A French Country home has a rustic yet upscale charm. French Country architecture is designed after French chateaus and became popular with American soldiers returning from World War I.
French Country homes offer a unique house style featuring:
- Steep pitched or hipped roofs
- Tall ceilings and windows
- Traditional materials including clay, stone, and brick offer a rustic appeal
- Exposed wooden beams in ceilings and walls
French Country homes are designed with their environment in mind. They often feature neutral colors with soft, nature-inspired pops of color like sunshine yellows and grass greens.
Modern home design became popular in the early 20th century and has a heavy influence on today’s contemporary designs. The core of modern designs can be seen in their:
- Use of geometric shapes
- Large, floor-to-ceiling windows
- Clean lines and flat roofs
- Open floor plans
These styles attempt to connect with nature through minimalism and fluid design between outdoor and indoor spaces. Modern house styles branch into a few key sub-styles.
Modern Tudor homes are inspired by Medieval European Tudor homes and often have a charming cottage aesthetic. They’re popular on the East Coast and in parts of the Midwest.
Tudor homes are an easy style to identify. They feature:
- Steeply pitched gable roofs
- Exposed and decorative half-timbering with stucco exterior
- Mixed-material brick or stone walls
- Casement windows in groups or with diamond shapes
The Tudor Revival reached peak popularity in the 1920s and is still widely popular today.
Queen Anne homes were popularized in the later Victorian era, beginning around 1880. This style is the quintessential Victorian home for many, with ornate woodworking and decor inside and out.
Queen Anne homes have key regional differences across the country, but maintain these essentials:
- Textured walls with decorative shingles or half-timbering
- Large round or polygonal tower at the home’s corner
- Steeply pitched and asymmetrical roof
- Decorative spindles on porches and trim
- Decorative single-pane or stained glass windows
Queen Anne architecture is most common in homes, but can also be seen in schools, churches, and office buildings.
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key.
Distinctive styles of American popular music emerged early in the 19th century, and in the 20th century the American music industry developed a series of new forms of music, using elements of blues and other genres of American folk music. These popular styles included country, R&B, jazz and rock. The 1960s and 1970s saw a number of important changes in American popular music, including the development of a number of new styles, such as heavy metal, punk, soul, and hip hop. Though these styles were not in the sense of mainstream, they were commercially recorded and are thus examples of popular music as opposed to folk or classical music.
The U.S. health system is a mix of public and private, for-profit and nonprofit insurers and health care providers. The federal government provides funding for the national Medicare program for adults age 65 and older and some people with disabilities as well as for various programs for veterans and low-income people, including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. States manage and pay for aspects of local coverage and the safety net. Private insurance, the dominant form of coverage, is provided primarily by employers. The uninsured rate, 8.5 percent of the population, is down from 16 percent in 2010, the year that the landmark Affordable Care Act became law. Public and private insurers set their own benefit packages and cost-sharing structures, within federal and state regulations.
Italianate architecture continues the trend of asymmetrical design, romanticism, and Medieval influence — this time borrowing features from Medieval Italy. Italianate style is common up and down the East Coast and peaked in popularity between 1850 and 1880.
Italianate architecture features:
- Belvederes for natural light and airflow
- Overhanging eaves with decorative support brackets
- Tall and narrow or pedimented windows with rounded crowns
- Cast iron detailing and decor
Pattern books were becoming a popular way for craftsmen to build homes in different styles. This flexibility meant Italianate features were accessible for a variety of homes including large estates and urban townhouses.
Townhomes are common in cities and densely populated neighborhoods. Townhouses are tall and narrow homes designed to make the most out of vertical space without too much of a yard or garden area.
Homes are considered townhouses when they:
- Share one or two walls with adjacent homes
- Have their own entrances
- Are built with multiple floors to maximize vertical space
- Often share a similar style to their neighbors’ homes and may operate under an HOA
Townhouses can be built to mimic other architecture styles, like Italianate and Greek Revival, while maintaining the condensed, vertical floor plan.
Gothic Revival architecture grew in the mid-19th century and was one of the early styles of Victorian-era homes. The Gothic Revival style takes influence from Medieval Europe and was designed as a country home. Architects believed the asymmetrical design and ornamentation complemented the nature of rural America.
Gothic Revival homes can be identified by their:
- Pointed arch in windows, doors, and decoration
- Elaborate wood trim vergeboards and bargeboards
- Steeply pitched roofs and front-facing gables
- Towers and turrets resembling medieval castles
Gothic Revival architecture was a popular style for schools and churches as well as rural homes.
Prairie-style homes were made famous by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. These homes celebrate and complement the natural beauty of the Midwestern landscape with low and long shapes in the floor plan and building elements.
Prairie-style houses showcase:
- Long and low-to-the-ground builds
- Flat or shallow roofs with overhanging eaves
- Thin bricks or stucco exteriors to match the house shape
- Minimalist yet stylized ornamentation
Prairie houses inspired the flat planes and natural elements popular in Mid-century houses.
Mid-century Modern designs are nothing new and have influenced interior design, graphic art, and house styles. Mid-century Modern homes are designed to embrace minimalism and nature. They’re also often modeled to appeal to a futuristic or abstract concept.
Mid-century Modern homes can be identified by their:
- Flat planes and clean lines
- Monochromatic brickwork
- Asymmetrical home layouts
- Nature-inspired interior
- Interior level shifts between rooms
Mid-century architecture is still widely popular today, as are Mid-century Modern interior design and furniture trends.