What Makes a McMansion?

Ever wondered what a McMansion is? It may come as a disappointment, but it’s definitely not a mansion with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. Less deliciously so, a McMansion is a popular home in luxury real estate for unexplained reasons. Oftentimes they come about when one wishes to construct a new upscale mansion from scratch, and through a combination of owner’s fallacy and architect’s gross negligence, an aesthetic nightmare is born. Meet the McMansion.

McMansion Defined

While some luxury home communities give you the chance to design your dream home, McMansions are mass-produced mansions or large houses in luxury home communities. They may look well and good at a cursory glance, but the longer you look the worse it gets. Unbalanced structures, random and jagged roofing, no sense of cohesion from one part to the next, and hackneyed cliches of useless pillars and turret towers. 

On top of looking terrible, they also have a tendency to be built poorly. As the construction sprawls forward endlessly, you end up with plentiful defects such as flimsy accents, ugly looking brick/stonework, cheap roofing, and foundations that should never have even been attempted in the first place.

The Frankenstein’s monster of luxury homes

We all know Corinthian columns are gorgeous. Others may find the Victorian Mansard roof to be their preference. If your tastes lean towards Tudor timber framing, that’s well and good, too! McMansion builders, however, take one look at the elements that we’ve come to appreciate across many types of architecture and clumsily cobble them together. This frequently leads to the trademark of this type of home – in that they look familiar but just wrong. 

Is the McMansion the only option?

Fear not, McMansions are not your only option for luxury homes. There may be a rise in these mansion types, but some home communities still give their future homeowners a chance to take the wheel on designing the home.

Though a more unique home sounds like an alluring concept, there’s nothing wrong whatsoever with sticking to what’s tried and true. In the art form of designing your home, the classics are still revered and respected. If you do want to stray from the norm for the sake of upgrading or of convenience, keeping the overall aesthetic in mind is crucial. In a minimalistic, neutral-colored home a grand staircase with oak banisters would obviously be right out of the question.

Custom-built Luxury Homes at MacDonald Highlands

To avoid the embarrassment of owning a gaudy mess of a home, we at MacDonald Highlands can help you find your dream home. Our homes are of the highest quality, guaranteed to be both functional and fashionable for your family. We also offer more than ample creative liberty for you to make your home truly yours. Contact us today and let us help you find your perfect future home!