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To extrapolate on that idea, my pet peeve is when builders attempt to recreate various architectural styles of homes by slapping plastic shutters on plastic siding.
That "Little Plastic House on the Prairie" look just doesn't cut it.
I also loathe seeing shutters on homes where, architecturally, it doesn't make sense. On a colonial? Sure. On a architecturally confused craftsman/contemporary cookie cutter house? Not pretty. I had a neighbor who did this, and then sold the house a few years later, and one of the first things the new owners did was to rip those horrid shutters off. The house looked much better afterward!
lol, im getting a kick out of this
I hate the shutters on an arched top window, where the radius of the shutters do not match the radius of the top of the window. and they are not wide enough to cover the window. I also hate it when some realestate agents list a house with a blanket "victorian" when it is not that paticular style at all.
I have lots of pet peves when it comes to house design, since I do it for a living. It took the fun out of looking at houses, the errors and bad designs just stand out like a sore thumb to me now. like windows not being centered under a gable end. or long tall featureless walls on some of the mc mansions around colorado
Although most of us are probably used to seeing shutters on some types of buildings and have grown used to it as an aesthetic, I've also always felt that there was something rather silly looking about the shutters on most houses.
They're supposed to be a functional element and yet most shutters are too small to be useful. If you were to take two shutters and put them together and place them over your window, they should cover the entire window. However, most shutters won't cover the entire window. Perhaps this is just one of my pet peeves, but I don't like being stuck with non functioning 'functional elements' on a building. I find that functional elements tend to lose their aesthetic value when they lose their function (whereas design elements don't require a function to maintain their aesthetic). The smaller the shutters relative to the window, the goofier they look.
I think there is nothing wrong with decorative shutters - they frame windows, give house character and add color. They should look as if they could close the window but certainly there is nothing wrong with decorative shutters - they are an architectural element that, if done properly, enhances the look of many homes.
Well, the aesthetic wincing doesn't stop with shutters. When I was in design school, one of the things that resonated most was that honest materials are OK, but things that are made to look like other things should be treated with disdain. Like, there's nothing wrong with plastic that looks like plastic, for example. The problem is plastic made to look like wood, or plastic made to look like a plant, or polyester made to look like silk, or vinyl made to look like leather, etc.
So, back to the shutter thing, if it's a window that couldn't possibly have a shutter over it, like a bay window, it's going to look funny.
Well, the aesthetic wincing doesn't stop with shutters. When I was in design school, one of the things that resonated most was that honest materials are OK, but things that are made to look like other things should be treated with disdain. Like, there's nothing wrong with plastic that looks like plastic, for example. The problem is plastic made to look like wood, or plastic made to look like a plant, or polyester made to look like silk, or vinyl made to look like leather, etc.
So, back to the shutter thing, if it's a window that couldn't possibly have a shutter over it, like a bay window, it's going to look funny.
Yes, I feel that way about materials too! When something plastic is being portray as plastic, then great... but one of my neighbors recently put up brick that is obviously made of a thick plastic resin and it looks both fake and hideous. When I see stuff like this, my most immediate thought is 'What are they thinking?'
hehe, the cost to put real brick on an existing house is very costly, you need to add steel angles to the perimeter of the house. which also add eye sore. There is some real brick that is cut 3/4" thick that you add like you would synthetic stone to the exterior of a house, and it looks good.
hehe, the cost to put real brick on an existing house is very costly, you need to add steel angles to the perimeter of the house. which also add eye sore. There is some real brick that is cut 3/4" thick that you add like you would synthetic stone to the exterior of a house, and it looks good.
Yes, that route would make more sense, because at least the material is still real brick, even if it's cut at a lesser thickness.
It would look much nicer than the ugly plastic resin that my neighbor is using.:-)
We're already planning on ripping the shutters off (we're having a home built from a mass builder that uses shutters) and replacing them with some sort of exterior vinyl trim/casing. We don't know what, only that anything (even plain) will be an improvement over the FAKE SHUTTERS!!!
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