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Will Thomas Designs
This is a simple portfolio layout. Begins with Highlight Samples, then New Homes, Major Additions & Remodels, Small Projects
BEFORE
Here is how the home looked before Will Thomas Designs was hired. The home was originally built as a Craftsman before WWII, then an aluminum siding salesperson talked the owner into removing all the classic Craftsman trim and features. A couple owners later, the owners found a photo of what it was in city archives, asked Will to take their home back to a Craftsman Style. Then the client found that big front window with a curved top light. True Craftsman homes don't have curves, but Will agreed the window added some elegance, and designed the new porch arch with a similar look. Today every time the owners come home they can feel the personal and unique features of their distinctive residence. And they are inspired to enjoy and care even more for it. These two photos present the essence of the unusual approach Will brings to his design work.
Website Guide
After the More Additions section is a special focus on a Foursquare Renovation. It began with a somewhat plain older home, and added a second story, all within a whole-house renovation to the classic Foursquare style. The owners Paul & Barbara brought a keen focus on architectural details to the project. And they made sure, over the course of many years, to finish the interior with era consistent features. The section, with its many interior photographs, is worth some extra attention, with a lot of credit for their work.
NOTE: View as much as you like on the website. When you want to talk more with Will, just click his email address, or complete the contact form at the bottom of this page. Be sure to voice any questions or concerns. The first significant step is to schedule a site visit appointment, where your ideas and wants will be fully reviewed.
Thank you.
Areas of Specialty
Old Home Style
Craftsman Style, Queen Anne, Tudor, Foursquare and Seattle War House are the primary distinctive home styles in the Puget Sound region. Other frequently found, post war styles include Rambler, Daylight Basement, Split Level and Northwest Contemporary. Recent trends include an Eclectic blend of the older forms, usually streamlined, and various Minimalist themes. Will is familiar with all these styles, and can adapt their features to the homeowner's preference - as the photos show.
Will Thomas, Certified Building Designer, brings more than 40 years of residential design, drafting and permit-handling experience to your home. He has drawn plans for more than 600 projects - remodel, addition and new residence - in the Puget Sound area. Your ideas are welcome. Structural plans are not started until you approve the Preliminary Plans.
Will is a Retired Member of the Green River Community College Design & Drafting Technology Advisory Committee, a Professional Member of the Washington Association of Building Officials, and Past President of the Washington State Association of building Designers.
Seamless Design
Seamless Design is the primary applied criteria in Will's work history - over more than 40 years. When the addition and renovation work is finished, it should look like it was always there. This is the design element that looks best and is enjoyed the most, while adding significant & durable value to the home. It is a design talent in which Will is outstanding.
Waterfront Homes
Shoreline sites present unique challenges. The lots are almost always long and narrow, while the homeowner wants as many rooms to face the view as possible. The topography is often sloped. And there are multiple environmental and habitat protection codes that must be addressed from the beginning of the design solution. Only an experienced design pro can be effective in merging the hundreds of details to a successful set of plans.
Critical Zones
There are several types of Critical Areas, including wetlands, streams and rivers, steep slope, liquefying soil, old mines, industrial toxins in the soil, endangered species, and a few more. Similar to the inclusive approach needed for waterfront homes, it takes a knowledgeable design pro to meld these requirements into the design solution.
Aging In Place
The desire to live out one's life in their home, the place where they find the most comfort and peace, feel the most safe, began this emphatic trend a couple decades ago. And there should be at least a minimum level of built-in features to accommodate a wheelchair - or at least fixtures that make daily life easier for people with some degree of infirmity. If the necessary items are part of the plans set, their cost can be greatly reduced.
Difficult & Unusual Sites
With most of the Puget Sound landscape already fairly well developed, it's not unusual to find the only unbuilt property comes with development problems. That's why they remain in their natural state. However, almost all the time a solution can be found. It seems to take an open and creative mind to sort out a workable siting resolution.
Recently, Will was diagnosed by a Psychologist PhD with an unusual genetic condition, one that gifted him with enhanced spatial cognition. focus on detail and higher-level creativity, which enables him to offer the increased mental acuity needed to combine the hundreds of codes and ordinances and client criteria into a worthwhile set of plans.
New Residence Section
This new home presents a slightly simplified Craftsman theme, keeping the classic shapes and arrangements, while removing maintenance intensive features like knee braces and wide roof overhangs. The siding and exterior trim are also standard dimensional materials, reducing upkeep and cost. The great room and dining space on the main floor opens to the lower deck, with view of Puget Sound. Upstairs the owner suite opens to its privacy rail deck, with a higher view.
New Craftsman Style
New old style home with modern layout and features inside. Above the side entry garage - to avoid the 'snout' look - is a recreation room with view to the natural forested lot. The configuration presents four gables to the front. Inside the upper bump out is the upstairs bathroom. And the spacious country size covered front porch offers a great place to sit on warm Spring and Summer days.
