K. Hovnanian Homes at Willowsford in Loudoun County are unlike anything else

By Katherine Salant October 9 at 8:00 AM

From a distance, the simple gabled roofs and plain brick and lapped siding of the three Line K models offered by K. Hovnanian Homes at Willowsford in Loudoun County appear to be standard fare for a new home community in the Washington area.

Then you get closer, and differences emerge.

The brick is not the red Virginia clay you see almost everywhere its tan, and one house doesnt have brick at all. The facade incorporates charcoal-colored, cast stone that looks like granite. The windows have unusual proportions theyre tall and thin. There are no shutters, and the flat roof and oversized square columns of the front porch give them a boxy look. One house has large, stylized brackets to support the roof overhang.

Thats the warm-up.

Once inside, the differences are so pronounced you realize that these houses are unlike anything currently (and probably ever) offered by a production home builder in the Washington market. Ranging in size from 4,050 to 5,450 square feet with a base price of $1.2 million to $1.29 million that includes a finished basement, the houses were designed by the Piet Boon Group, a Dutch firm, which accounts in part for their very different look. The design team was led by Piet Boon and Karin Meyn, Boons business and design partner for nearly 30 years. Each model has a Dutch name: Noorderwind, Oostenwind and Zuiderwind.

The interiors are unabashedly modern in style, with a level of workmanship and quality of materials that typify high-end, one-of-a-kind, custom-built houses, not production ones. All the traditional Colonial Georgian styled details that have been mainstays of the new home market in this area for decades the three- and four-piece crown moldings, the dark wood stair rails with white balusters, the authentic Colonial era wall colors, the six-paneled doors, the double-hung windows with real or fake dividers are completely absent.

Instead all the walls are white, the floors are black, the trim is minimal, the windows are eight or 10 feet high (depending on the model) and run down to the floor line, and the doors are as high as the windows. Multiple windows across the entire back bring nature inside while creating a comfortable and surprising degree of coziness in these big houses with big rooms. The spare and simple interior produces a calming, almost Zen-like ambience that is completely unexpected, but a Boon-Meyn signature. As the designers have often said of their work, What you see is not design, but feeling.

Reimagined interior

In all three houses, the layout of the main living area is essentially the same; the difference is the location of the master suite (first or second floor), the location of the other bedrooms (first or second floor) and the number of bedrooms (three or four). Unlike most furnished model homes, these are not loaded with options. What you see, for the most part, is what you get in the base price.

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K. Hovnanian Homes at Willowsford in Loudoun County are unlike anything else