One such home was showcased in the 2014 San Antonio Parade of Homes held in The DomiDesigned and built by Adam Wilson Custom Homes, the house won six awards: best exterior elevation, best landscaping, best outdoor entertainment, bnion, an upscale gated master-planned community in San Antonio spread over more than 1,500 acres. est site design, best kitchen and best master suite.
The builder spent much time thinking about how to make this house comfortable and livable for a family yet gracious enough in design to be called a European manor. There is plenty of indoor space — 4,605 square feet with five bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms on two levels — but designed in a smart, controlled way.
The toughest challenge in designing this house was the extremely short Parade timeframe, says Adam Wilson of Adam Wilson Custom Homes, who coordinated his vendors to complete the project in five months.
“We knew this home was going to be on the Parade,” he says, “and it’s always a challenge to design something new that hasn’t been seen before. Our established supplier and contractor relationships were important to achieve this timetable. I think we completed two months of work in the last two weeks of construction.”
Despite the challenge, Wilson says this home meets all the original design goals set for it. Its French Chateau exterior gives the grand feel of venerable European manors, while the clean, contemporary lines inside the house provide an organized and comfortable environment for a family.
The majority of the Parade honors conferred on this house were for exterior elements. The site design award, for example, rewarded the builder’s smart use of the land to boost the home’s family-friendly status. By situating the manor on a small cul-de-sac located in a part of The Dominion with only four neighbors, the home provides a safer place for children to play as well as a quieter environment. A formal landscape in the front yard, for which the builder won another award, provides plenty of off-street parking and leads to a separate home office entrance so work and family can coexist yet remain separated.
“A north-south orientation is important so the Western sun is not beating down on the outdoor living spaces,” says Wilson about the backyard lounging and pool areas. By adding an outdoor kitchen and TV, Wilson’s team completed a backyard escape with special attention to providing privacy from neighboring lots.
Thoughtful attention to the existing lot’s topography enabled Wilson to provide a deck space off the master bedroom despite steeply sloping land where it is located. And by adding native plants and minimizing sod, he provided a low-maintenance landscape that any family could enjoy.
Although many of the exterior materials on the house were a challenge to source because of their uniqueness, Wilson felt they were important to keep the French Chateau feel. Large masonry stones laid in a brick pattern with a special “smeared” mortar are reminiscent of European sensibility. Cast stone banding provides a more authentic feel than the typical stucco might achieve. Special touches such as copper on the chimney pots and on the cupola are in keeping with the time period the house is meant to evoke. Concrete tile on the roof mimics wood shakes in true chateau form, especially with their unique application in a staggered pattern. One further detail — dormers — changes the roofline to add exterior interest and even interior ceiling detail.
Wilson was able to meld the more traditional exterior with a contemporary interior by updating the standard French Chateau colorway into a more modern version of grey, white and the added warmth of wood. Solid hardwood floors throughout the main floor, including a chevron pattern in the dining room, warm up the sleek grey countertops, grey tile backsplashes, and grey fireplace surrounds. In-house designer Danah Chreitah added hints of black in furniture and fixtures to keep the space grounded. Transitional wooden cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms and distressed flooring in the study, dining, living bar, main master bedroom and hall provide the remodeled, modern feel Wilson and Chreitah were trying to achieve.
Additional touches of stained alder wood on the window sashes help tone down the coolness of the color palette. Surface textures also contribute to the contemporary interior design.
“The marble and granite countertops feel clean and bright and contribute to the feel of open spaces,” says Chreitah. “The marble in the kitchen provides a French Chateau touch.” The marble is extended onto the backsplash in the kitchen and mixed with glass mosaic tile for a fresh look.
Other touches integrate the more traditional exterior with the contemporary interior design, such as the iron doors that lead to the backyard and the front yard. Evocative of French manor style, the iron-paned glass doors also modernize the flow of the house by bringing the outside in and vice versa.
Although Adam Wilson Custom Homes is known for building contemporary houses, this French Chateau is somewhat of a departure for the company, which is the whole point of its development. Using what the company knows and combining that with an unexpected traditional exterior unlike so many of the Tuscan and Mediterranean houses currently being built in San Antonio brings life to the house and the community.
The house is truly designed for family and entertaining. Its open floor plan, which includes a large kitchen, built-in bar, large bathrooms and two master suites, is an attractive option for the homeowner interested in family and fun.
“Square footage doesn’t describe the house,” says Wilson. “It feels much larger due to minimized wasted space. It lives like 6,000 square feet and has plenty of closet space. We didn’t want to just build a house to be big. It’s a rightsized home for the market.”