Taking that first step out of your comfort zone is always the most difficult. But once you do, a whole new world opens up. Spring is the best time to do it. Look outside, draw inspiration from nature and bring it indoors.

Challenge yourself to be creative. If you are one of those who would rather chew on tin foil than experiment with a home improvement project, start simple. Pick a room or two and give it a quick punch of color with a new accessory, piece of furniture or fresh coat of paint.

That is exactly what I did after a recent week at the High Point Home Furnishings Market in North Carolina. I was inspired to bring some of the bold colors I saw back home to defy Kansas City’s “Tan Town” image.

Our clients frequently ask about color and trends they see in Elle Décor, Veranda and other shelter magazines, but so often they are are unable to make the first step. I am a big believer in change, but not in trends — especially in home interiors, where colors should be a reflection of décor and personal attitude.

I repainted the showrooms in our furniture and design boutique with the vibrant Sassy Green by Sherwin-Williams. It felt strong and lifelike, picking up so many wonderful complements from nature, bringing what we love about the outdoors in. Clean, sharp whites, coppery browns, silver and even deep reds were enlivened against this strong new backdrop. Existing and new furniture and décor pieces took on fresh dimensions.

Afraid you can’t pull off vivid color in an entire room? Try painting an accent wall: A jolt of color can add drama and style to any ordinary space. With the neutral or tan shades that are prevalent in most homes, options for an accent wall are endless.

Try something fresh. Take your mind to South Beach and experiment with a citrus color, such as Sherwin-Williams’ Mango. I used this vibrant color on an accent wall to give the room an amazing new vibe. The artwork came to life, and the lamps and accessories took on an entirely different feel. Painting an accent wall not only gives the room new verve, it also offers a canvas for creative expression.

In addition to color inspiration, Mother Nature is a wonderful — and free — resource for reinvigorating your interiors. For example, I gathered fallen tree branches, spray-painted them white, tied them to small tacks with clear fishing wire and hung them against a lilac-colored wall to create an indoor forest. Artificial flowers added to the branches gave it color, texture and a softer appearance.

The indoor forest can be easily moved to other areas indoors or out on the patio, enhanced with fresh flowers or colorful votive candles for a summer dinner party. You might adapt it to a child’s room for a wonderful splash of fun. Play with putting lights woven in the branches or use colored clothespins to attach photographs to the branches. Involve your children in the process. It is so important for kids to be fed spoonfuls of creative opportunities. Let them feel the power of being creative.

Spring is the perfect time to check out of “Tan Town” and go for the bold. Crack open the window to the outdoors and let the creativity in during the most beautiful and transformative season.

Source: Kansascity.com

Reach Patrick Madden, a partner at Madden-McFarland Furniture & Design Boutique, 1903 W. 135th St. in Leawood, at pat@maddenmcfarland.com.

This mountain modern home located at the foot of the Gore Range in Three Peaks. Dubbed “Raven’s Nest” the home is a tight design collaboration between Mark Hogan at bhh Partners and Michael Rath at Trilogy Partners with plenty of insight and opportunity provided by the owners. Lots of glass on the south and west mountain facing sides, this 4000 square foot home is a legacy home for a young family that adores the outdoors. The home features a 30 foot high barrel vault ceiling at the entry, a custom water feature and massive chandeliers designed by Trilogy Partners. This was a BIM project, modeling, interiors, and materials selections by Trilogy Partners.

From the homeowner:  “It was while standing in a gallery in Hanoi one day last year that I learned to appreciate the true power of Trilogy’s 3D modeling technology. We had been searching for paintings for our new home in Summit County, but were having difficulty selecting individual pieces, uncertain how they would mesh with the planned design. The stress was increased by the fact that I was shopping alone, 8000 miles away from my wife in Colorado, and desperately afraid of making a mistake! Seeking advice, I sent a series of iPhone photos to Michael. Within hours, both of us received screenshots displaying the artwork as it would actually look in place, along with lighting, finishes, and furniture. This made our decision process so much easier, and it was amazing how closely the depictions in the model matched the finished product!

