Once you have settled upon the “internal layout” of your new home, you will probably know pretty much, all the sizes and positions of the windows and external doors. The next thing to do will be to start to produce the “External Elevations” for the front, rear and sides of the house.

You will more often than not, want the front to be the most visually attractive part of the house. It’s usually what everyone will see when they pass or visit the house. The other elevations, are not usually as important, unless the house has two or more “readily visible aspects” (this could happen on a corner plot, where you can pass the front of the house, turn down the side, and possibly even turn along the rear).

If you think about what “comes as standard” in the way of “attractive aspects” when you start to draw the elevations of a house, you realise that “on its own” “as a basic shape”, the appearance of a house can be pretty boring! – If the house layout has been designed as a square or rectangle (which it often is to help to keep costs down), the chances are that your front elevation will also be a square or rectangular shape, - possibly including 4 to 6 square or rectangular windows and a front door.

If we just left things at that, there could be a lot of very dull looking houses around!

Most designers, whether amateur or professional, will want to take the basic elevation and add some “Architectural detailing” to give the house some character and “uniqueness”. – This tends to be especially important to Self Builders, who are trying to create their “Dream Home” and something they can be proud of. – After with making sure that the internal layout gives them everything they need, the “look” of the property is often the next most important aspect of the project, and gives them an opportunity to stamp their individuality on the project.

So, once you have your window and door positions, the next consideration will often be to come up with ideas to “pretty up” the elevations – However, while you are doing that you need to bear in mind your “budget”.

You might have spend a good deal of time, after reading the hints and tips on designing the layout of the house (see designing a new house layout page), trying to design to keep your costs down so that the overall project can be kept to a strict and tight budget. – A few “strokes of the pen” now can undo a lot of the efforts you have made previously. – A simple detail which you may have seen on another house and decide to include in yours, can add hundreds and even thousands of pounds to the overall cost.

What I’ll do on this page is to run through some of the features you could consider adding to your design and give you an idea of their effect on cost:

This is one of the main tools you can use to create interest in the finished product without necessarily spending any extra money, and possibly even saving some!

It is very tempting, when designing a house to go with a brick choice which you may have seen on a small “sample” board at a brick supplier’s depot, or to see a house which has already been built in a particular brick, and decide that “That’s the one for us”. – However, making your choice in that manner is not always a good idea.

A brick that looks good on one style of house, does not necessarily look good on another. If you opt for a brickwork finish to your new home, as opposed to render, your choice will “present to the world”, the single most obvious part of the whole project, and as such, the process of choosing the correct one deserves a good deal attention.

To try to make sure that you choose correctly, do some research. - Have a look around at other properties which are of the general “style” that you would like for your new home. If you find  a house in the style you like, and a particular brick looks good when used successfully to help to create THAT PARTICULAR style, then the chances are it will also be a good choice for you. – Traditional style bricks can look out of place in an area of modern appearance houses, and visa versa.

Try not to choose your brick SOLELY from looking at a few sample boards. If you like a brick on a sample board, ask where it has been used locally, and go and see the finished job.

Whilst you are going through the process of choosing a style of brick, you may be visiting numerous suppliers, so there is a better chance of you finding one who has got a good price at that particular time, on a particular brick which you like and which would be suitable for your development – so always ask the question: 2 have you got anything on special offer? For every £100 you save / 1000 brick, you can be saving between £1000, and £2500 on the costs of the project. Facing bricks can cost between £150 / 1000 and £600 / 1000, so there is scope here, not only to get the best choice of brick, but also to save money in the process. (Note: if you do get a special deal, make sure you can get extra’s if you run out. – you don’t want to end up 1000 bricks short for whatever reason, and not be able to get hold of any more.

You may not think it, but the colour of your mortar can be a very important part of creating the right visual appearance of the building. A nice “rustic” brick with lots of oranges and yellows can look great, and really “finish off” the house nicely. However, a standard grey mortar used with it can have the effect of “draining” a lot of the colour out of it.

Most merchants will have access to at least a sample board of mortar colours. - They will often be able to show you a  clear plastic box which has all the coloured mortar choices arranged inside it. - You can take each sample out and hold the sample up to various bricks to see which ones it matches best. – It’s actually amazing how a slight difference in the shade of the mortar can either make it look “perfect”, or “clash” with the brick itself.

From a cost point of view, standard grey sand and cement mortar is going to be the cheapest because you just need sand, cement and water to mix it. – Coloured mortars can be quite expensive, especially if you buy them by the bag. If you are setting out on a substantial project it’s worth considering getting a “skip” load, which should save you a considerable amount of money.

(Note: If you do buy skips, or even bags, make sure they are protected from the weather. – Rain can wash out the colour and make the mortar unusable for any of the work for which is was intended. – You would still be able to use it for work which will be covered over or painted, but would need to order fresh mortar for the high quality “visible” work).

