Today I’m sharing a visit I had with a fellow promoter of the timeless and classic aesthetic for home design. I was shocked to learn from him that only a sliver of a percent of homes ever see guidance from a knowledgeable architect. And this, sadly, is why a truly pretty house is a rare exception these days.
A must have book for creating a timeless home
One of my Colour Designers Sheila Doell found Brent Hull a few months ago and posted a link to his book. After I read it, I bought one for each of my team members and posted about it inside my new True Colour Insiders Community!
Then fast forward, I read a few excerpts on my Instagram stories one day and tagged Brent and he replied “Hey maybe we should collaborate”. That was the week before my True Colour Expert workshop this month in Dallas. I looked him up and saw that he was in Fort Worth.
Turns out it was just a short drive from where I was going to be! So we met in his offices for an interview.
If you are building a house or choosing finishes for renovations or new builds, you’ll need to add his book to your list of resources you can buy it here.
There are so many good not-to-be-missed lessons in this book but THIS following excerpt is what I’ve been saying in so many different ways for years, AND this is what it all boils down to. It’s damn hard to argue with the following:
“Our houses are not designed, they are assembled. Here is the way assembly happens, the custom home builder sends his clients on errands to select products.
The homeowner will run from supplier to supplier making selections based on the building schedule. The client will start with the exterior–siding brick or stone–then the windows, roof, cabinets and mouldings. At each stop, the homeowner is faced with a dizzying array of products that are overwhelming: colour, material, texture, finish, glazed, polished, antiqued. If the homeowners don’t see something they like, the mad search will continue. The selection process, if taken seriously is a full time job.
More choice is not always better and for homebuilding, the number of necessary decisions can top one thousand different choices (yes I’ve counted). For many clients, the process is too big, and often there is no basis to make the decision. If there is any design philosophy it is often too loose and generic, like contemporary or traditional which leaves price as the natural fallback in the decision making process. We are gathering parts and pieces based on random criteria.
This is not design, it’s non-design. We are no longer building houses based on a specific design ideal.
Without a design philosophy, price becomes the master and this is reinforced when every selection is accounted for with a line item on a spreadsheet. The builder will send the homeowners to a store to make a selection with a preset amount of what they can spend on each product.
Price actually appears as the saviour, because when their eyes glaze over as they look at their thirtieth door sample, having a budget to narrow the selections helps.
Most decisions aren’t made based on a design idea but rather price. Take each decision and each line item and you end up with a collection of products that while they may be “in budget” don’t work together.
Another danger in this process is that products chosen by price lead towards the false assumption that because we buy the expensive product, we have bought the “better” product.”
So true, right?! How many times have I said this? In so many ways. 😏
Brent Hull & Maria Killam
Ugly costs as much as pretty
The truth is if you think you can just choose “what you like” as you go along and “trust the process” (aka follow the builder’s schedule)? As Brent explains in his wonderful book, you are going to get overwhelmed. And ultimately be disappointed.
Because trendy-and-thrown-together costs just as much as timeless, well coordinated and pretty. More in fact. Because you’re definitely going to want to make some “updates”.
You might be surprised how few truly beautiful and timeless combinations of finishes there are. Especially when it comes to hard finishes like flooring, tile, countertops and millwork.
That’s when “Boring Now Equals Timeless Later“.
It’s useful to think of the structure and the glued-down finishes as your envelope or canvas. You want it to be versatile with great longevity.
That means you can then express yourself in endless ways with decorating and colour–what you put INSIDE the envelope. Textiles, art and accessories is where you want to bring in your personality and creativity (rather than putting all your creativity in the glued down finishes).
And to be clear, you can add as much colour as you want with paint. Paint is relatively easy to change and is a great way to make an impact with colour.
To get a truly timeless and beautiful home, one that isn’t time-stamped to any trend period, you need to do a lot of planning.
Your home project is going to cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. It pays to heavily invest in the design phase to create an outcome you’ll love forever.
Cost and speed have trampled aesthetics
Brent also explains how building houses became about speed:
“We can’t build a timeless house today because we have forgotten how. A generation of builders and craftsmen has been so focused on speed that beauty has been trampled under and left for dead.”
So the next time you’re about to make a choice for a renovation or new build, ask yourself this question: Am I making this choice because it fits into the budget -OR- because it’s the right choice for the style of my house.
If the answer is the latter, you will have a much higher chance of ending up with the house that doesn’t need to be renovated every ten years.
You can see some of our conversation in this video. Stay tuned for even more conversations with Brent coming soon.
If you have an exterior that needs a re-design, Brent can help you make it timeless and perfect, see how he does it on Instagram, follow him here.
