven’t shared with you guys yet. Would love to know what you would like to see.

Thanks for stopping by friends. If you missed last week’s 2024 Paint Color Trends and Forecast post, be sure and check out all these beautiful trending paint colors!

Cheers!

Cyndy