The Southern Charmer
This Southern Charmer has all the qualities that make a house feel like a home. This low country home is simple and easy to understand. It has a gentle composition of design elements, including an elevated and welcoming front porch, which calms our minds and emotions. This home is just waiting for you to come home and chill on the porch, most preferably with a cold drink in your hand. Life slows down here and helps us reconnect with the important things in our life.
An Anchor Element:
The classic shed dormer anchors the composition, grounding the design elements around a central focus point. This helps balance the different elements. The size of the dormer is just right – not always an easy task to get right. It sits comfortably on the roof without dominating or overwhelming.
Scale + Repetition:
Columns add scale and repetition, creating proportions where we feel comfortable. We now “fit” with the design. We’re comfortable with its size. Columns are based on human proportions, symbols of the human body. They have a base, body, and head, making us feel related to the architecture that surrounds us.
The Comfort of a Porch:
Porches provide shelter and gather breezes, essential elements in many climates. In the southern climate, porches help to move the air where we sit, causing comforting cooling to occur. But more importantly, porches allow us to sit with one another, relax, talk, and just enjoy life.
Design Exploder is a “tool” used by Your MODERN COTTAGE to help explain why we like (and don’t like) the homes where we live. It explodes design elements into their basic form and gives us insight into how designers think. We hope that this tool will empower you to understand your own homes and give you the confidence to make the changes that you need in order to improve your life.
We look forward to your comments, questions, and continued conversations!
