You can renovate colonial home without losing charm

For the Past two weeks we have spotlighted several home types: the craftsman bungalow, the Tudor, the Cape Cod and the California ranch.

Of course there are more than just four house styles, so we thought we would spend some time featuring a few more, beginning with the colonial style.

You know the colonial home when you see it. It is characterized by its symmetrical, sometimes boxy look and front porches framed with columns. It is the quintessential American family home. Its very form suggests tradition and stability.

As the name implies, the colonial style harkens back to the homes of the early colonists and dates to the 1600s. The influence was mainly from northern Europe. These homes are generally two-story structures, square or rectangular in plan, and have a side-facing gable roof or a variation thereof. The exterior can be wood clapboard siding, shingles, board and batten, stone, brick or stucco.

This symmetrical home has a front door in the center with windows evenly spaced in an orderly pattern. The front door is the focal point of the design and is often adorned with a crown or pediment. This may be modestly sized with pilasters on the wall, or large and supported by columns to create a porch. You may even find Colonial porches extending across the front of the house.

The interior is typically designed with formal, public spaces, like a living room and dining room on the lower level at the front of the house. More private, practical spaces, like a kitchen and storage room, are at the rear. The second story houses sleeping quarters.

When it comes to renovation, colonial-style homes can be a bit puzzling. Each room is an independent space, with full walls to make sure the role of each room is clearly defined. This does not lend itself naturally to our modern lifestyle, which often seeks a more open, inclusive environment.

Also, the second story generally eliminates the option of varying the ceiling height, which is a way to add interest to a space when you are renovating.

These homes often have a kitchen placed behind the dining room, so one commonly used technique is to remove at least a part of the connecting wall to allow these spaces to relate better to each other.

The living room, however, is usually in the opposite corner from the kitchen with the entry hall and stairway separating it from the dining room. This makes it difficult to combine the kitchen, dining and living rooms into a "great room."

To complicate matters further, these rooms at the front of a colonial house are often lovely spaces — well proportioned with fireplaces and well-placed windows, so they are difficult to carve up and repurpose. Therefore, it is common to see the rear addition of a family room on this type of home.