Timber Home Living Drawing Board: Bonus Points

Looking to add a guest bedroom or bonus room over a timber frame garage?  If so, you won’t want to miss the article in the current issue of Timber Home Living magazine, “Bonus Points”!  

Architect Jeremy Bonin gives tips for handing ceiling height and headroom issues, heating and cooling issues, and accessibility issues specific to second floor access.

Read an excerpt of the Timber Home Living article on the Press page of our website.

Factors Impacting Home Design:

There are two basic factors in home design:  fundamental and elemental.

Fundamental considerations are tangible. For example, how many people will be living in your home? How much do you wish to invest, both financially and emotionally? Is it a home you’ll use after retirement, which might dictate single-level living? Only you can determine the emotional investment you’ll have in the house. This varies from person to person and typically affects how much day-to-day input you’ll have in the home’s development.

Elemental considerations are less tangible. The three I find most important are light, views and permanence. Light makes visible the spaces we inhabit. Light also has its own characteristics such as intensity, color, texture and depth, so light and its absence must be considered when designing. For example, if you have two identical rooms—one on the east side of a house and one on the west—each space will be perceived differently, even if they have the same colors, furnishings, textures, volume and design. Yes, it all comes down to sunlight. For example, if you’re not a morning person, it might not be a wise move to place your bedroom on the east side of the house.

Views come next. One of the advantages of timber homes is the ability of timbers to frame views of different spaces. A pair of posts might define the entrance from the dining to the living room; and a floor girder might delineate the dining from the living room in the same manner, acting as a soffit between different ceiling heights. Our experiences in a space often are based upon what we see or feel from it even before we enter a room.

The last is permanence. Obviously, a home is more than shelter. It can be a place of retreat and serenity, and when we can see and understand the structure that protects us—the posts, beams and braces—we gain a primal understanding of security. Again, many timber homes built long ago are still around today. We might not understand the comfort and security these structures provide, but we all perceive and feel those qualities the minute we set foot in one of these homes.

~Jeremy Bonin, AIA NCARB LEED AP

Bonin Architects & Associates, PLLC

Licensed in NH, VT, ME, MA, RI, and CT

Timber Home Living article

Check out one of our newly built timber homes in the latest issue of Timber Home Living (October 2011).  

Afraid you won’t be able to the features you want in your timber home?  In the Pro Pointers article titled “Design Details”, New London, NH Architect Jeremy Bonin describes design elements that work well in timber frame houses.  

Bonin gives trends and pointers for incorporating these into your home design:

Wine cellars

Open floor plans

Lofts

Clean line

Timber frame homes are very similar to conventional homes as far as the systems and features that can be integrated into the design.

Looking for a timber frame architect?  Call Bonin Architects or stop by our office on Main Street in New London today!

Building a new timber home

You’ve made the decision to build an energy efficient timber home but may be no further in the process than that initial decision.  Bonin Architects & Associates is ready to help you design and build a home that not only matches your needs and fulfills your desires, but also meets your budget.  Throughout the architectural design and construction administration process, we will help you give consideration to the impact to both the site environment and to the building itself in terms of stewardship and environmental quality.  
 
Here are five factors Bonin Architects & Associates will urge you to contemplate when building a sustainable, energy efficient timber frame home:

1. Site consideration
2. Water efficiency
3. Energy and atmosphere
4. Materials and resources
5. Indoor environmental quality

There are many material choices and alternative energy solutions available in building a timber home that is considered truly green.  Our architects will present many of these to you during the design phase of the project, keeping in mind your project goals and budget.  Some considerations are:

• Recycled and reclaimed materials: Wood species, Roofing material, Decking
• Insulation systems: Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs)
• Renewable Energy Systems

By mapping your objectives and goals during the design process, Bonin Architects will then work with you to exceed your expectations in building your green home.  The end result fulfills more than the basic need for shelter – your sustainable home will provide maximum return on your investment, require minimal maintenance, and satisfy the innate desire to create a nurturing environment in which your family can flourish.

