Texas Eclectic

Monte Smith, while working for Mastercraft Homes, a design/building company in Montgomery County, Lake Conroe area North of Houston, Texas developed a style of home designs that became popular in the area while working with clients who migrated to the area from many parts of the country and state.

Monte Smith developed this style for these clients who wanted to have a design that fit their personal taste and at the same time, create a plan that took advantage of the many views available from the lakefront and golf course home sites in the Lake Conroe area.

While many common elements can be identified with traditional designs, you will find the home designs constantly cross the boundaries between traditional, Mediterranean and Texas Hill Country, while being influenced by contemporary features for taking advantage of the open rooms, high ceilings and oversized windows that would allow in all the available light from the outside.

The combination between the exterior ideas and interior features allowed Monte Smith to mix mash the designs together to create what became known as the Texas Eclectic Design, It is not uncommon to see stone, stucco, brick and siding all on one house plan and this would not always be the case in any design. Many plans may have only stucco or brick or any combination of the two that would create the exterior features. Monte Smith says this is simply a mix mash of styles that take advantage of the lake and golf course views by incorporating large windows that seem to open up to the outside. The Texas Eclectic style gives you the feeling that you are living outdoors. Monte wanted to let in as much highlight as possible wherever he could incorporate this into his designs.

When you start studying the principles of the Texas Eclectic, you will see it is mainly characterized by the use of pop-up walls and pony walls that rise up above standard plate lines and at the same time minimize the use of many hips and valleys common in the traditional and Mediterranean designs. This also would allow for contemporary features such as taller windows and in many cases, transform windows in rooms with higher ceilings. The end result of the design is to give you the sense of living outdoors.

Many of the plans have a Texas basement (attic space where stairs are located similar in location where a lower basement would be accessed).

Since there is not a clear description for this style, Monte Smith has dubbed this style as Texas Eclectic.