And if you need help choosing timeless finishes and colours for your next home project, I can help with eDesign services.
Related posts:
10 Steps for Planning a Timeless New Build
First Rule of Design: Boring now Equals Timeless Later
5 Design Elements for a Timeless Home
Having a well-built house with millwork is the dream. I consider myself to fall in the lower end of middle-class in terms of economics and such homes are beyond my financial abilities. At the end of our careers we had a combined income of $170,000. We raised three children and are now retired. Recently we were quoted $400/sq foot for an add-on, and that did not include beautiful millwork. Brent Hull is a master, however that type of service is beyond the reach of many Canadians. Enjoyed his perspective, especially since my father was a woodworker. Thanks, Maria!
It’s good to know why new homes today are so ugly, and at the higher end, such a mishmash of styles. Architecture is not the only area in which beauty has been discarded as a value; I see this everywhere.
Our house is modest, but when we remodeled (with your help!), I was very careful about my decisions. Our occasional cat sitter once told me that she’s never been in a home that looks like ours. She finds it beautiful, as does everyone who comes in, but it looks different because there is nothing trendy anywhere in the house, and it has a distinct personality. What has happened to people that they don’t seem to know themselves well enough to have any idea of how to decorate apart from following trends? This fact is a huge indictment of our culture.
I have been learning from Brent’s free resources for a couple years, and from you for at least a decade. It’s so fun to see you guys find each other! Just having my eyes opened to the basics of what trim, proportions, and architecture can and should do for a house has enabled me to make better decisions for my own homes. Thanks Brent!!
When you realize how much of a difference something like a wider door trim with a distinct era makes (compared to the builder prepacked stuff) you are willing to put in the small bit of extra time, money, and effort to pinpoint or piece together something with true style and impact. We have a plain craftsman home with a large 70s addition, and our remodeling efforts are focused to create cohesion and a stronger distinct style throughout. We just shop at the orange builder store but we can hone in on better choices.
Combine that with your understanding undertones and timeless hard finishes, and anyone who cares enough can make choices that add up to a really beautiful home with charm and timelessness (that doesn’t need to be renovated in 10-15 years!!!).
Interesting. In this case, I saw nothing I liked or wanted. The houses seemed cluttered and the design aesthetic seemed masculine and dated.
Whether anyone likes traditional design is not really the point of this post. The point is that most people think shopping for finishes in their home is all about personal taste and we’re saying IT’S NOT. That is how landfills get piled up with the last decades worth of trendy finishes that the next homeowner can’t wait to rip out. Thanks for your comment, Maria
Thank you for an interesting topic. The idea of timeless is going extinct in exchange for maximizing profit. It’s happening with all products and we are filling the land with waste because of it. Another example is clothing, not to go off topic, but Tim Gunn wrote about having timeless essential pieces in the wardrobe, yet subtle changes in what’s trending winds up making my timeless essentials look dated. It’s an issue with the home as well.
Unfortunately, his book is sold out. Any idea when more prints will be available?
I’ve read about the fact that less than 5% of house builds use an architect. We have a lot of builders in our area and there are two I pay the most attention to. One builds moderate to luxury houses and many of those use an architect and are usually gorgeous. The other builder got out of building luxury houses and is concentrating on semi-custom mass-market houses. They have their own design center with lots of choices and designers who help the home buyers choose all the finishes. There is a lot the buyers can do to customize the houses.
I see enormous differences in the houses built, depending on how much design knowledge the home buyers have. Buyers get a set number of hours to work with the builder’s designer, but it’s not the amount of time a designer would spend on a completely custom high-end house. You can build a charming timeless house with this builder, but only if YOU have taste, knowledge, and a plan before starting the project.
The video of you two together was fun and interesting, but I think there was some talking past each other. I think you two have more in common than Brent thinks because your mood boards also take into consideration the style of the house and the colors you choose take into consideration the architecture and moulding. More convos would be fun. The historic color board was interesting. You guys could analyze designs together.
I love reading and understanding this concept. I have favored a much older style of home for many years. They are very hard to come by, as when people leave, they have friends and/or family who will work out a deal and move in instantly. I am sure this happens all over our country. Not only in my midwest area. ( Kansas City).
Fun times ahead! I found Brent Hull 6 months ago and thought he was “the Maria” of the foundational parts of a house. I look forward to seeing what the 2 of you do together!
I hope you enjoyed your Dallas trip, did you end up finding cowboy boots last time? I’m looking forward to diving into Brent’s resources. As I’ve mentioned before, you helped steer me away from trendy to timeless on my floor and bathroom reno. Hugs, girl!