As we contemplated building our first custom home, we heard plenty of horror stories from friends and relatives. Our experience with Trilogy, however, belied all such expectations. Michael made the design process exciting and fun as we saw our ideas gradually take shape in the model. The computerized, online process made it easy to test out even small design changes and also allowed us to meet remotely when we didn’t have time to travel to Frisco. The software was incredibly detailed and powerful, allowing Michael to design even custom elements such as lighting fixtures and a water feature. Once we began construction, we found Trilogy to be good partners. They were transparent in their accounting and treated us with honesty and fairness at all times. When our home was finished we were dazzled, but not surprised, because it was just like the model! We found the build quality to be excellent; when problems have come up, Michael and our project manager Bill Ashley have been very responsive in addressing them, even long after the project was complete. They take great pride in their work and are not satisfied until everything is perfect. I have no reservations recommending Michael Rath and his team to anyone planning to build in the Colorado mountains, or anywhere else for that matter!”

Take the virtual tour of a Trilogy home in Silverthorne, Colorado.

Desktop Computer or Laptop– Click the link and allow the page to load. To start the Guided Tour, use your mouse to click the “play” button in the bottom left corner of the screen. You can pause the Guided Tour at any time by pressing the space bar, and resume the tour by again pressing play. To move through the space, use your arrow keys. To look up or down,  click & drag with your mouse. Moving up and down stairs is usually easier by clicking your mouse on one of the clear circles. Click on the dollhouse icon in the bottom right of the screen to view the entire space at once in either dollhouse or floorplan view.

On a phone, tablet or touchscreen– Once the page loads, press the play button for the Guided Tour, tap the screen to pause and explore the space, then press play again to resume tour. To move freely through the space, tap on the screen where you want to go. Drag your finger across the screen to look up, down, left or right. Tap the dollhouse icon in the bottom right to view the entire space at once in either dollhouse or floorplan view.

Going green doesn’t have to cost more. Experts at the NAHB Research Center have identified design and construction tactics that builders have used to minimize the cost premium for green.

Constructing a green home does come with some added costs, but a lot of builders find that green practices can actually reduce their construction costs and enhance the quality of the homes they build. Many green practices also result in operational and maintenance savings for homeowners.

Using a combination of input from builders participating in the National Green Building Certification Program and results from recent research we did for HUD on the costs and benefits of green affordable housing, the NAHB Research Center has identified seven beneficial practices to consider when building green for the affordable market.

1. Work closely with your suppliers

If you’re new to green building in general or to building green homes with a lower price point, you may want to start your journey by talking with your product suppliers.

Richmond, Va.-based First Richmond Associates has been building quality workforce housing for nearly two decades. Recently, the builder decided that going green with its homes would provide even greater value to customers and set its product apart from the competition. Susan Hadder, president of First Richmond, admits the company didn’t know much about green building, so she let her suppliers know about the new direction they were taking and asked for their help.

“A lot of them were as new to green as we were,” says Hadder, “but they were excited to help us find the best product options available from various manufacturers. It was kind of fun for everyone to discover something new.”

Hadder says she got very quick responses from all her product reps, along with some incentives, which helped her identify what the company needed to get its new green homes certified to the National Green Building Standard (ICC 700). She was pleasantly surprised to find that many of the green product options that would garner points for the home in the certification process were actually an even swap for her in terms of price.

Specifically with flooring options, she found that recycled-content carpet and padding, engineered hardwood flooring, and recycled tile for the bathrooms were all competitively priced with the products she traditionally used — some a few pennies more per unit, some a few pennies less. First Richmond now has two of their Earth-Friendly workforce homes (sales prices range from the $170,000’s to low $200,000’s) Green Certified to ICC 700 by the NAHB Research Center, and the company has plans for more.

2. Look for two-for-one green product benefits

To maximize green benefits while keeping construction costs low, use products or practices with multiple green features. For example, when specifying cabinets or cabinet materials, look for those that have low- or no-formaldehyde content and are made of recycled material. That way, you may be able to gain green certification points for both indoor environmental quality and resource efficiency. While most green rating systems won’t allow for “double dipping” on points (i.e., claiming points in more than one area for the same green attribute in the same product or practice), most will allow for multiple green attributes in the same product to be counted across multiple point categories.

