One of the things I love about publishing this website is getting to look at so many beautiful houses of all types and sizes. It’s fun and inspiring.
This page is designed to make it easy for you to find many of our featured homes, which are many from hundreds of interior designers, architects and builders as well as carefully selected real estate listings.
Below you can access everything via a variety of categories.
Related: Home Plans Websites | Best Architecture Websites | Best Interior Design Books | Best Quilting Books | Types of Houses | Suburban Houses | Adobe Houses | Pretty Houses | Cute Houses | Fancy Houses | Dream Houses
If you prefer to see all houses individually, click here.
By Style
Another way we organize the thousands of featured house ideas on our site is by house styles. Below you can access our collections of different houses by style. Style refers to the design style such as modern, rustic, midcentury, etc.
Rustic Houses
Rustic is one of the most popular interior styles. It’s not as popular as contemporary, but it’s up there. Interestingly, most people’s homes aren’t rustic, but they like it. It’s one of those styles, like modern, where there’s a disconnect between popularity and reality.
It’s hard not to appreciate rustic design. There’s a real warmth to it, even if there’s not a lot of light. It’s the nostalgic factor which I believe makes it popular. By nostalgic, I’m referring to how rustic brings us back in time that we believe to be simpler and better times (which isn’t the case, but that’s nostalia for you).
See all our rustic homes here.
Victorian Houses
My wife and I almost bought a stunning Victorian house. It was beautifully preserved. We both loved it. However, with two young kids and not a whole lot of time to keep it in pristine condition, we decided to pass. It was a tough decision.
I totally get why anyone would buy an old Victorian house. There’s something magical about them. If you like Victorian houses, you’ll love our gallery featuring some of the most spectacular Victorian houses in the world.
Tudor Houses
Once upon a time my parents owned a revival Tudor house. I had just left for college when they bought it so I didn’t live in it, but I visited and enjoyed the house. It was large and spacious on a one acre lot (with fabulous gardens).
Tudor revival style is distinct, but there are variations.
Modern Homes
I find modern architecture fascinating. Not the design, but the fact that it’s very popular, but most people don’t choose to live in modern homes. Don’t you think that’s odd? If modern design is your thing, check out our modern houses.
Colonial Style Houses
It’s hard not to like the many sub-styles of colonial style homes in the USA (mostly found on the Eastern seaboard. Above is one example located in Yarmouth, MA and built in 1840.
See many more examples of colonial houses in the USA here.
By Type
The first category of our beautiful houses collections is by house type. House type refers to the structure type such as detached home, townhouse, apartment, etc.
Mansions
Anyone can build a big house, but not just anyone can design and build a beautiful big house. Interestingly, many people don’t like looking at mega-mansions.
I know, because they tell me via this website that owning such a home is never going to happen so why not stick to regular houses. It’s a good argument, but while I never expect to own a 20,000 sq. ft. mansion, I love looking at them… and so we have a mansion section.
Click here for featured mansions
Townhomes
Townhomes are a great solution for when you need space, bedrooms but live in an urban area where detached homes are too expensive or don’t exist. In some cities, a townhome is the ultimate in luxury (think NYC and London).
In other areas, luxury townhomes exist, but so too do regular-sized options that provide space without the price tag. I think in the coming decades, more and more people will live in townhouses because of escalating real estate prices. I think they’re a great option.
Check out our collection of luxury townhomes here.
Apartments
Some of the most expensive homes in the world are apartments. Think Hong Kong, New York City and other large cities where 5,000 sq. ft. on the 30th floor costs far more than 5 acres with a 5,000 sq. ft. home in many, many other areas of the world.
It’s classic supply and demand. And when people shell out millions for an apartment, they want it to look great. To that end, we have a growing collection of luxury apartments.
Click here for our featured apartments.
Tiny Homes
The tiny house movement is alive and well. More and more people, especially couples with no kids and empty nesters are opting to downsize, go minimalist, cash out and live in a tiny home.
It’s amazing how clever some of these designs and layouts are. What they can cram into a couple of hundred square feet is incredible.
