Strong and Sure: Featuring Wood Elements in our Birmingham Custom Homes

Wood was listed by multiple design companies and designers as a top trend for 2018, which means many of our clients this year have been right on trend! From shiplap and barn doors to wood floors and distressed beams, we’ve been incorporating wood elements into our client’s homes for years, as it’s a staple in farmhouse-style homes, but this year, we’ve seen the trend take on new life.

Here are just a few examples of how traditional wood elements have been used in one-of-a-kind ways in some of our recent Birmingham custom homebuilding projects:

Shiplap

While shiplap has been popular for years thanks to HGTV’s Chip and Joanna Gaines, it has moved far beyond the typical whitewashed look. Shiplap can be done in any color, but most popular outside of white has been painted black or a weathered wood look. In our 2018 Parade Home, we even added touches of natural pine wood shiplap.

We’ve also enjoyed working with clients who chose to use shiplap in places other than large walls when designing their custom home in Birmingham. Many of our newest projects have featured touches of shiplap above the fireplace, as a covering over the range hood in the kitchen, or as a backdrop behind the cubbies in a mudroom. It’s even been used as a ceiling treatment—in a master bedroom, the ceiling between coffered beams, which is usually a standard flat ceiling, was shiplap!

Our buyers that love the traditional shiplap look won’t be disappointed either. We’ve still incorporated plenty of traditional white shiplap in massive quantities, including an entire two-story foyer and master bath walk-in shower wrapped in shiplap.

 Wooden Beams

With the popularity of white and grey interior color schemes, it’s nice to see a touch of natural wood added to provide an element of nature within a home. One way many of our clients have chosen to do this is by incorporating wooden beams into the design. Often, these beams are stained but left somewhat “unfinished,” as opposed to using perfectly smooth, sanded pieces of wood.

Wooden beams across a ceiling provide a rustic touch, softening up a somewhat formal room, while they also help to make a room with a dramatic high ceiling feel a little bit cozier. In one of our recent homes, the main floor had standard 10-foot ceilings, while the kitchen area featured a soaring two-story vaulted ceiling. However, the addition of two rough-hewn beams across the vaulted area prevented the room from feeling cavernous.

Other ways we’ve been incorporating rough-hewn wood beams into our custom homes include using floating wooden beams as shelves, or using them as fireplace mantles, which provides a nice contrast to a brick or shiplap backdrop.

Exterior Wood Elements

Wood features in your home don’t have to stay inside! Many of our clients choose to add touches of natural wood to their home’s exterior, which provides a cohesive blend between the home and its natural surroundings.

A recently completed custom home in Leeds featured a great deal of natural woodwork on the exterior. The rear of the home included a tongue-and-groove wood ceiling on the patio, which provides a visually appealing statement for the outdoor entertaining space, and it ties in perfectly with the wood beam mantle on the outdoor fireplace. The rear of the home also included natural wood columns.

The front of the home was no stranger to wood, either. At every glance, you could find another architectural wood accent, like shutters, columns, front doors and corbels – even exposed wooden rafters under the porch’s tin roof! While it’s not atypical to see these elements made out of wood, we do typically see them painted to match the color scheme of the home. But now, we’re seeing more clients than ever choose to leave them natural or lightly stained.

Incorporating wood into your home’s design is a trend we can truly get behind! If you’re ready to begin designing your dream custom home in Birmingham, reach out today by calling J. Wright Building Company at 205-820-0100 or click here to contact us.