It's in the Details

Step into the entry of any home and chances are some special detail will catch your eye: a bank of soft cove lighting expertly concealed by molding along the ceiling, warm hickory paneling on the walls, or a smoothed wide-plank hardwood floor. Even better, you may walk in and notice nothing more than a cleanly designed, sophisticated home. Whether they’re meant to stand out or blend into a cohesive whole, a home’s special finishes definitely contribute to its character and livability.

“People have lots of reasons for different interior finishes,” says Erin Mathern, development director of Mendota Homes of St. Paul, which specializes in town home and condominium construction. “Maybe they saw something they really like, or it’s something they have in their current home. They’re really styling the place where they’re going to live.” Pat Schumacher, managing partner of Koestering Schumacher Homes, a Savage-based designer and builder of custom homes, agrees. “Depending on the overall statement the house is making, it all begins with the selections going into the house,” she says. A craftsman-style home, for instance, calls for quarter-sawn oak as opposed to standard rotary-cut oak accents. Darker woods smack of an Old World, European look. Using the right type or treatment of wood in a particular design aesthetic is important to maintaining the overall effect.

Clearly, the little things do mean a lot. Flooring, countertops, paneling, molding, and other seemingly minor architectural elements contribute in an integral way to make a home more interesting.

Ground Level
Flooring has a significant impact on not only the feel of a home, but the rest of the finishing details a homebuyer selects. “It’s the base of your palette,” says Mark Youngdahl, CEO of Senn & Youngdahl, a Stillwater custom homebuilder. “It has such an influence on cabinetry, walls, fixtures, appliances.” The flooring, therefore, is one of the first things that should be decided on in a new home.

More and more homebuyers are deciding to shun shag and choose hard-surface flooring, which includes wood, tile, concrete, or stone. Several homes built by Water Street Homes, a custom residential design and build contractor in Excelsior, include no carpet whatsoever. “Hardwood is the most popular of hard-surface choices,” says Water Street Home president Rick Carlson. “It’s the warmest visually and underfoot, without a heated floor. And the most affordable versus a tile or stone product.”

Wood floors can be solid hardwood, composite with a wood veneer on top, or a laminate floor with a wood-grain design, such as Pergo flooring. Folks who prefer solid hardwood floors have a plethora of wood varieties from which to select. Old standards, like walnut and maple, are giving way to new materials, such as cork and more-sustainable bamboo. “Ten years ago, nine of ten wood floors we put in would be oak, and the other something like maple or birch,” says Schumacher. “Today, there is very individual selection on wood floors. Importers have gotten more availability and are bringing in a lot of stuff from outside the U.S.” Santos mahogany, Brazilian cherry, and other exotic imports now compete with new treatments of old favorites, such as rift- and quarter-sawn oak floors offered in larger slat widths.

Other hard surfaces work well to finish spaces that wood can’t, especially in a basement-level room. In fact, the concrete that slate or tile would cover in many of those spaces is increasingly seen as a finished floor treatment in its own right. “There are lots of different concrete solutions,” says Mathern. “The way it’s laid and finished and troweled will encourage different elements to rise to the top. You can dictate a rough feel or influence the color through the finish.” Concrete floors can be colored before they’re poured or stained for subtle color effects. They can even be etched with acid. Still, many who opt for concrete like a natural look, even if that means a surface patina showing the scuffs of construction tools.

Wall-to-Wall
Look up from the floor, and you’ll notice several more elements that add design interest in a home. Baseboards and molding, which run along seams at the bottom and top of walls, respectively, are two types of trim that can add flair or a neutral touch. “Many clients want the trim to blend in and not be an eye-catching element,” says Mathern. Different sizes and materials can be used to achieve either goal. Youngdahl, for instance, typically uses standard, unobtrusive trim that fits the retro feel of his company’s simple, clean design style. “A lot of builders will add just for the sake of adding,” he says. “Customers are inclined to do that also. Our design philosophy is based on the premise that less is actually more.”

For many homebuyers, however, molding is an element that begs to be bold. “A larger molding is a look that has been fairly consistent” over time, Mathern says. “People think of it as an older look.” The older look disguises modern functions. Molding in today’s homes can hide cove lighting, drop-down projection screen slots in ceilings, or window treatments that retract into walls. The walls themselves can feature added wood accents in the form of wainscoting, faux finishes on sheetrock, and enamel overlays. Wood paneling can really add warmth and character to a room, says Schumacher. “It adds a lot for not a lot of cost. We’re doing a lot of it in our homes.”

Walls finished in standard drywall can sport a plaster veneer for a more subtle, old-fashioned effect. Plaster can be tinted a specific color, and applied with as much texture as a homeowner likes. Carlson lauds the appeal of plaster. “When people walk into a house, they feel the difference that it makes, even though don’t always see the difference,” he says.

Fireplaces are another element that people notice when they enter a room. K. Hovnanian Homes, a national publicly traded builder with an office in Lake Elmo, offers selections of different fireplace treatments in their standard home plans. “Option A is fairly straightforward: a mantel with a tile surround,” says Bob Appert, director of construction services. “Option B would take cultured stone up to the ceiling with a built-in bookcase. Both options would have the choice of different woods.”

Besides the hearth, many consider the kitchen the heart of a home. Cabinetry, countertops, and hardware can add immeasurably to a home’s aura. Center islands are a focal point, especially those finished with granite, Corian, marble, limestone, quartz, or another hard-surface countertop. Color, size, and care preferences will determine what brand or material to go with.

The cabinets below those countertops can be one of the most significant decorating elements in a home. Modern approaches favor scaling back on both cabinet treatments and placement. Upper cabinets are being left out in favor of leaving space for a freestanding storage system or even artwork, and the knobs and handles on cabinet doors reflect the unadorned traditional style. “We use fairly simple, Shaker-style cabinet doors and we often use an inset door style,” says Youngdahl. “It’s a clean look.”

Looking Up
From smooth to coffered ceilings, what’s above your head can make an important statement about your home’s style. “Most often, in common areas of a house you have some degree of ceiling finish, whether that’s a crown, a cove, beams, or a full wood ceiling,” says Carlson. “Ceiling heights are also very important in terms of how spaces feel,” says Youngdahl. “A traditional approach is to have huge, sweeping foyer ceilings. We oftentimes drop the foyer ceilings below the height of the rest of the ceilings in the home. It feels comfortable. We want the home to hug you when you come in.”

Height can be implied, if not outright altered, by incorporating recessed lighting, adding crown moldings along the wall seams, running beams across the ceiling, or creating a racetrack finish, which layers sheetrock around the edges of a wall to make the ceiling appear to recess. “We do a lot of different ceiling treatments,” says Schumacher, who lists pan vaults, tray vaults, and two-story ceilings among her clients’ options. Here, too, clients can opt for a neutral effect, such as with a knock-down ceiling, in which texture is applied and mostly troweled off, leaving just a bit for a pleasing look. Or, for a more ornate treatment, tongue-and-grove wood paneling from wall to wall is another option that gives a historic feel.

From floor to ceiling, there are so many options for finishes that people may not want to even think ahead to interior decorating. “It gets to be overwhelming,” says Appert, who says offering several options for trim, for example, is already too much for some buyers. “Our job is to make the home-buying experience as pleasant as possible.” The bottom line is to select elements that serve a purpose, “Rather than just adding stuff,” says Youngdahl. “The sum total of all parts makes something remarkable.”