New Home Design features Granny Flat!

Simply Elegant Home Designs is now offering a new house plan featuring an above garage "granny flat" apartment - The "Deephaven Eclectic Cottage".

Earlier this year one of my designs was featured in a new book called "In Laws, Outlaws and Granny Flats" (Taunton Press, by Michael Litchfield).  The book features ways that folks can add value to their homes by adding second dwelling units.  This seems so relevant to me given our current economic climate.  Therefore I decided to develop our first house plan that features a second dwelling unit.  The result is our "Deephaven Eclectic Cottage" - illustrated below.

Form is dominated by crossing gables punctuated with shed dormers.  Careful attention was paid to the scale, proportions and patterns developed by all of  the various building elements.

The apartment above is accessed by it's own entry at the back of the garage.  If desired the garage can also be segmented to provide a private parking zone for the apartment.  The main floor features gracious open living spaces and a wrap around front porch.  The screen porch is placed at the outside corner thus minimizing its impact on natural light and views from the spaces within.

Upper Level Floor Plan.  The apartment (above the garage) includes it's own kitchen, living, bathroom, eating areas and bedroom.  The apartment can also be accessed from the second floor of the main house.

"Black and White" color study - front elevation.  This demonstrates the simple yet sophisticated character of this home.

Rear Elevation

Right Side Elevation

All in all I think this is a really exciting new house plan offering.  More information on this home can be obtained at the following:  "Deephaven Eclectic Cottage".

New Cottage House Plan

Larson Brenner Architects (Stillwater, MN) is creating a new Cottage House Plan design for Kyle Hunt & Partners. The design is characterized by a dramatic steep front gable roof line and will feature a modern open floor plan.

Kyle Hunt & Partners is a builder that specializes in crafting Architect designed homes. They have created strategic partnerships with several Architects including Larson Brenner to provide services for their clients. This design will be featured at their Locust Hills neighborhood in Minnetonka, MN.

The two images below depict the design in two color studies.

Simple,Unique, Creative and Green House Plans

New Modern Cottage House Plan

Simply Elegant Home Designs is offering a new house plan called the "Scandia Modern Cottage". The Scandia Modern Cottage was inspired by a recent visit to an infamous Scandinavean furniture store. On that visit this designer was struck by how small spaces could be made to be very efficient and liveable and in fact feel spacious. So I decided to set out to create a design with those same qualities.

The resulting design exhibits it's Scandinavean influences both inside and out. The exterior is characterized by simple gable and shed forms, strong and simple detailing and modern window styles / patterns. The design offers an open main floor with connected spaces. The two bedrooms and a shared bath fit under the gable roof lines on the second floor. At 1178 square feet this is the smallest plan that Simply Elegant now offers. The images below depict the design.

scandia modern cottage - front elevation

scandia modern cottage - view from back yard

You can obtain more information on this plan and others at Simply Elegant Home Designs.