 Call us to discuss your project at 603-526-6200 or email info@boninarchitects.com

Carriage Houses

Carriage houses as very popular in all areas of the country.  Typically designed with a two-car garage on the lower level and living space above, the carriage house is a home design that can stand alone or supplement a main house as a guest house.

This carriage house design will be used as a guest house on a large property on Lake Winnipesaukee.  The lower level will house three cars and ¾ bathroom.

The second floor living space is large enough for two bedrooms and a shared full bath.  The timber frame creates an open floor plan, and with the kitchen, dining, and living room as one space, the custom timber frame becomes the focal point instead of interior walls.  

A sleeping loft is the bonus room and is accessible by a ladder near the kitchen, which eliminates the need for a stairway while increasing living space.

Bonin Architects Featured in Luxury Home Quarterly

The September / October issue of Luxury Home Quarterly features a vacation home design by Bonin Architects & Associates of New London, NH. The home featured in the article is located in the South Peak Resort Development, Lincoln, NH and is a timber home that also won a National Dream Home Award.

Luxury Home Quarterly calls the home “a marriage of beauty and efficiency” found in the “form in the design of New England Homes”.  The home design features five bedrooms and 3 ½ baths within a timber frame structure.

View a slideshow of this award winning home.

Timber Frame Barn

One of our clients building in northern Vermont would like to build a timber frame barn on their property to complement their new timber frame farmhouse being built this fall. 

Here is the preliminary design for the barn, which will house a few animals along with a tractor, snowmobiles, ATV’s, and hay storage.

The timber frame design features a Principal Purlin framing system which is common in barn construction.  Learn more about the types of timber framing on our other blog posts.

Timber Frame Renderings

No doubt, timber homes are gorgeous and can be designed in any architectural style to match your lifestyle and setting.

Included in our architectural design services is to create renderings of the timber frame interior for clients to visualize the space and volume of the rooms in addition to the overall home design. Check out this great timber frame we are designing for one of our clients:

If you are thinking about building a timber home, here are five reasons why you should consider using an architect to design your home.

To see our other timber home designs, check out our current projects and timber homes under construction!

Log Home Floor Plan

Our clients building a home addition to their log home are getting closer to breaking ground!  Construction drawings are almost complete.

Here are the floor plans and renderings of the addition showing the timber frame on the interior. 

The 800 square foot timber frame addition will add a Great Room, bedroom, and bathroom to the back of the original 1100 square foot log home.

Timber Home Living “Designing the Perfect Smaller Kitchen”

If you haven’t seen the latest issue of Timber Home Living magazine Special Kitchen & Bath Issue (June 2010), be sure to pick up a copy at your local Border’s!

The article, “Living Little” by Janice Brewster, focuses on how to have an efficient kitchen that won’t break the budget. It’s true, when you are planning to build a new timber home, kitchens and bathrooms can be the most expensive rooms in the house.


If your wants exceed your budget needs, your kitchen may end up smaller than you had originally planned. No worries - you can still have a terrific kitchen! Brewster interviewed Architect Jeremy Bonin on tips for kitchen placement, maximizing storage space, and flooring options.

Are you building a timber home and need help getting everything you want in your kitchen? Let Bonin Architects help!

Timber Frame House Plans

When working on a timber home design, we show the clients a house rendering to help them visualize the interior layout of the home.

For instance, for this floor plan, we created two interior renderings, one from the kitchen looking into the great room, and one in the opposite direction from the great room to the kitchen.

This not only helps the clients to envision the timber frame which is the structural skeleton of the house, but see the window style and configuration in relation to the interior.

Additional choices, including colors and kitchen cabinetry are selected in the final phase of the home design.

Timber House Plans – central Vermont

Here are some timber house plans we’re working on for our clients in central Vermont.

Designed with 1750 square feet, the one story home has a walkout basement to accommodate the sloping site. A mudroom attached to the garage has plenty of storage for coats and boots, including gardening gear. The laundry area is conveniently combined with the pantry, which features plenty of storage, a sink, built-in ironing board, and access to the screen porch. The kitchen design makes efficient use of the space and has plenty of room for two people who love to cook.

