A gabled farmhouse on two wooded acres

A new four-bedroom house sited to keep the mature trees, with a tall living room that opens to the back lawn.

Illustrative project. The client, story and timeline are fictional. The photographs show a real home, photographed by Tyrone Sandersand licensed from Unsplash. Hallvane did not design or build it.

Photo: Tyrone Sanders (Unsplash).

The brief

The clients had bought a wooded lot outside town and wanted a house that felt traditional from the road and open at the back. They asked for four bedrooms, a study, and a living room tall enough to feel generous without being cavernous.

They also asked us to keep as many of the existing trees as possible, which shaped almost every decision that followed.

Project type: New custom home
Size: About 3,400 sq ft, four bedrooms
Design and permits: 7 months
Construction: 14 months
Location: Dripping Springs and Driftwood

Sizes and durations are illustrative.

Aerial view of a white gabled house on a wooded lot with a long driveway

The design

We surveyed every tree over eight inches and placed the house in the largest clearing, turning it so that the long, glazed side faces the back lawn and the trees shade it from the afternoon sun.

From the road the house reads as a group of steep gables in white board-and-batten, with black windows set deep in the wall. Inside, the main living room rises two storeys, with a fireplace wall and an open stair that brings light to the landing.

Three decisions that shaped it

Tree-first site plan

House position, driveway and utility trenches were drawn around root zones before the floor plan was fixed.

Deep window reveals

Windows are set back in thicker walls, which adds shade and gives the white exterior its crisp shadow lines.

One tall room

Only the living room is two storeys high; keeping the rest of the house at single height controls cost and cooling load.

Open living room facing a kitchen with a long island, pale oak floors and a black range hood

Living room with a tall fireplace wall, an open staircase and a wall of glass doors

The build

Tree protection fencing went up before any equipment arrived, and the driveway was routed around the root zones. The foundation is a post-tensioned slab designed for the site’s soil report.

We held a site meeting every week, with a shared schedule and photographs, so the clients could follow progress from their current home.

The result

The house sits among the trees rather than in place of them. The tall living room is the centre of the house, and the bedrooms are quieter rooms off it.