The Elements of Style

There are phrases that Billy Beson of the Beson Kading Interior Design Group in Minneapolis likes to use about the million-dollar homes he designs. “Expensive ordinary” is not among them. “There was a period of time when bigger was better,” Beson says. The emphasis at the time was on taking up space instead of creating it and, as a result, the massive cookie-cutter mansions were expensive, yet felt ordinary. Missing was an essential (if elusive) element—style.

Like magnificent art, style comes from a wondrous alchemy that’s sometimes hard to define—which makes creating an incredible home challenging, limitless budget or not. Still, Beson and other interior designers, builders, and architects insist there’s no secret formula for creating a luxurious home replete with a signature élan. There are, however, phrases for it. Like “big picture”—followed by “attention to detail.”

Better by Design
There’s a trend afoot in fine homes, starting from the ground up. “I’m seeing people relating to a smaller size home, but with more distinctive architecture and materials, and better space planning,” says Bob Carlson, president of Jyland Distinctive Homes of Wayzata. If there’s a process for achieving high style, Carlson, Beson, and others say it begins with building a team of experts—an architect, builder, and interior designer—before building your house. “Each has a certain set of skills,” Beson says, “and together they create a more powerful experience.”

A great architect brings an aesthetic to your home that will in turn influence the entire project. How your home fits in the surrounding environment, how it takes advantage of available sightlines, how the windows carry and channel light through the home, all are questions asked and answered by an architect.

Besides making sure your home fits its surroundings, an architect tailors your surroundings to fit you and your family through space planning, proportion, and architectural detail. “If there’s no architectural detail, a 10,000-square-foot home feels cavernous,” says Jack Smuckler, architect and owner of Smuckler Architecture and Custom Builders of Edina.

Those details include easily overlooked visual considerations such as ceiling heights, archways, and “soffits” used to break up space and humanize your home. Structural elements like an unexpected alcove, a double entry, or secluded sitting area with a unique view are important, adds Martha O’Hara, interior designer and owner of Martha O’Hara Interiors in Hopkins. “Great homes create a sense of having just a little bit more of everything,” she says. “That’s what makes them feel special.”

Inside and out, thoughtful architecture creates something far beyond the sum of its parts; it establishes your home’s character and a sense of place that’s timeless, meaningful, and unique. “An architect should be involved in the process from day one,” Beson says.

Baby, It’s You
Creating a fabulous interior begins with paying attention to every single detail. But unlike the past, when luxury and formality tended to be linked together (and often dictated style and the ensuing details), no more, says O’Hara. “It isn’t a specific thing or item, like a waterfall tub,” she says. “There isn’t a ‘must have’ to style.” Instead, it’s all about you—and an eclectic mix of what you value combined with focal points, emotions, and sensations. “In luxury homes, the eye should have a lot of texture and elements to take in,” O’Hara says.

Lorene Babcock, a senior designer at Gabberts Design Studio and Fine Furnishings in Edina, finds that clients want the interior of their home to reflect the character, architecture, and personality of the exterior. Each room should create an impression and emotion, beginning with a focal point that sets the tone. “I look at a room as a blank canvas,” she says. “The end result brings together the furnishings, accessories, and colors in a composition. A room may have an important piece of furniture or work of art that has meaning to the owner; this becomes the focal point.” Or maybe the focal point is a fireplace with an incredible hearth and built-ins, beautiful windows that capture a stunning view, or an exquisite armoire. “The whole finished picture must be very rich in texture and appearance,” Babcock says. “It creates an emotion that determines how the room presents."

Establishing that texture often begins with unusual and exotic wood floors. “It’s really becoming a design thing,” says Rick Carlson of Water Street Homes in Excelsior. “We’re choosing a more select wood from a certain segment of a tree solely because of its grain and its visual characteristics.” Though walnut, oak, and cherry have been flooring staples in the region for years, exotic woods including cypress, chestnut, red birch, Brazilian cherry, Australian gumwood, and bamboo all lend intriguing, tactile design characteristics.

If the use and type of wood is frequently dictated by its touch and feel, so too is the use of stone in flooring  and countertops. Limestone, tumbled marble, and composites like Cambria provide more visual interest than traditional polished marble and granite, though the stalwarts are still used when they contain an unusual pattern or color. Stone surfaces are highlighted to show off their natural beauty.

“The bathrooms need to combine luxury and style,” Rick Carlson says. “So we may do a shower in natural stone with very expensive detailing, and then a frameless glass wall that shows off that detailed stone.”

