Exterior House Style Quiz
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Very little; I prefer surfaces that hide joints and structural elements
- A few visible supports are appealing if the overall look stays simple
- Beams, brackets, and sturdy connections should provide noticeable character
- Expressive joinery and structural craftsmanship should be among the facade's main features
- A spare arrangement of gravel, clipped plants, and one sculptural tree
- A neat path with symmetrical shrubs and a few seasonal flowers
- A curved walkway bordered by mixed flowers, herbs, and informal greenery
- A lush, layered garden with climbing vines, overflowing beds, and a winding path to the door
- A shallow, formal portico with slender matching columns
- A practical covered stoop with simple square posts
- A deep porch with broad posts, exposed beams, and room to sit
- A generous low-roofed porch with tapered columns on masonry piers and prominent joinery
Exterior House Style Quiz - Description and methodology of the test
People choosing finishes, landscaping, or a future facade can use the Exterior House Style Quiz to turn scattered visual preferences into a clearer profile. It suits homeowners, renovators, and design-curious visitors who want language for their reactions to proportion, ornament, materials, entrances, and rooflines. As an exterior home style quiz, it highlights dominant affinities so ideas can be compared deliberately rather than treated as rules of architectural correctness.
What This Assessment Explores
Questions cover gardens, porches, roofs, trim, doors, windows, materials, symmetry, craftsmanship, and restraint. It asks which exterior style best suits the respondent, helping clarify their preferred home exterior style rather than assigning a formal architectural classification.
Each item offers four contrasting choices. The result dimensions are:
- Classic Traditional (0-12) measures affinity with symmetry and established detail: Selective Interest (0-4), Classic Blend (5-8), Traditional Affinity (9-12).
- Cottage Romantic (0-12) measures attraction to intimate scale and garden-connected charm: Selective Interest (0-4), Cottage Blend (5-8), Romantic Affinity (9-12).
- Craftsman Character (0-12) measures appeal of deep porches, natural materials, and handcrafted structure: Selective Interest (0-4), Crafted Blend (5-8), Craftsman Affinity (9-12).
- Modern Minimalist (0-12) measures preference for crisp geometry, calm surfaces, and purposeful simplicity: Selective Interest (0-4), Modern Blend (5-8), Minimalist Affinity (9-12).
Together, the scores show concentrated preferences as well as comfortable blends.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
The format is a self-report, forced-choice comparison. The questionnaire displays separate affinity scales with named result bands. Its scoring method is not documented, and its normative status is not standardised; the bands describe aesthetic affinity rather than property quality or value.
The framework is conceptually consistent with Nasar and Kang (1999), whose work examined preferences for house styles and the meanings attached to them. Imamoglu (2000) and Akalin et al. (2009) add context on traditional and modern facades, complexity, familiarity, liking, and impressiveness. Those studies provide conceptual context for architectural preference but do not establish this questionnaire’s adaptation, validation, or norms.
The profile is best read as a snapshot of current taste; it addresses what style is my house exterior quiz through comparison rather than assigning a fixed identity or technical style label. Mood, recent exposure, renovation plans, cultural familiarity, and the gap between admiring a feature and living with it can affect choices. Use the profile to compare materials, landscaping, entrances, and rooflines, while remembering that self-report depends on honest choices and does not establish a fixed identity or technical style label.
- Nasar, Jack L., and Junmo Kang. "House style preference and meanings across taste cultures." Landscape and Urban Planning, 44(1), 1999, 33-42. 10.1016/S0169-2046(98)00109-1.
- Imamoglu, Cagri. "Complexity, liking and familiarity: Architecture and non-architecture Turkish students' assessments of traditional and modern house facades." Journal of Environmental Psychology, 20(1), 2000, 5-16. 10.1006/jevp.1999.0155.
- Akalin, Aysu, Kemal Yildirim, Christopher Wilson, and Onder Kilicoglu. "Architecture and engineering students' evaluations of house facades: Preference, complexity and impressiveness." Journal of Environmental Psychology, 29(1), 2009, 124-132. 10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.05.005.
Updated: