A self-proclaimed “Mill Valley guru,” Beth Brody knows everything from the local flavor to neighborhood spotlights. She’s a great point of contact if you’re looking for Mill Valley real estate for sale.

 

Mill Valley is a great place to live—as long as you don’t mind a stray bit of danger every now and then! No, but seriously, it’s a picturesque town that will make you feel like you’re starring in one of the better Real Housewives franchises (a.k.a. not Dallas). 

 

Real Housewives of Mill Valley might not be a thing, but you can pretend it is! If you’ve got money to spend, you might consider one of these awesome architectural styles to redesign your forever home.

 

 

Mill Valley residents love their modernized farmhouses. They might reside on the West Coast, but many of them are inspired by East Coast chic, which means palatial Connecticut-style ranch houses and other charmingly "rustic" amenities. 

 

While the exteriors of these homes might be reminiscent of the backyard barns where people keep their cows tucked away, don't expect to find any hay bales or churning stations past the threshold. 

 

Typically, the interior uses wood paneling to maintain the pastoral sensibilities. Beyond that, the "farmhouse" callback is represented by clapboard siding, an extensive porch, and rectangular shapes.

 

 

If there is one thing Mill Valley residents love doing, it's using their funds to get what they want—just ask Lori Loughlin. That means that many homeowners enjoy living in smart homes with the finest technological advancements money can buy. 

 

Who cares if grandma and grandpa can't tell the thermostat from the house alarm? As long as it looks stylish and lessens the workload for (almost) everyone involved, that's all that matters. When it comes to modern architecture and eco-friendly add-ons, Mill Valley has plenty of areas beat. Lots of people quite literally live in glass houses! 

 

Expect to see solar panels adorning roofs and copious amounts of sheet metal, steel beams, and glossy paint finish. It doesn't come cheap to renovate and choke the history out of an old estate so that it’ll fit in with the rest of suburbia but it sure does look polished and chic afterward. 

 

 

You've probably heard of the famous Postcard Row, also known as the Painted Ladies—a series of attached multicolored Victorian homes lined up side-by-side. Maybe you've just seen Full House, which is where most people recognize them from. But the style of these houses has been replicated and copied throughout Mill Valley. 

 

Bay windows, elevated front porches, and ornamented adornments are signature staples of Victorian architecture and the type of house that makes you feel like it might be sticking its proverbial nose up at you—perhaps that's part of the draw.

 

That said, most Victorian homes in Mill Valley are more charming, although they kick things up a notch by being sprawling and unattached—unlike the ones on Postcard Row. Also, the famous "Murder House" from American Horror Story is considered to be a Los Angeles Victorian—make of that what you will. 

 

 

Many homes in Mill Valley are inspired by Spanish-style architecture including terracotta tiling and stucco walls. It's a pretty big deal in the area and oftentimes lends itself to Mediterranean Revival and Mission Revival. Initially started in SoCal, the trend has caught on and extended along the coast of Northern California. 

 

While not quite as popular in NorCal as in the Southern areas, it seems to be on the rise— perhaps a case of NorCal keeping up with the Joneses. A lot of these homes are typically designed to be one-story, operating under the idea that longer is better than wider in this scenario.

 

They sometimes include porticoes and are often designed asymmetrically. Many of these homes have sizable courtyards—sometimes in the interior as well as the exterior.