The kitchen is open to the dining and great room. A requirement for this home design is a first floor Master Bedroom suite. Architect Jeremy Bonin’s design includes a large his and hers walk-in closet with room for a bureau, and both a walk-in shower and whirlpool tub in the Master Bath. Double French doors lead to a private balcony, where the owners can enjoy a cup of morning coffee in their beautiful Vermont surroundings.

The timber home is currently in the preliminary design phase. The house plans will go through the revision process until all aspects of the design are drawn and specified.

Residential Architecture: Schematic Design

Some clients have already put a lot of time and effort thinking about the new timber home they want to build and come to us with magazine clippings, notebooks, and sketches of their new timber house. Others are in the beginning stages of the design of the home and are just starting to consider their needs and the flow of the floor plan.

In these cases we can prepare schematic design drawings to help our client visualize the scale and location of the rooms as well as the shape of the home’s footprint. Also shown in the schematic design drawings are boundaries, setbacks, vegetation, and the driveway approach to the home.

More detailed information, including the location of garage doors, fireplace placement, timber porches, decks, and outdoor spaces are also specified on the schematic drawing. Any changes or alterations to the layout of the home are easily accomplished in this stage.

After any changes are made to the layout and the schematic design is approved, more detailed floor plans are drawn depicting room sizes (erased from this example), furniture layout, and square footage. Notice in this example the first floor bedroom near the entry was eliminated.

Learn more about our architectural services and design fees for timber frame homes on our website, and feel free to ask questions specific to your project!

Timber House: Factors Impacting the Home Design

There are two basic factors in timber home design: fundamental and elemental. Fundamental considerations are tangible. For example, how many people will be living in your home? How much do you wish to invest, both financially and emotionally? Is it a timber house you’ll use after retirement, which might dictate single-level living? Only you can determine the emotional investment you’ll have in the house. This varies from person to person and typically affects how much day-to-day input you’ll have in the home’s development.

Elemental considerations are less tangible. The three I find most important are light, views and permanence. Light makes visible the spaces we inhabit. Light also has its own characteristics such as intensity, color, texture and depth, so light and its absence must be considered when designing. For example, if you have two identical rooms—one on the east side of a house and one on the west—each space will be perceived differently, even if they have the same colors, furnishings, textures, volume and design. Yes, it all comes down to sunlight. For example, if you’re not a morning person, it might not be a wise move to place your bedroom on the east side of the house.

Views come next. One of the advantages of a timber home is the ability of timbers to frame views of different spaces. A pair of posts might define the entrance from the dining to the living room; and a floor girder might delineate the dining from the living room in the same manner, acting as a soffit between different ceiling heights. Our experiences in a space often are based upon what we see or feel from it even before we enter a room.

The last is permanence. Obviously, a home is more than shelter. It can be a place of retreat and serenity, and when we can see and understand the structure that protects us—the posts, beams and braces—we gain a primal understanding of security. Again, many timber homes built long ago are still around today. We might not understand the comfort and security these structures provide, but we all perceive and feel those qualities the minute we set foot in one of these homes.

Timber Home – Lakes Region NH

Our clients in Winnipesaukee are building two homes on their property: one is a timber frame carriage house, which will be built first, and then their main house, which is also a timber home. The design of the main timber house is in the preliminary design phase.

A lower sweeping roof line and dormers on the approach side of the home permit light and views into the property. Satisfying our clients’ desire to bring the outdoors into the home, we incorporated a tree and timber entry porch to welcome guests.

Once inside, a generous foyer allows for a direct view into the great room and lake beyond.

The Great Room is designed to capture the gorgeous views of the lake while providing a comfortable, open space to read, chat with guests, or relax at the end of a long day.

The kitchen and dining open to the stunning northern mountain views as well as flow freely into the great room and out to the screen porch and deck areas.

The first-floor Master Bedroom suite is designed for convenience with separate walk-in closets and dressing areas for this professional couple. The bath includes a glass walk-in corner shower, whirlpool tub, and double sink – standards in any luxury lakefront home.