3. Don’t forget about water efficiency

In our work with HUD, we found that water efficiency improvements for both new and renovated affordable projects are commonly overlooked even though they offer a quantifiable benefit to homeowners for little to no additional construction cost. Be sure not to discount the cost benefits for affordable clients of low-flow faucets, toilets, and showerheads, as well as rated water-saving appliances.

As for finding the products at an affordable price, there is a much wider array of low-flow toilets, faucets, and showerheads on the market today than even five years ago, and the most basic models are cost neutral with comparable non-low-flow fixtures. Most major plumbing product manufacturers now offer these products, eliminating the need for costly special orders, in most cases. With bathroom sink faucets, even if your manufacturer of choice doesn’t make a low-flow version, you can buy replacement aerators that satisfy the requirements of most national green rating systems for around $2 a piece.

New construction on the Goose Pasture Tarn in Blue River, Colorado outside of Breckenridge.

 

4. Consider alternative framing techniques

Some changes in your framing materials or techniques might provide both cost/time savings and a means to an end in securing points toward green certification. For instance, consider using panels or trusses in lieu of site-built systems. These techniques are labor and resource efficient, resulting in less on-site waste and possibly lower labor and materials cost overall. Fabricated systems often create greater thermal efficiency over stick frames. Many green rating systems, including the National Green Building Standard, also award points for use of panels and trusses.

If you want to continue framing totally on site, there are several optimum value engineering (OVE) techniques that can save on material or labor costs, and can generate green points at the same time. Look into options like:

• Ladder blocking — uses less wood; provides more room for insulation; gets green points
• Two-stud corners — at least one less stud at each corner; allows for more fully insulated corner; gets green points
• Switch from 2x4s at 16 inches on center to 2x6s at 24 inches on center — may result in small increase in incremental cost initially, but gets a lot of green bang for your buck.

5. Explore low-cost strategies with design

Green, at any price point, is not accomplished through product selection alone. Many of the other “ingredients” for a green home involve strategies that can cost very little or nothing at all. For example, depending on the orientation and size of your lot, flipping a house plan is a very low-cost, low-effort activity that can result in green benefits like positioning the majority of windows on the south side of a home for passive solar and natural lighting gains.

6. Pay attention to placement and sizing of hvac and plumbing systems

Optimize your duct runs and centrally locate your mechanical room for material cost savings and increased energy efficiency. Even for smaller homes, be sure not to have more ducts or longer duct runs than you need in any part of the house. Using a central return also reduces material costs and is a simple system that can provide adequate circulation and cost savings to both you and your buyers.

Placing all your HVAC equipment, including ducts, in conditioned space within the home is also beneficial. In addition to creating significant energy savings for homeowners, this practice may also allow you to spec smaller, less-expensive HVAC equipment and limit or eliminate the need for additional insulation for the duct system. Many homes today, even those that may be otherwise energy and resource efficient, have oversized HVAC equipment. As the building envelope of your homes becomes tighter and more energy efficient, the HVAC burden is significantly reduced. A smaller system obviously costs less and could offset other green upgrades you’re making in your homes.

For your plumbing system, make sure you have chosen the most efficient design for your purposes. For multi-story homes, consider a stacked system, which will probably require shorter plumbing runs, less piping, and possibly less labor time from your plumbing contractor. Also consider centrally locating your water heater, as a central location makes the average of every run shorter, thereby reducing material costs.

7. Rely on green design professionals

Green homes often require a higher degree of precision in their design and construction to ensure that the finished product works the way it was designed to work, as a whole house relying on interdependent systems for its optimum efficiency and homeowner comfort. Having experts well versed in green products, practices, and protocols can save you thousands of dollars in trial-and-error and callbacks in the long run.

That being said, there are different ways to go about creating your design team. One way is to seek out experts in areas such as mechanical systems, plumbing design, and landscape architecture, with specific expertise in green building practices. Another tactic is to rally those with whom you already work to the pursuit of greener, more efficient homes. Similar to the enthusiasm and excitement Susan Hadder generated with her suppliers when First Richmond began seeking green solutions, you may generate the same kind of interest with your existing construction partners to learn all they can and contribute. Either way, it’s important to get everyone in your construction chain on the same page with what you’re trying to accomplish. Contractors and suppliers that are not informed can create inadvertent barriers to your ultimate success.

More information and technical detail about these techniques can be found on the Research Center’s technical website,www.ToolBase.org.

