Tom Fox of Fox Group Construction and his wife Cara knew exactly what they wanted when it came time to build their family home in Salt Lake City, Utah: a residence that drew from the best of classic American architectural traditions while feeling comfortable and welcoming for everyday living. The result is a stately shingle style home that takes inspiration from the grand seaside estates of Long Island’s East End, adapted for the mountain west with thoughtful proportions and meticulous craftsmanship. This project demonstrates how the principles of shingle style home design can be applied to create a residence that feels both substantial and inviting.
Design Philosophy and Architectural Inspiration
The Fox family home is not a reproduction of any single historic house. Instead, Tom and Cara identified elements they loved from across the classic styles of American residential architecture and combined them into a cohesive whole. The primary influence came from the grand old shingle-style homes that line the coast of eastern Long Island, particularly in communities like East Hampton and Southampton.
The Shingle Style Tradition
Shingle style architecture emerged in New England during the late nineteenth century as a distinctly American building tradition. It is characterized by continuous wood shingle cladding that wraps around corners and flows over surfaces, creating a unified visual texture. Unlike the more rigid Victorian styles that preceded it, shingle style embraces asymmetry, irregular rooflines, and a sense of organic connection to the site.
The Fox home translates these principles to a contemporary family residence. The exterior uses cedar shingles applied in a traditional manner, with the material wrapping around corners and flowing from upper to lower stories. This creates the characteristic visual unity that defines the style while providing excellent weather resistance in Utah’s variable climate.
Balancing Form and Function
One of the central challenges in designing a home of this character was striking the right balance between formal architectural expression and everyday livability. A home that is too precious becomes uncomfortable; one that is too casual loses the sense of occasion that makes a house feel special.
Tom Fox addressed this challenge by paying careful attention to proportions throughout the house. Room dimensions, ceiling heights, and the placement of doors and windows were all calibrated to create spaces that feel generous without being overwhelming. The entry sequence, for example, moves from a covered porch into a foyer that opens gradually into the main living areas, giving visitors a sense of arrival without theatrical excess.
Key Architectural Features and Craftsmanship
The success of this home lies in the details. From the exterior massing to the interior trim, every element was designed and executed with care.
Exterior Massing and Roof Forms
The home presents a composed facade with multiple gables, deep overhangs, and a prominent front-facing gable that anchors the composition. The roof forms are complex but not chaotic, with intersecting planes that create visual interest while shedding snow and water effectively. Deep roof overhangs protect the shingle siding and create shadow lines that give the facade depth.
Porch Design as Transitional Space
A covered front porch runs across part of the facade, serving as both a design feature and a functional outdoor room. This porch is not an afterthought but an integral part of the floor plan, providing shelter at the entry and a place to sit outdoors in good weather. The porch ceiling is finished with beadboard, a traditional detail that adds texture overhead. For homeowners considering similar additions, thoughtful front porch design can dramatically improve both the appearance and livability of a home.
Window and Door Placement
Tom Fox placed exceptional emphasis on getting the windows and doors right. Windows are arranged to balance natural light with wall space for furniture, and their proportions follow classical conventions that feel naturally right to the eye. Casement windows in key locations open fully to connect indoor spaces with the outdoors, while double-hung windows in other areas maintain the traditional character.
Interior doors are carefully positioned to create sightlines through the house, allowing glimpses from one room to another that make the floor plan feel connected. This attention to fenestration is a hallmark of quality residential architecture and one of the reasons the home feels both spacious and intimate.
Interior Spaces and Material Selection
Inside, the home continues the theme of refined tradition with materials selected for both beauty and durability. The Fox family wanted a home that could withstand the wear and tear of raising a family while maintaining a sense of elegance.
Living Areas and Flow
The main floor follows an open plan, with the kitchen, dining, and living areas arranged around a central axis. Unlike some open plans that feel like one big undifferentiated volume, this layout uses ceiling height changes, partial walls, and changes in floor material to define zones within the larger space. The result is a plan that feels open without being cavernous.
Key features of the main living areas include:
- A fireplace with a carefully proportioned mantel that serves as the focal point of the living room
- Built-in cabinetry that provides storage while adding architectural character
- Large windows that frame views of the surrounding landscape
- A kitchen designed for both serious cooking and casual family gatherings
Interior Finishes and Millwork
The level of millwork throughout the home is exceptional. Baseboards, casings, and crown moldings are substantial without being overly ornate, following classical profiles that complement the architectural style. Interior doors are solid paneled doors with traditional hardware.
A comparison of typical millwork details used in the home versus standard production builder grade:
| Element | Fox Residence | Standard Builder Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Baseboard height | 7 1/4 inches | 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 inches |
| Casing profile | Routed colonial with backband | Plain flat stock or simple colonial |
| Crown molding | Built-up with bed mold and cove | Single-piece standard profile |
| Door style | Five-panel solid wood | Hollow-core slab |
| Window trim | Extended stool and apron | Standard stool with minimal projection |
Color Palette and Interior Design
The color scheme throughout the home is restrained, with walls in warm neutrals that allow the architecture and millwork to take center stage. This approach follows a well-established principle of stately residential architecture: let the bones of the house do the talking. Accent colors appear in furnishings and artwork, allowing the owners to refresh the look of rooms without repainting.
The kitchen features painted cabinetry in a soft gray tone with marble countertops and a classic subway tile backsplash. This combination of materials is timeless rather than trendy, ensuring the kitchen will look appropriate for decades rather than requiring a renovation when styles change.
Lessons for Homeowners and Builders
The Fox family home offers several valuable lessons for anyone planning a custom home or major renovation. These insights apply whether you are building a stately residence or a more modest project.
Invest in Design Early
The single most important decision in any custom home project is investing adequate time and money in the design phase. Tom Fox worked through multiple iterations of the floor plan and exterior design before breaking ground, refining proportions and relationships between spaces until everything felt right. Changes on paper are essentially free; changes during construction are expensive.
Prioritize Proportion Over Square Footage
A well-proportioned 3,500 square foot home will feel more satisfying than a poorly proportioned 5,000 square foot home. The Fox residence achieves its grandeur not through sheer size but through careful attention to room dimensions, ceiling heights, and the relationships between spaces. Homeowners should focus on how rooms feel rather than how many square feet they contain.
Details Matter More Than You Think
The difference between an ordinary home and an exceptional one is almost always in the details. Window placement, trim profiles, hardware selection, and the way materials meet at corners all contribute to the overall quality of the finished product. A builder who cares about these details will produce a better home than one who focuses only on the big picture.
Builders and homeowners alike can benefit from studying the approach taken by firms like Fox Group Construction, where attention to detail is not an afterthought but the foundation of the company’s approach. The principles of shingle style home design offer a useful framework for thinking about proportion, materiality, and the relationship between a house and its site.
Plan for How You Actually Live
Tom and Cara Fox designed their home around their family’s actual patterns of daily life. The kitchen is positioned to allow supervision of children playing in the family room. The mudroom is generously sized with plenty of storage for coats, boots, and sports equipment. The primary suite is located for privacy away from the main living areas. These practical considerations make the home work well for everyday life, not just for special occasions.
For homeowners embarking on a custom build, studying examples of thoughtful stately home design can help clarify what matters most in your own project. The best homes are those that combine beauty with functionality, creating spaces that lift the spirit while supporting the practical needs of family life.
The shingle style home that Tom and Cara Fox built in Salt Lake City stands as a testament to what is possible when experienced builders become their own clients. By drawing on the best traditions of American residential architecture while making thoughtful choices about proportion, materials, and details, they created a home that is both stately and comfortable, grand and welcoming. It is a house built to last for generations.