Kyle and Liz Freeman have been building custom homes for nearly two decades, but none of their projects feel like replicas.

“We like versatility,” Liz says. “One house might be dark and moody, the next light and European. What ties them together is that they’re comfortable and timeless.” That philosophy has earned them a reputation for creating houses that stand apart in a landscape often defined by sameness, like this one.

The house welcomes visitors with a surprise of sorts: a front-of-house courtyard, rarely seen in this part of the country. Timber beams stretch overhead, their undersides cut with LED channels so the space glows softly at night. At its center, a fountain sets the tone for a feature unusual for suburban design.

“It’s an outdoor room,” Kyle says, “a place for coffee or sitting still,” a beautiful welcome home.

Inside, a barrel-vaulted stone arched entry way opens the home with soaring, 12-foot ceilings that evoke old European wine cellars. In the kitchen, a full-height backsplash—Taj Mahal quartzite for those who track such details—spans uninterrupted from the counters to the ceiling, thanks to a custom exhaust system Kyle engineered to eliminate the need for a standard range hood.

“We didn’t want to cut the wall in half,” he says. “This way the room keeps that expansive, calm feeling.” The cabinets stretch the full 12 feet as well and lift the room with a vertical cohesion that feels grand yet approachable and unfussy.

Lighting is another area where the Freemans’ creativity turns into a trademark. Beams over the courtyard glow from hidden channels, bookcases float off the wall with soft LED backlighting, and the stone entry arch features recessed lighting that illuminates without drawing attention to its source. In other rooms, distinct fixtures show off stylish contours without competing for attention. “At night, you can turn off all the overhead lights and the house still glows,” Liz says. “It feels tranquil, not staged.”