Homes of the Year 2018

Our team asked southwest Missouri builders to nominate their best work from the past 365 days. Residential builders wow us with their innovative minds, and this season proves no different. Each year we choose a different group of experts to judge the entries, and this year we turned to the Northwest Arkansas Home Builders Association. A panel of judges examined each nomination to narrow down the contestants based on the interior and exterior and how the client’s goals were met. Once the results were in, we picked apart each project, investigating exactly how a work of art can double as a home, and found out what you need to know before starting your own custom-home project. Take a look at the winning homes and let your ideas run wild. 

Modern Tranquility

Modeling their home after a luxurious hotel, these southwest Missouri homeowners, along with Bella Homes, traveled as far as Las Vegas to find the perfect inspiration for this staycation mansion.

What if instead of leaving your home to go on vacation, you brought the vacation home to you? A set of southwest Missouri homeowners wanted their next home to model high-end hotel luxury and enlisted the help of Justin Skiles, owner of Bella Homes, for his expertise. 

For the next three years, the team researched how to produce a comfortable modern home equipped with glamorous luxuries. 

“We did take a trip to Las Vegas to the International Builders’ Show to start to lay out details and look at designs and products just to try to give it a better building process once we got started,” Skiles says.  

The inside of the home is just as splendid as the outside, with the help of Andrea Deckard, owner of A. Deckard Interiors LLC. Natural wood accents, exposed metal and white stone accents are repeated throughout the home.

“I do quite a bit of work on hotel projects, so the idea that this home would be modeled after a luxury hotel struck a note with me,” Deckard says. 

The result is something only found in faraway lands. Of course, there are the necessary components to suit the active couple’s lifestyle too, such as the indoor training pool, a gourmet chef’s kitchen and a large indoor gym. Because why not, right?

Barn Turned Contemporary Ranch

Rhoads Construction & Design was able to pivot quickly as they went from planning a couple’s barn to creating a contemporary ranch.

The project started out as a barn for entertaining—perfect for a weekend escape. The homeowners wanted to build a retreat on their 15 acres of land, but after realizing how much potential the plot possessed, they scrapped their weekend hideaway and started crafting a long-term countryside escape. 

The property itself is picturesque—a wide, custom-made door faces the north overlooking a cattle pasture and silo. To the south, the back patio looks out over a low valley. The couple’s love for their little slice of Rogersville is what drove the project. Owner of Rhoads Construction & Design Adrian Rhoads says every single placement was deliberate. 

“[Nothing is] coincidence,” Rhoads says. “When you come in through the front door and you see the view looking out through big windows all the way through the house, it’s a very intentional thing.” 

Combining the land’s beauty with the couple’s style, Rhoads Construction & Design placed pine floors throughout the house, bringing the rooms together. Achieving the couple’s originality was a little more difficult than capturing scenic views—the couple wanted a wall-length bookshelf in their music room and the feature took plenty of detailed drawings before building could begin. The result of careful planning on both ends is breathtaking.

Timeless American Architecture

Using painted steel throughout the home and topping it off with a copper accent roof, Rhoads Construction & Design pulls off a twist with an open floor plan.

The deep blue coating the outside of the home does not foretell the inside’s bright and open floorplan. Needing to house a family of seven, the homeowners came to Adrian Rhoads, owner of Rhoads Construction & Design, for a custom-made home large enough to welcome back their young-adult children and future guests. Wide, open space would give them the best of both worlds, so Rhoads used large steel beams to make the home structurally sound, dressing the house in a dark exterior color scheme and pushing for brightly lit rooms from within. 

“We really like when people establish some rules for what they want because then we try to let our creativity work around those rules,” Rhoads says of the couple’s requirements. “In this case, they kept their main floor focused on their everyday living.”   

Efficiency was a forefront goal. The upstairs and main living area run on two different heating and cooling units so the homeowners save on utilities while their kids are at school. The main floor houses the master suite, along with other essential rooms to make daily life possible.  

Considering the family’s needs and desires, Rhoads and his company built a thoughtful, functioning base that combines need with beautifully crafted structural elements.

Traditional and Contemporary Finishes

Hidden in the midst of the Ozarks’ natural flora, a Built by Brett Inc. custom home caters to the native landscape, adding plenty of personalized features to boot.

Before they began planning the transitional home of their dreams, one Springfield couple chose a three-acre lot for its Ozark native foliage. They relied on Built By Brett’s own Brett Godfrey, who has over 100 custom homes under his belt, for his eye toward the unusual. 

The couple’s two biggest wishes were to highlight the plot they were building on and to create a home with as much open space as possible. Not wanting to disrupt the natural look of the property, Godfrey says the planning process took careful consideration including decisions regarding which trees to leave untouched. The inside of the home was meant to exhibit a modern look, but not necessarily sterile.   

“They were not wanting the old Springfield version of the French country style,” Godfrey says. “They were tired of that. They wanted something that was modern but not too modern, so heavy on the transitional is the style they were after.” Nine months later, the combination of traditional and contemporary styles was fine-tuned and completed, resulting in an open floor plan with crisp white lines and minimal touches. 

Throughout the home are floating and suspended features combining the couple’s wishes for form and functionality that make every guest stop and stare.