Small Footprints, Big Impact

Designing a smaller single-family home with plenty of pizzazz is hard enough, but the challenge for Lorelei Petit, senior designer for BSB Design’s Sacramento, Calif., office, also meant creating homes that worked as both attached and detached floor plans at the Four40West community.

“[Developer] Blackpine Communities had a great vision for a community, with three-level units that could be freestanding or joined in groups of three or four,” Petit says. “The main issue was providing egress out of every bedroom, even when the buildings are attached.”

The homes also had to deliver lifestyle flexibility and to feel much larger than their 1,989 square feet, the latter accomplished by pushing the staircases off to one side and grouping fixed, single-hung, and awning windows in different shapes and sizes at both ends of the house for ample natural light and aesthetic appeal.

The window arrangements also make the exteriors of the homes stand out and create a dynamic movement, “So they’re not just a row of boxes,” she says. Simplified exteriors feature repetitions of black on white and white on black in various materials to also add interest and create cohesive streetscapes.

The floor plan includes a ground-level flex room with a bedroom and bath accessed from the floor above and by a private entrance next to the garage, enabling it to also function as a rental unit or private at-home office. The second level features an open floor plan of shared living spaces, including a kitchen with an adjacent, glassed-walled pocket office that adds to the home’s expansiveness and flexibility.

“It can be used as an extension of the kitchen, as a pantry, or as a wine vault,” Petit says. The living opportunities extend onto a roof terrace accessed by exterior staircase, saving indoor footage while providing clever yard space that doesn’t require a larger lot.

Project/Plan: Residence 2E at Four40West

Award: Gold, Best Detached Production/Spec Home up to 2,000 sf
City, State: Sacramento, Calif.
Unit Size: 1,989 sf 
Bedrooms/Bathrooms: 2/2.5 + Flex Room
Price: From $652,900
Entrant/Architect: BSB Design, Sacramento office
Builder/Developer: Blackpine Communities, Sacramento
Photographer: Davies Imaging Group

Fortunately for the buyers at The Bungalows at Blackwood Groves, Bill Ramsey, principal at KTGY Architects in Denver, loves the challenge of designing smaller homes, regardless of the price point.

“Price points in Bozeman have been going up so fast that we wanted these to work for first-time and move-up buyers,” Ramsey says, including those moving up in price but not size, as well as empty nesters downsizing.

To attract these various buyer profiles and match the house to its starting price of $875,000, Ramsey prioritized features such as an oversized kitchen island and a compartmentalized primary bathroom.

“Not everything can be big in a house this size, so we designed it with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, with that second bathroom functioning as the guest powder room, as well,” he says.

The plan also features a laundry closet instead of a room, “But doing so allowed for a nicer primary suite and a larger kitchen,” he adds.

The Bungalows are single-level homes, which Ramsey says are easier to design because there’s no staircase to eat up square footage.

What matters most, however, is creating separation between private and public areas of the tightly sited homes; for instance, the primary suite is in its own quadrant to enable windows on two sides without sacrificing privacy. And each home has a covered patio and an elevation with enough interest to avoid being “a stucco box,” Ramsey says.

Project/Plan: The Bungalows, Plan 1 at Blackwood Groves

Award: Silver, Best Detached Production/Spec Home up to 2,000 sf
City, State: Bozeman, Mont.
Unit Size: 1,673 sf 
Bedrooms/Bathrooms: 3/2
Price: From $875,000
Entrant/Architect/Land Planner: KTGY, Denver
Builder: Bridger Builders, Bozeman
Developer: Bridger Land Group, Bozeman
Landscape Architect: Design5, Bozeman
Photographers: Whitney Kamman; Derik Olsen

Designed as a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), Newfield in Palm City, Fla., emphasizes a walkable, mixed use community with a strong sense of place. The 3,800-acre plan features nine distinct villages, a town center, schools, parks, extensive trails, and a farm that serves the neighboring community.

Designed and built by the same project team, the Crown and Gloriosa models (at left) each earned BALA recognition.

"Great design is about being efficient with room placement, minimizing circulation so the plan lives bigger," says Deryl Patterson, AIA, president of Housing Design Matters in Jacksonville, Fla., the design architect of both models.

"Both plans live the full width of the building envelope, making them feel great, not a long skinny tunnel."

Project Team: Crown & Gloriosa at Newfield

Entrant/Designer: Housing Design Matters, Jacksonville, Fla.
Project Team: Builder: Mattamy Homes, Boynton Beach, Fla; Developer: Dover, Kohl & Partners, Miami; Interior Design: Lita Dirks & Co., Greenwood Village, Colo.; Landscape Architect: Parker-Yannette Design Group, Jupiter, Fla.
Photographer: Rob Harris Productions

The Crown model at Newfield was designed to appeal to empty nesters.

“We think of this house as transitional Americana, with the buttercream-colored coastal exterior meant to evoke the Florida sunshine,” says Matt Berkis, VP of sales and marketing for the Southeast Florida division of Mattamy Homes, the builder. “It has warm, neutral tones accented with red, white, and blue to support that theme.”

The 1,937-square-foot home also features a generous and usable front porch, while the backyard stretches beyond a covered lanai to an open-air space for a garden—both TND tenets.

Inside, the plan’s great room and kitchen follow the same pattern of being oversized for the footprint, the latter featuring windows that flank the cooktop—a detail Berkis loves and “makes it look like a custom kitchen.”

“The goal for this floor plan is to provide a welcoming energy” on a grand scale despite the small footprint, he says. “We want everyone to get a nostalgic vibe, to think this ‘feels like home,’ especially for snowbirds coming to Florida.”

The ranch-style layout includes a secluded primary suite, a second bedroom, and a home office or flex space. There’s also plenty of light (natural and not), a zero-threshold shower, and pet-friendly flooring—all of which and more are designed and delivered to appeal to empty-nester buyers.

Project/Plan: Crown at Newfield

Award: Silver, Best Detached Production/Spec Home up to 2,000 sf
City, State: Palm City, Fla.
Size: 1,937 sf 
Bedrooms/Bathrooms: 2/2.5 + Flex Room
Price: From the $650s

The Gloriosa floor plan is the entry-level model at Newfield, designed and built to be attainable for first-time homebuyers or first move-up for buyers into a detached single-family home.

The narrow, 25-foot-wide, 1,960-square-foot plan is made to feel much larger. Its casual living scheme covers the full width of the house and features an open kitchen with a generously sized island.

Sightlines from front to back also help visually expand the space, while organic finish materials feel current and wood tones deliver a warm, traditional look and feel.

From the outside, the home combines the clean lines of a modern farmhouse style with the rural nostalgic charm of a red entry door. Steep end-gables and vertical boardand-batten siding give a towering presence.

“The exterior is the perfect combination of nostalgia and contemporary styling,” says Patterson. “It fits right into the agrarian theme of the community.”

The Gloriosa plan also makes the most of its outdoor space, which includes a covered lanai in a private courtyard between the house and a detached two-car garage accessed by a breezeway.

Project/Plan: Gloriosa at Newfield

Award: Silver, Best Detached Production/Spec Home up to 2,000 sf
City, State: Palm City, Fla.
Size: 1,960 sf 
Bedrooms/Bathrooms: 3/2.5
Price: From the $580s