Once you have a short list of colours, it is a good idea to get hold of a small bag (say 25kg) of each one and get a “sample wall” built, using the brick you have chosen. You should be able to order the bag of mortar from the merchant, but, if your bricks are coming directly from the manufacturer may have to wait for your first delivery before you can actually build your sample wall.

Mortar colours are not normally something which interests the Planning Dept, but if you are in an area where there are restrictions imposed on some development materials, it may be worth checking at the same time that you get your brick sample approved, that your choice of colour is also ok.

There are many treatments you can give to external windows and doors, some won’t cost much at all and some will add thousands of pounds to the project costs.

There are many diferent reatments you can give to an opening to add interest. Ideas such as: Build a “contrasting” brick detail around part or all of it / Tile around it / add stone features.

One of the simplets way to add interest is to find a brick which “contrasts” or “compliments” your main brick, and use this second choice to create “highlights”. The most common place to use this effect is under and above the window, creating contrasting “heads and cills”. The most common way to present the head detail is to create a “soldier course”, which basically means standing bricks up on end, with the “fair face” showing to the front. This soldier course would normally extend past either side of the opening by 3 or 4 bricks, to give the effect of being a “lintel” holding up the brickwork above. These soldier courses are often set forward of the main face of the brickwork by around 15 – 25 mm. This allows the sunlight to form a “shadow” around the edge of the feature and adds character.

The cill can be treated in a similar way, but you will normally need to find a way to allow water to run off the window itself onto the cill, and then away from the cill. – This can be achieved by sloping the cill brick or using a special brick which forms a detail which allows the drips from the window to escape down the face of the main building.

If you use this idea on the sides of the windows, you could use “patterns” to possibly give a “cottage” effect or a “traditional” effect.

Another external window and door treatment is known as “Cast Stone” “Natural Stone”. You will see a lot of this feature in older buildings. The openings are either fully surrounded, or, top and bottom, or sometimes “just top” or “just bottom”. These stone features are sometimes mixed with the brick feature mentioned in the last paragraph to create an interesting effect.

“Cast stone” tends to be cheaper than “Natural Stone”, partly because it is a “manufactured” product, made in a similar way to concrete lintels, i.e. in a mould. These treatments are becoming popular as a way of turning a fairly standard looking facade into something attractive to the eye. They come in many colours and styles (especially the Cast Stone products). The “Natural Stone” products, if bought locally and made from local stone, will bring work to your community, and may give more of that “local, traditional” feel to the completed house.

The windows and doors themselves can play a big part in helping to create the “character” and “feel” of the building. The way they compliment and blend with the walls is important if you are trying to create an overall feel.

From a cost point of view, you are best trying to stick with standard sized and standard design windows, but with so much choice in the market, you can normally find a style which suits your project without having to go down the “bespoke” route.

However if the budget is not tightly restricted, and you are trying to create a specific look, then the investment made in having your windows “tailored” to your exact requirements may not only add that “finishing touch”, but could increase the value of the property by more than the extra cost.

You can add character to a simple basic window by using “leaded” glazing. You could opt for the traditional grey colour, or use a brass effect leading. Also possibly think about adding a feature window which could be “patterned lead work”, made up of either “complimentary shades” and colours or a “picture”.

The front door tends to be a focal point of the house, and you can help to create a feeling of “uniqueness” and quality which “spreads” to the rest of the building, simply by choosing a quality front door. – Our brains tend to work on the principal that if “the first bit we see” of a building is high quality, then the rest will be the same. (So, an impressive front door which may only have actually cost a couple of hundred pounds more than a standard one, - leading into an impressive hallway, which may only be impressive because of an extra wide staircase, which again may only cost just a couple of hundred pounds more than a standard set, could really give the feeling of quality through the whole building, and add £1000’s to the value).

As with all aspects of designing your project, try to get to see examples of different styles on other houses which have been built. There is no substitute for sitting and looking at something which has been completed, to decide whether or not it “works”. – If you see a certain style of window or door in a catalogue, then, just the same as you would do before choosing your brick, try to find where it has been used locally.

Quoins give the impression of “framing” an elevation. -If you paint a picture, or take a nice photo, you will often decide to frame it to make it look “its best”. – That’s the same effect that quoins can have on an elevation of a house.

The two main ways to include quoins are; 1) Buy “Cast” or “natural” stone units. These come in various shapes and styles for different types of uses. The main units will normally be “L” shaped, and generally have “square” or “chamfered” corners. These are designed so that when they are laid, they give the “staggered” appearance that we are used to.

