The Prairie home
The Prairie home style is one of the first architectural styles to originate in the United States. Popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School Designs, Prairie homes embrace the belief that a building should appear to grow organically from its site. It uses long horizontal bands of windows and trim to evoke the prairie landscape.
Essential design elements
Prairie style homes are typically single-story and include rows of doors and small windows banded together by continuous head trims. The style features low-pitched, hipped roofs with overhanging eaves and an open floor plan with central chimney.
Quintessential doors
Patio doors are usually double doors and are most often hinged. Gliding patio doors appear in more contemporary examples of the Prairie style, although they do not complement the Prairie aesthetic as well.
Quintessential windows
Casement windows are the favored window type for Prairie style homes. These windows are preferred due to their large expanse of uninterrupted glass, which allows the Prairie style’s trademark art glass to be easily integrated into the home’s design.
Style options
Colors & finishes
The most commonly used colors are earthy browns and rusts, autumnal reds and golds, the warm tans and beiges of natural stone, and leafy greens.
Exterior color palette
Sandtone
Terratone
Forest Green
Cocoa Bean
Red Rock
Interior wood species
Maple
Oak
Alder
Interior stain colors
Honey
Mocha
Clear Coat
Hardware style
Prairie style window hardware embraces simple lines and functional form. Hinges, sash locks and lifts are integral to the style, and any decorative elements are simple and understated. Door hardware features minimally sized, meticulously matched components in antique brass or oil rubbed bronze finishes.
Casement hardware
Contemporary Folding handle in Black finish
Double-hung hardware
Lock and Keeper in Oil Rubbed Bronze finish
Newbury® Door Hardware
Newbury® hardware features clean lines and suggests the practicality for which the American Farmhouse style is known.
Anvers® hinged door hardware
Hinged patio door hardware in Satin Nickel finish
Hardware finishes
Antique Brass
Black
Oil Rubbed Bronze
Grille patterns
The quintessential window and grille pattern in the Prairie style is a casement window with the Prairie grille pattern. It is, however, acceptable to have some windows with grilles and some without.
With this grille style, the visible glass dimensions in the corners should be 4" x 4". If the window is small and the use of grilles makes the center pane of glass 4" or less in width or 4" or less in height, grilles should not be used.
For a double-hung window, the Prairie grille pattern should be used only in the window's upper sash.
With this grille style, the visible glass dimensions in the corners should be 4" x 4". If the window is small and the use of grilles makes the center pane of glass 4" or less in width or 4" or less in height, grilles should not be used.
For a double-hung window, the Prairie grille pattern should be used only in the window's upper sash.
Casement window
Prairie grille pattern shown on a casement window
Double-hung
Prairie grille pattern shown on a double-hung window (top sash only)
Patio doors
Prairie grille pattern shown on a patio door
More on this home style
Pattern books from the Andersen Style Library present quintessential details of the most popular American architectural styles, with an emphasis on window and door design. The result of years of research, they exist to make it easier to create homes with architectural authenticity.