Shingle Style: Warm Home Design for Seaside into Suburb

First popularized by the Vanderbilts, Astors, Morgans and their peers, the Shingle style developed in New England in the mid to late 1800s in reaction to the highly ornamented Victorian revival styles. Simple forms and a minimum of ornamentation made the Shingle design America’s first”contemporary” design, suitable for your new suburban home in addition to beachfront”cottages.”

The Shingle style’s most telling feature was that it handled the home as one large volume of space that the outside wrapped round and enclosed. Like a balloon, the Shingle style outside was all taut and tensioned to hold the inside space set up.

The Shingle style fell out of favor in the turn of the 20th century when the Colonial Revival style came into vogue. It was not until the 1980s that the design arrived back in fame, having been resurrected by architects in New England. Today, new houses developed in the Shingle style could be understood from the Northeast to the Southwest, by the rugged coasts of Maine into the sunny suburbs of Southern California and everywhere in between.

BraytonHughes Design Studios

Unfinished shingle siding, white trim, green cloth awnings, gable roofs and deep recesses are all hallmarks of the Shingle style. In contemporary updates, the curves and volumes of the initial design are converted into more severe, angular shapes.

Rhodes Architectural Stone

Another trademark feature of Shingle-style houses is that the extensive usage of pergolas and patios to expand the living space to the outdoors.

Frequently large and rambling, the classic Shingle design is more a group of parts compared to one easy form. The easy forms and shapes and deficiency of fussy ornamentation are hallmarks of the design.

Smith & Vansant Architects PC

Shingle-style houses really like being located where there are large yards so that a strong inside/outside connection can be created. In this case, terraced landscaping and multiple porches connect the house to its yard.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

Bold gestures and oversized components, particularly at the entry and porches, add into a Shingle-style house’s grandness.

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McKay Architects

Shingle-style homes need towers, preferably with windows all of the way round, to create places to collect in the sunlight and catch the surrounding views.

Tracery Interiors

Here, the Shingle style is adapted into the Southeast. It has the same group of forms and shapes, the oversize gestures and tower — but with a wide, sheltering roof to give shade from the hot Florida sun.

LDa Architecture & Interiors

With its plain stucco foundation and simplified forms, shingle siding, eyebrow dormers and a strong vertical element, this house incorporates elements of both the Shingle in addition to the English Arts and Crafts styles.

Christopher A Rose AIA, ASID

An explosion of roofs, turrets, balconies, porches and more, this house has all of the identifying features of the new Shingle design.

CWB Architects

Here is a clearly modern interpretation of the Shingle style, all stripped down and simplified.

Austin Patterson Disston Architects

This Shingle style home is seemingly built from the stones on its own website and anchored to its coastal landscape. Anchored in place, this house provides a perch over the rugged coast in true Shingle-style fashion.

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