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Photography By: Edward Biamonte
Custom home designer Ron Hill has been working to bring European culture to the Midwest for the past 25 years. Ron finds inspiration for his homes through first-hand experiences in other countries. He travels around Europe researching designs and exploring foreign architecture in hopes of incorporating those ideas in his Midwest creations. His company, Euro World Designs based in Ozark, Mo., creates old world and European-style homes with the goal that customers will “look forward to their return home.” Fujah writer Jennie Olson met up with Ron to learn more about his growing business and unique artwork.
Jennie: How do you work with your individual customers to develop a home?
Ron: We mostly work through an interview process; we ask them questions and try to get into their heads and see exactly what they’re wanting in their new home. Sometimes customers come just wanting us to do our thing, and sometimes we have people come in with their own ideas which we develop using our skill. I also go over to Europe quite a bit and come back with ideas that we incorporate. We take what they’re wanting and pull it together and bring our details into it. The big thing is to give the new homes a lot of character so they aren’t trendy.
Jennie: Where do you get your inspiration for the designs?
Ron: It’s a combination of things. All the old world styles that we do are taken from when we go over to Europe and see the architecture there. A lot of times, the French country and different old world styles over there are victims of war, so parts have been destroyed and they’ve rebuilt onto it. This adds to the character of the home; those ideas we try to incorporate into our new homes too. As far as inspiration goes, we have all kinds of different ways of doing things. Even the layout of the home gives us a chance to play with the roof line and give the house character.
Jennie: What styles do you see coming to the Midwest in house design?
Ron: Mostly, we do a lot of designs from the Normandy region of France. After the Vikings were finished pillaging and plundering the land, their shipbuilders started building houses; they actually tore down ships and used the parts to make the houses. You see a lot of that influence in the Normandy homes, and in England also. Since it’s in a region that’s a little bit cooler, the roofs are a lot steeper, whereas in southern France, the roofs are less steep and mostly tile or slate. We do combinations from the northern France and combinations down in southern France, and over into Tuscany and into Italy – the Mediterranean style and the Normandy style.
Jennie: Besides looking at regional designs, are there any specific individuals from whom you draw ideas?
Ron: We kind of just do our own thing. We have our own home-made combinations based on what we’ve seen in Europe and brought back to this area. We use materials we have around here to make combinations, including faux finishes and old beams we are able to recover from old warehouses, and we incorporate them into buildings.
Jennie: So does recovering materials play a role in your “green” projects?
Ron: [Recovering materials is] one of the biggest things we do right now. We’ve had some of our people who are certified looking at all different areas – the conservation of water, the surfaces... We’re working towards taking these homes to a different level in that respect.
Jennie: Where is the value in designing "green"?
I think it’s truly from an environmental standpoint and the conservation of energy. We’re going to be looking at all the different ways to conserve energy during the process of building these homes.
Jennie: What feel do you hope to accomplish with a home design?
Ron: The biggest thing of all is that we want people to look forward to their return home. And in a lot of the Old World styles and whenever we go over to Europe, we feel so comfortable around what’s going on there – walking through the little communities, walking through the homes. There’s this atmosphere of family and comfort that we try to create in these homes. One of the questions that I ask customers is, “Is there a vacation spot that you’ve been to that we can bring into your home that brings back memories?” There might be a room that we do that may be something they’ve seen in a vacation spot. My home has a patio in the back, and the stone and turret and everything that’s done there gives you that warm feeling like you’re sitting in France out on a patio somewhere. We enjoy that. It’s a character thing that makes us feel good because we’re bringing back memories.
Jennie: Do you have a signature style or something a lot of his homes will have that makes it a "Ron Hill" project?
Ron: Our artwork and the flow of space is one of the unique things that we do. We try to do a lot of actual, original handwork in creating made to order renderings. We also do grand styles for roofs, arches, dormers and barrel rolls based on old world communities like Normandy France, Tuscany and the Mediteranean in general. We have had clients who visited Disney world ask us to pull together swoops and “cute little dormers” as one client requested, and barrel rolls over the front door.
We also try to use a lot of small square windows in unique places to create highlights in the structure that brighten rooms with indirect light. A lot of our homes have the windows in odd numbers, where there are three windows or five windows together. We have a lot of ornamentation on the homes, where we have finials and copulas. Even the roof vents are done the way they would do them over in Europe where the shingles are lifted up to create the roof vent. There’s all kinds of little ornamentation things that you’ll see in our style. That’s what seperates us from other designers, the little things are icing on the cake that clients love to mention. We enjoy creating the “personal touch” our clients reveal in their conversations with us.
Jennie: Is there anything else that you would like to add about house design?
Ron: I’ve been designing homes for the past 25 years but Euro World has been here since 2003. We have an excellent, incredible staff, and everybody knows what they’re doing with the looks we’re trying to achieve. Each person has their own contribution that they give to these homes. It’s through all the design content that we’ve been working through that now everybody’s really in touch with the look and feel and the warmth that you get. We’re really pleased with our staff here.
To learn more, check out EuroWorldDesign.com.
