16 Classic Los Angeles Home Styles

What’s the difference between Modern, Craftsman, California Bungalow, Tudor and Spanish style homes?

To help with the confusion, Los Angeles magazine published a very helpful cheat sheet of the 16 most ubiquitous home styles in L.A. Lucky us for living in a city overflowing with beautiful vintage homes.

Obsessed with a particular style? You can find “nests” teaming with certain styles across the city from California Bungalows (Highland Park) and Mid-Century (Glassell Park, Mt. Washington, La Crescenta) to Spanish (Silver Lake, Glendale, Pasadena) and Craftsmans (Cypress Park, Eagle Rock). Victorians more your cup of tea? Try Echo Park’s Angelino Heights.

16 Classic LA Styles

• Adobe: The city’s first permanent homes made from mud and straw
• Italianate: Also known as “neoclassical Italian Renaissance”

Italianate

• Eastlake: Characterized by vertical beams & linear details
• Queen Anne: Victorian details, domes and wraparound porches
• Mission Revival: Inspired by missions with romantic arches and arcades
• Craftsman: Inspired by Japanese design and nature
  
• Bungalow: Craftsman-inspired with porches, gabled roofs and overhangs
• Spanish Revival: Inspired by the homes of Spain with red-tiled roofs

Spanish Revival

• Storybook: Inspired by French farmhouses with exaggerated roofs
• Tudor: Inspired by the medieval English country houses
• International: Stripped down with indoor-outdoor orientation
• Streamline: Early modern design
• Colonial: Elegant brick construction with shutters and chimneys

Colonial

• Minimal Traditional: Born during WWII, austere, simple homes
• Ranch: First suburb home that was as wide as the San Fernando Valley
• Modern: Clean lines, modern elements and high-quality materials