A modern simplified approach to the timeless Craftsman Style shapes. A multiple car garage is accessed on the right side of the home. And the primary function for the long but not deep covered front porch is to provide a sheltered walkway from the driveway to the front door. A large stepped gable slightly off-centers the mass, with the dormer adding asymmetrical balance. The home is as deep as it is wide, offering more than 4,000 sq. ft. in living area. The look is stately, timeless, with only a hint of its country setting.
An Aging In Place Home
"Our last home!" That's what the owners said during their initial site appointment with Will. And the primary configuration for an Aging In Place home is everything on one story. Usually, the simple form is a large Rambler. For the exterior presentation, the owners wanted a covered wrap-around-porch, with a gentle country look. The owners had a large family and many friends. So inside the front entry is an oversize great room with space for a pool table, a mega dining space and a long breakfast bar to the "L" shape kitchen facing that great room. The two small dormers serve as skylights in the vaulted main area ceiling - sited over the pool table. There are two spacious bedrooms for guests, and a four car garage on the right side. Going to Grandma's house is pretty comfy here.
Country Cross Home
This very expressive modern Craftsman Style home has a hidden "cross" feature - shown in the photo below. The owners also requested a "pretty" finish presentation, with a wide covered porch. But its primary configuration element is that almost all the structure is covered under one large gable roof. So the first layout drawn was a schematic of the triangular forms to determine interior wall heights of second story rooms, and what roof slope was needed for that idea to resolve. The front balcony at a bedroom adds charm, and offers a terrific view of the valley below.
Hidden "cross" Feature
The owners were leaders in their church, and requested some sort of clear, but not over stated, symbol of their faith to be part of the home design. As Will worked out the precision of the one large gable roof, he saw the opportunity for an extra high vaulted ceiling above the front entry. Which is a normal place for an impressive window array. And a typical window joining pattern would be easy with standard size windows, to form a Christian cross. The interior trim could be designed to enhance the naturally forming cross effect of window intersections, but if the exterior trim were designed to align with a standard era-consistent and more decorative trim band, then the cross would be present, but not noticeable until guests entered the home. Then suddenly, the cross becomes apparent. It was - exactly what the clients wanted.
Rambler with Craftsman Features
The owners wanted a one-story, Aging In Place layout, but with some Craftsman Style features. A covered porch with thick columns and classic railing, centered on the living room window, was a good and easy solution to add. And the apex of the large gable roof provided space for a stepped window array that serves as a skylight to the vaulted room below. Wide and simple trim, plus a row of grid windows in the garage doors, helps to add an older, friendly character to the home. And the house is part of a golf course community, so the extra small garage door to the left of the main garage is sized for - a golf cart.
The owners wanted authentic Craftsman Style features, including knee braces, wide eaves, stepped trim band, matching door and window trim, and king post detail in the gable apex fascia. The front door is also of a traditional Craftsman Style. Note the sloping front yard received stone-faced retaining walls to provide a more friendly flat lawn, with inset wide steps up to the covered porch. Usually the porch columns and railings would be painted with trim matching color, but the owner liked the natural wood look. And the genuine red brick chimney adds another era consistent feature.
BEFORE
Here is an old photo of the 1970s era contemporary one story house, replaced by the new two-story yellow Craftsman Style home above.
Country Ranch
This simple configuration home with a modern country appearance and a minimum king post gable above the front entry, was actually added to the right side of the existing home of the owner's parents. These basic selections provide for a lower building cost and easier to maintain house. Technically, it can be said it's an addition. But the connection occurs at the left end of the "L" shape where the new 3-car garage is built, and the new house part is otherwise entirely a separate building, developed structurally for its own support. So it is included here, in the New Home category.
BEFORE
Here is the "Before" photo of the original pre-war era farmhouse. The new home addition, shown above, was added to the right hand side of the existing house.
New Americana Country home
New home in a relaxed and comfortable, easy to maintain style. An ample great room is located in the middle of the structure, with owner suite to the left, kitchen and eating area against the back wall, large garage faces out the right-hand end of the house. Upstairs are more bedrooms and bathroom - made more quaint by their vaulted ceilings and dormer windows. This layout is a lower cost way to acquire a very functional and pleasant home.
An Interior Design Sample
The to-be redesigned kitchen and adjacent eating & living space in this 1960s beach house needed to stay within the existing building envelope. And be lighter, brighter, inviting and feel spacious. The primary use of the 60+ year old home was a weekend getaway. When the purpose was identified, Will suggested the tall and dark colored refrigerator be replaced by an under-counter unit, which immediately changed the feeling of tight space. The eating table was then relocated against the primary view window in the open area. An island with breakfast bar and light stain cabinet, was sited in its most functional place, and a 3rd window was added between the existing two above the sink. Then - the interior was painted a semi-gloss white, to bounce light through the area. The owners said, "Your vision of the end result is spectacular. After the paint dried we set up the table, rolled out the carpet and wow! What a difference!"
BEFORE
The old kitchen and eating area was dark, cramped and felt very not inviting.