2) You can also form quoins using normal bricks, in the same way as they are used to form the  window heads and cills details mentioned earlier. - “Contrasting or complimentary” bricks built up the corners of the building to give a similar appearance to the stone quoins, can in many cases be just as attractive, and can cost a less.

Quoins are normally set so that they “protrude” about ½” to 1” from the face of the wall to give a shadow effect.

(Note: If you are building a wall which will have a rendered finish, then you may need to set the quoins to protrude more than 1” from the main face of the wall to allow for the thickness of 2 coats of render. – I have seen many houses where the builder has not taken the render into account and the quoins have ended up actually behind the main rendered surface, and the renderer has had to “curve” the render in, to meet the corners of the quoin. – This is fine if it’s the effect you want, but it’s not the effect that most people are hoping for. If you don’t remember to set the very first quoin correctly, then you might forget about it until it is too late to change).

1) Giving shelter at the front door

2) If enclosed, it can offer somewhere to take off dirty clothes and shoes without them soiling the inside of the house

3) It can help to keep heat in the building by creating a small area which contains, and can therefore only loses a limited amount of heat when it opens to the elements.

4) In respect of “Architectural Features”, it can be another of those “finishing” items, which turn a boring looking facade into something special, - often at a fairly low cost.

The most basic porch will be a simple timber sloping roof frame of about 4’ wide and protruding about 2’  - 4’ from the face of the front wall. It will often have timber supports either side which run down both sides of the door. The sloping area will usually be covered in the same tiles as the main roof, and there will be a “flashing” cut and fitted into the front wall to allow water running down the front of the building to run down the porch roof, and away.

This simple construction can often help to significantly improve the front aspect of a property by simply “breaking up” the lines and providing the eye with something different to look at. Cost wise, a simple porch such as is described here is negligible when compared to the cost of the house. However you can then head “up and up” on the costs scale until it becomes a “pretty”, but unrealistically expensive addition to your property.

If you read the page on “house design” you will have seen the part which states “corners add cost”, i.e. every time you add anything to a basic square shape of a 4 sided building, you increase the overall cost. At some stage, if your ideas for a porch get too grand, and if you are trying to operate on a tight budget, the rest of the house will start to suffer. - Just to get this “pretty feature” on the front (which, if you think about it, only gets “walked through” on the way to the main part of the house).

All in all porches have a use, but a limited one. They are a useful option to have if you need to “brighten” an elevation. - A practical addition as weather protection. But unless it is an important part of the design to give a particular “feel” to the house, not to my mind an important part of most Self Build projects.

These are a simple but effective way to change the appearance of one or more of the elevations. Instead of the wall being “two skins” thick (internal skin / cavity / external skin) for its whole height, it starts at the lower level at 3 skins thick (internal skin / cavity / next skin / external skin). The “plinth skin” butts up against what would normally be the external skin to create a “plinth feature” up to normally around 2’ – 3’ high. - The top of this third skin will normally then receive a special “coping” or Plinth” brick which normally provides a sloping surface for water to run down.

The plinth will either be built using the same brick as the main external skin, or can sometimes be of a contrasting or complimentary brick (which may be similar to the quoins, or the window surrounds). It can give the same effect of “framing” the bottom of the structure in the same way that quoins frame the sides.

Cost wise, plinths can be relatively expensive compared to some other ways of “creating interest” in a design. The hidden part of the second skin can be built of blockwork because it won’t be seen, but you need wider foundations, which means more digging, more soil to take away, more concrete, the extra blocks, and the extra labour costs for building the extra skin. You will also need to buy the Coping / plinth bricks to set along the top.

You will have probably seen all sorts of brickwork detailing in houses. Form the very old to modern. Brick detailing is one of the cheapest way to add interest to the “visual part” of a design. Bricks of the same colour as the main walls, but laid in patterns. - Or contrasting bricks to create interest. The only real cost here would often be the extra labour to make the patterns.

This idea can be also brought in for rendered properties to add interest to what may be an otherwise plain wall

As with the brickwork detailing, this form of adding interest can offer a cheap but effective way to improve the appearance of a facade. Timber simply fixed to form a pattern, directly on the surface of the wall is the cheapest way to present this feature. However the complexity of the patterning and how it is fixed and used can become quite intricate.

This feature tends to be something that “you like or you don’t like”. It polarises opinion. - Looking at existing properties which have the feature, is a good way to decide if this is something that you may like to consider.

(Note: Bear in mind the maintenance aspects. - Timber needs “treating” periodically. This obviously costs money. Also, if it is hard to access this could make this operation awkward. – You may actually reduce the sellability of the completed property with this feature in some cases, so be sure that it is right for your design and your house before deciding to use it. – These days you can actually use “plastic wood” as an option to real wood, which removes the maintenance aspects, and may make it more acceptable to a future buyer).

