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Favorite House Styles

What are the most popular house styles?

By , About.com Guide


The results are in! Here are your favorite house styles according to our Dream House Survey. Find facts and photos for the all-time winners, and be sure to vote on your own favorite house styles.

  1. Craftsman Bungalow House Style
    Homey bungalows with low-pitched roofs and exposed rafters took America by storm in the early 1900s... and then faded from favor after 1930. But perhaps the style is making a comeback... Craftsman was the most popular pick in our Dream House survey.

    See Craftsman Style Bungalows

  2. Tudor and English Country House Styles
    Scoring a close second in our Dream House Survey, this cozy style is reminiscent of Medieval English cottages and manor homes. Readers who responded to our survey were drawn to the small, diamond-paned windows and exposed wood framing found in many Tudor style homes.  

    See Tudor Style Houses

  3. Victorian Queen Anne House Styles
    Victorian is not actually a style, but a period in history, and Victorian architecture comes in many forms. There are the austere stick style homes, the fanciful Gothic Revival cottages, and the majestic Italianates. But when people discuss Victorian architecture, they are often thinking of the Queen Anne style -- an elaborate, rather feminine, fashion with lavish details such as towers, wrap-around porches, bay windows, and elaborate trim. Queen Anne ranks number three in our survey, falling behind the more restrained Craftsman and Tudor styles.

    See Queen Anne Style Houses

  4. Georgian Colonial House Styles
    This symmetrical, orderly style became prominant in Colonial America. Today, Georgian Colonial is a model often imitated for elegant new homes.

    See Georgian Colonial Style Houses

  5. Prairie House Styles
    Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered this style in Chicago at the turn of the century. Low-pitched hipped roofs give these homes the appearance of hugging the earth, and the square, often symmetrical lines suggest strength and homespun values.

    See Prairie Style Houses

  6. Dreams for the Future
    Borrowing ideas from the past, modern-day styles take on many shapes. One imaginative reader said that he dreamed of owning a home designed for desert living. The floors, he said, would be polished concrete.  "Air conditioning and heat will be ducted through the cement slab up through sand-filled interior walls," he wrote.

    See Art Moderne Homes

  7. Homes for Right Now
    Dream houses don't have to be big. In fact. sometimes our deepest passions come in small packages. JB, a reader from Ohio, has created his own dream house. The 150-year-old cottage has no electricity, but JB has painted the shutters, sanded the floors, and decorated the rooms with his own, admittedly eccentric, style. With quirky spelling and a dogged independence, he writes, "this was ment to be fun, not some job to be meaninglysly instantly done."

What is your favorite house style?
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