If there is a trend in interior design beyond eclectic (and most designers insist there isn’t), it’s the use of natural materials. Babcock says linens, cottons, wools, velvet, and mohair used in “puddle” plush draperies and upholstering creates a classic look that’s approachable yet elegant. Besides fabric, upholstered filigrees and trims, including beads, bouillon fringes, and tassels add a final dash to the room’s overall appeal. “We’re moving away from casual fabrics like chenille to natural fibers with a ‘forever’ look that’s fine, rich, and sophisticated,” Babcock says.

Designer Billy Beson likes to call it “grounding” the environment with natural materials, or as designer David Heide of David Heide Design Studio in Minneapolis suggests, materials that are pure. “For me it’s about choosing the right material for what you’re trying to accomplish and finding the truth and beauty of pure materials,” Heide says. “The truth in materials prevails.”

For many, that truth means returning to Old World materials and techniques, like timbered ceilings, real stucco, and masonry walls covered with custard-thick coats of top quality paint from Benjamin Moore, or “character” windows trimmed with cedar or mahogany: all feel as if they came from long ago and far away.

“We’re using a lot of reclaimed material,” Bob Carlson says. Besides 100-year-old timber used for floors, built-ins, and more, “found” pieces including trusses, bricks, stone, and light fixtures lend meaning through their origin and provide character that newer materials simply can’t.

Found and reclaimed materials have a history, and were often hand-made by artisans and craftsmen specifically for a homeowner using techniques that have become increasingly rare. Those are the very reasons they’re valuable, and why Heide urges his clients to either find unique pieces, or commission similar work for their homes. “A cabinetmaker I work with has a saying,” Heide recalls. “‘It’s not that they don’t build them like they used to, it’s that you can’t find people to pay for them like they used to.’”

Personalized decorative art, integrated into the architecture, literally weaves your style into your home. Railings made by ironmongers, custom-crafted ceramic tiles and millwork, fine silk wall coverings, all add singular touches that feel priceless. One of Heide’s clients had cabochons made from each child’s birthstone inserted into custom-made stained glass windows. And of course, paintings, sculptures, and other works of art created just for you contain a special meaning and what Heide calls an “emotional value.”

By commissioning artwork and unique materials, you’re literally creating artifacts. And the process of becoming a patron, of meeting the artisans, coming to know and appreciate their talent and skills, along with supporting their work and craft, adds even more significance to your home, and its role in the community. Perhaps not as readily apparent as textures and focal points, Heide and others suggest that your values ultimately translate into your style.
At Home in Your Environment
While interior design focuses largely on refined eclecticism, stylish living includes luxury inside and out—along with a growing regard for the environment.

“Luxury is meeting as many of your desires as possible,” says homebuilder Greg Narr of Narr Construction in Hopkins. “Style is how you meet those desires.”

Narr says his clients’ homes frequently have flat-screen TVs in every space imaginable, along with iPod docking stations. Warming drawers for towels, climate-controlled cosmetic drawers, soaking tubs that fill from the ceiling, elaborate wine cellars, golf simulators, steam rooms and saunas, all are de rigueur in upper-bracket homes to meet today’s most demanding desires.

Says O’Hara, “It’s the same thing as a super-expensive hotel room, where the towels are thicker than you’ve ever felt, the sheets are softer than you’ve ever felt, and everywhere you turn every single detail has been thought out.”

Those details extend outdoors, too. “Fireplaces in outdoor spaces started out on porches,” Narr says. “Now they’re architectural elements included in all kinds of places.” Fireplaces are spread across multiple patios and gardens or courtyards. Alongside built-in gas grills are entire functioning outdoor kitchens.

Narr says the trend of taking the indoors out (or vice versa) doesn’t end there. Fully heated garages are finished to interior levels (including flat screen TVs) and outfitted with specially made lockers to keep hockey and ski equipment from cluttering up the rest of the home. Sport courts with—and without—adjoining exercise rooms give kids a place to gather and play throughout the year.

Even rooms that lead outside include special touches to blend inside with outside. “Exterior stones and sconces are brought inside in order to create a transition point,” Narr says.

Builders say homeowners are now focusing on how their homes impact the environment at large. “Green” heating and cooling systems, including geothermal heating and “on-demand” hot water are becoming increasingly popular, even though their initial cost is significantly higher than traditional alternatives. According to Narr, a typical high-efficiency heating system for a 5,000-square-foot home costs approximately $30,000. Add another $30,000 or so for a geothermal system. But you’ll save nearly 60 to 70 percent in heating and cooling annually, which means the system pays for itself in about ten years. You’ll also reduce your family’s “carbon footprint,” which has a value of real significance.

And in the end, how you choose to live and what you value directly equates to your personal style and that of your home. There’s an art to living, and an art to creating a stylish home. Both, as Heide might suggest, favor what’s real and true over fashionable trends. For as French designer Yves St. Laurent says, “Fashions fade. Style is eternal.”