Render can be boring. A house full of smooth plain walls, with standard plain windows, a plain front door and no other features can be pretty dull. However sometimes, budget and other reasons mean that there is not much scope for “prettying up” the house using the other options listed here.

As well as adding some of the other features listed previously, there are ways to give interest to the render. These are mainly: 1) Texture. 2) Colour.

A plain trowelled rendered surface can not only be boring on its own, but can give a poor quality appearance in some lighting conditions. Especially in the winter, when the sun is low in the sky, the light can tend to “glance” or “shine across the surface” of walls, rather than shining brightly on it. The effect of this can be to show up any blemishes in the surface of the render. Even a blemish of a couple of millimetres can become visible quite a distance away from the house itself. – Adding a texture to the finish can solve this problem at the same time as giving interest to the surface of the render itself. However, patterns in the surface of the render don’t tend to be as popular as they used to be, so be careful what texture you choose so that the finished appearance is not “dated”.

This is a very useful tool to create character in a rendered surface. But you need to be careful with your choices. We have all seen houses which have not used colour to its best advantage! – The results can be horrendous!

If you choose one colour for the render, which most people do, then you have to bear in mind that what looks good on a sample, or on the tin, may not look the same on the finished job. – The popular colours are popular because they “work”. – They improve the appearance of the house, which is what you want. Many colours are “nice to look at” in YOUR opinion, but may not be viewed in the same way by others. If you come to sell the property in a couple of years, you want as many people to come along and say “That’s nice” as possible. The more people who say that, the more likely you are to be able to sell the house for the full asking price.

Subtle use of colour in coordination with some of the other features listed on this page can create a very pleasing overall effect. – Again, the best way to see if something “works” is to try to find somewhere where it has already been done.

It may sound a bit strange when I say that planting can be used as an “Architectural design feature”, when it’s not actually part of the house itself.

The fact is that plants can actually change a design that “Doesn’t work” to one that does! – All for a few quid! The power of plants to change the whole appearance of the finished job is amazing.

On my own houses, if I am opening a show house, the first thing I do is go and buy some nice potted plants for the front. For a couple of hundred pounds, they are a great investment. An area of the town where I live has just been redeveloped. It is a mass of render, steel, glass and brick. All architecturally designed, all very professional and well built, but it was missing “green”. We like green, it makes us think of the countryside and holidays and things like that. Plants and “growing” green things make us feel better.

An example of an effective and simple use of plants, is to position four nice pots, each with a nice evergreen, slow growing plant, one at each corner of the front elevation, and one each side of the door. – This creates a similar effect to the quoins and plinths I mentioned earlier, i.e. it helps to “frame” the picture that people see. Green plants go with most brick colours and most subtle render colours, and can just finish the job off nicely.

Rainwater goods, downpipes, gutters etc are another feature which gives the effect of “framing” an elevation. Plastic rainwater goods come in various colours which can be used to compliment your main building materials, either render or brick. Cast iron also comes in various colours and although it is fairly expensive, can help to create and finish of a house which is more “traditional” in appearance.

A nice little finishing touch can be to add a date stone, usually in the centre area of your front elevation, at the apex of a gable or in the brickwork under the soffits. – They don’t cost much, you just have to make sure you order them early, because they can be on quite a long delivery time, and look after them so they don’t get damaged before you are ready to use them. – If you break one you may have to wait weeks or months for a replacement.

Glass is a very popular architectural feature on Self Build houses. – Large expanses of glass are something you don’t get from most developers, but when you have just spent a lot of money on a lovely plot with a lovely view, you will usually want to make the most of it. – Glass screen walls can be a nice idea to think about for this type of feature. – They are not cheap, but a couple of them can really “make” a project ( you should be able to find some glass screen companies in the Trade Directory. – A cheaper option is just to have large picture windows that compliment the overall design but which don’t put too much strain on your budget.

The cost of using some of the ideas I have outlined above can mount up over a full project. It’s easy to spend many thousands of pounds creating the appearance that you want.

If you are operating on a tight budget, it may by worth bearing in mind that you don’t actually see the SIDES of many houses at all. Yes, you see them “clear as day” on the drawings, but in reality, if you are close to a neighbouring property, you may only see any features on the side of your house, if you walk down the side of the house and make a point of looking up!

The front is normally the most important elevation, followed by the back. – But, even the back can often only be seen as a whole if you go to the back fence, turn round and take it all in.

What I am saying is that if you are on a tight budget, then consider spending “what you need to”, in order to get the front elevation looking right, and then, with your remaining budget, just get the other elevations looking as good as they need to, considering their position. - So that they are presentable and pleasant.

£1000 spent on increasing your floor area inside the building can have a far more positive effect on the houses value and usability, than adding YET ANOTHER feature to a wall that you can’t even see from most angles!