Shipping Container Houses
Check out that sprawling container house. It’s awesome. The ingenuity going into container house design is amazing. We feature a nice handful of them from around the world. Check them out:
See all shipping container houses here.
Historic
There are historic homes and then there are famous or iconic historic homes. I had a load of fun putting together this collection because I love beautiful houses and history.
I spent days researching and collecting photos for these historic houses throughout the USA.
Castles
Few people live in castles these days. Most are converted into hotels and/or museums. They’re simply too expensive to maintain and not the most comfortable unless they go through a multi-million dollar renovation.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t cool to visit, look at, read about and dream about owning. I spent over one month compiling a list of the best castles in the world. They’re organized by country. You have to see this massive collection of castles if you’re a castle fan.
By Location
Beautiful homes can be beautiful in part due to their location. By location, we mean ocean-front, lakefront, floating, etc.
Beach Houses
Who doesn’t want a beach house? It’s the dream, right? There’s limited waterfront property and given most people want to live on the water, beach houses cost a lot of money.
What’s cool about beach houses is the diverse designs and styles. I get a kick out of looking at what some architects come up with.
Click for our beach house collection.
Lake Houses
There’s something magical about lakes. I prefer swimming in lakes over the ocean. It’s calmer and I prefer fresh water. Sure, I’d take an ocean beach house any day, but for a vacation property, all else being equal, I’d prefer a vacation lake house.
Beautiful20 white lake house feb26 See our lake house collection here.
Floating Houses
While I love the concept and I think the floating neighborhoods in harbors look fabulous, it’s not a home I’d buy… especially with young kids. However, I get the appeal. It’s kinda like living on a boat but you enjoy more of the usual comforts.
We put together a great collection of floating houses.
Click for floating houses here.
By Color
And yet another way to categorize different houses is by color. We have collections of houses for all common house colors.
White Houses
White is one of my favorite exterior colors. It’s stately, clean and looks good in the outdoors.
See beautiful white houses here (not THE White House though).
Blue Houses
Blue is catching on as a house exterior. I think the type of blue you choose makes a huge difference. I love navy blue with white trim.
Red Houses
Red houses are very popular in Scandinavia. I had the good fortune of visiting Sweden and saw firsthand the landscape peppered with red houses.
Click for all red house ideas here.
Gray Houses
In general, gray is growing in popularity as a color for home decor, including home exteriors.
Yellow Houses
While not hugely popular, the right yellow with the right home can have a stunning effect. In our former neighborhood, there was a large new home designed in the Victorian style that was painted yellow. It was striking.
Green Houses
Of all the colors we feature, green is my least favorite. I like a green lawn and bushes, but I’d prefer a different color for the house.
By Material
This pertains more to house exterior materials, but we also feature a variety of beautiful houses based on the exterior material.
Brick
Few materials create the stately appearance of a home quite like red brick.
Stone
Stone exteriors are super popular, for good reason. It looks amazing. It can be combined with siding or wood as well.
See stone exterior houses here.
Log
Log homes are fabulous, but not terribly popular except at ski resort towns. We put together an incredible collection of log homes.
Check out these beautiful log homes.
Glass
Talk about a stark contrast between glass homes and others we have here including brick and stone. I love glass houses because I like a lot of natural light inside.
Click here for amazing glass houses.
Stucco
Stucco is great because it doesn’t require much maintenance. You can also opt for pretty much any color, which gives you plenty of exterior flexibility.
See all stucco exterior houses here.
Wood
It’s hard to not like wood for any part of the house. Many houses have wood exteriors, whether boards or shingles.
Check out these wood exterior houses.
Concrete
I’m not too wild about exposed concrete exteriors, but some people like it.
Other
Cool houses
What makes a house cool? I can’t put my finger one a single design feature, but it’s the combination of design elements that make it cool. It’s also very subjective; what I think is cool, you may not.
To that end, we put together a collection of houses that we think is very cool.
Check out here what I consider to be cool houses.
Nice houses
What’s a nice house? I consider a nice house one that most people would like. It has universal appeal. That’s how we choose the houses in our “nice houses” collection. Check them out.
Visit collection of nice houses here.