A guest suite with two bedrooms and a full bath are located above the Master Suite, primarily because the volume of the house allows for usable and well lit southern space in this area and also creates a more open and flowing loft area.

The second floor kitchenette / loft is a kind of “hub” for the Media Room, offering snacks and drinks. A seating area also allows guests to admire the fantastic northern mountain views and the open space to the Great Room and dining area below. A craft studio doubles as an office with ample enough room along the eastern gable wall for a pair of workstations.

Maine Post and Beam Home

Our timber frame home design in Maine is under construction!

The timber home, designed using sacred geometry to define the building proportions, is 2086 square feet and utilizes energy efficient building materials including an Insulated Concrete Form foundation (ICF), evacuated tubes on the south facing portions of the home for domestic hot water and heating, and SIP panels (structural insulated panels) for the walls and roof which will surround the posts and beams that create the beautiful structural frame of the home.

Carriage House Plans

Our clients building a timber home in Bradford, NH are also building a carriage house. Our intern architect, Chris Timberlake, has been working with our Principal Architect, Jeremy Bonin, on the carriage house plans. The ground floor houses the traditional two-car garage with storage space around the perimeter for tools, sports equipment, and other miscellaneous items.

The carriage house contains the sleeping area, which is tucked into one of the two dormers, while the main central area contains the living, storage and bathroom. The central living space will have views similar to the main house, looking into the valley beyond.

Carriage houses generally feature an open floor plan and can be designed in any architectural style, making them a great addition to any home plan.

Japanese Style Timber Home

A previous post had our Japanese Style Home elevations, a unique home design for our clients building in Bradford, New Hampshire.

Here are the latest floor plans of the 1,978 square foot timber house. The first floor features an open floor plan with a welcoming kitchen, living, and dining area suited for entertaining.

The home includes two Master Suites, one on the first floor and one on the second, giving the owners the flexibility of one story living should accessibility issues arise in later years. The second floor includes a balcony loft with an office which will provide a peaceful, appealing work environment with views of the distant mountains and serene property.

The plans will continue through the design development stage based on the client's review of the drawings and continuing discussions about their goals for energy efficiency.

Timber Barn Reconstruction

Bonin Architects is design and renderings for the reconstruction of the 4200 square foot Tattersall Farm timber frame barn in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

Once a large and magnificent working dairy barn comprised of heavy timber construction, it was partially destroyed by fire many years ago and eventually the barn collapsed. Today, only a few of the original timbers are still located at the site, which we hope to incorporate into the design for aesthetic and historical purposes. Part of the original foundation and two silo foundations are still present; the main barn foundation will be replaced. Currently planning is underway by the board of trustees to reconstruct the barn for multi-use purposes which will be available to the public for educational and recreational uses once funding is secured. The main farmhouse is still intact and is used as the caretaker’s residence.



The timber frame barn will be a multi-use building able to host educational seminars, conferences, and outdoor social gatherings on the spacious stone deck. Check out our other timber frames and timber houses in our On The Boards section of our website!

Japanese Style Home

A couple who attended one of our free green home seminars in Sunapee this winter asked us to design their new Japanese style timber home in Bradford, New Hampshire.

This design for the 2100 square floor timber home, inspired by traditional Japanese homes, will incorporate large overhangs supported by timber exterior brackets which will help contain sun from overheating in the late summer months.

The timber home features an open floor plan containing the kitchen, living, dining areas as well as a first floor master bedroom suite. The second floor which will feature incredible distant mountain views will contain a second potential master bedroom suite with a balcony, a loft/office area.


An exterior bridge connecting to a screen porch will allow for quiet nights enjoying the views and serenity of the property. The entire area around the house will become a wonder ‘rock’ garden of sorts, utilizing many of the existing rocks abundant on the property, with the house rising from the highest point. It will be very dramatic and presents a varied amount of flexibility in the landscape design as well.

We had a chance to also review our project with our local solar expert for his input on incorporating solar domestic hot water, solar space heating and photo voltaic power generation. With the orientation of the timber home on the site, our clients have several options for solar energy.

House plans for this Japanese home will be posted soon!