Created in 1964, the NAHB Research Center (www.nahbrc.com) is a full-service product commercialization company that strives to make housing more durable, affordable, and efficient. The Research Center provides public and private clients with an unrivaled depth of understanding of the housing industry and access to its business leaders.

Source : Professional Builder

Extreme remodel on the Goose Pasture Tarn in Blue River, Colorado

Five Things a Home Audio System Does to Enhance the Value of Your Residence

By: Jessica Kane

When a person begins planning a home redecorating project, a great deal of the focus is on how the residence will look when the endeavor is over. The reality is that people have more than the sense of sight. Perfecting a residence via a redecorating project needs to take the other senses into consideration as well. This includes the sense of sound

Sound, including music, can grealy enhance the livability of a residence. In fact, there are five ways in which you can improve the overall livability of your home by incorporating sound and music more thoroughly in your home. Embarking on a home remodel or redecorating project provides the perfect opportunity to enhance the sound and music availabilities in your residence.

Fully Realize the Potential of Your Living Space

As noted a moment ago, the typical redecorating or remodeling project understandably focuses intensely on what a residence will look like after a job is done. In that regard, consideration is made to the more ubiquitous, and yet vague, consideration of what your home will “feel like” when your project is over. Part of how your home will feels depends not only on sight, but sound as well.
Installing an up-to-date, dynamic sound system, capable of bringing music and interesting soundscapes, throughout your residence is the step to take when it comes to the audio element of a residential improvement project. This can be accomplished by selecting a system that fits your budget and meets the specific needs, goals, and objectives you have for your home.

It’s Not Just About Music

If you are like most people, you may immediately think that a sound system in your residence is just about music. Of course, that is a primary focus of a residential audio system for most people. However, a residence-wide audio system included in your home improvement efforts provides much more.

For example, a quality and yet affordable home audio system can allow you to implement different soundscapes for your residence. You can utilize relaxing soundscapes in different locations in your home, depending on your mood. Moreover, your family can take advantage of customized soundscapes in their rooms, audio presentations that have been demonstrated to enhance sleep.

Enhance Your Other Entertainment Systems

Like most people, your residence is already outfitted with different types of entertainment systems. These likely include televisions and perhaps gaming equipment. The reality is that the addition of a home sound system as part of your residential upgrade endeavors can also work to enhance the functionality of other electronics in your residence. Television viewing and gaming can be taken to a whole new level when existing equipment is tied in with an audio upgrade available via a home sound system.

Sound Technology Provides the Ultimate in Control

Long, long gone are the days when you needed to fiddle with a turntable, tape deck, or CD rack. Rather, there is an abundance of technology that can render coordinating your residential music and soundscapes a breeze. Indeed, there are easy to use apps that aid you turning on or off music or soundscapes from offsite, from wherever you happen to be at the moment.

As part of your remodeling or redecorating efforts, you can add the latest in audio technology. Moreover, you can install this technology at your home at a highly reasonable cost. In other words, you will not break the proverbial bank by really brining your home into the 21st century when it comes to its sound system.

One point needs to be made in digression. You may be like many individuals and wonder why in the world would you care about regulating sound, adjusting music our soundscapes, when you are not at home. If you are a dog or cat owner, you likely do understand how sound in the residence during your absence can help keep your pets at peace. A remotely controlled sound system allows you the ability to accomplish this task with ease.

A more important consideration involves home security. You can significantly enhance the overall effectiveness of your home security endeavors when you have the ability to activate and adjust music and soundscapes from afar. With this type of access, you can really make your home feel as if it is fully occupied, even when you are traveling.

Up the Value of Your Residence

When a person like you embarks on a home improvement project, one of the objectives typically is to increase the value of a residence. In the final tabulation, adding a quality sound system to your residence is a solid way to increase the overall value of your residence.

Jessica Kane is a writer for SoundStage Direct, the number one online source for the best vinyl records and turntables.

Architectural Digest reached out to Interior Designers for thoughts on great design for every style. Trilogy Partners’ Interior Design is driven by the client. You can see in our portfolio that each home is as unique as the owner. These quotes represent our design philosophy of allowing the space and the people who occupy it to determine design.

Photo courtesy of Architectural Digest

Some of our favorites quotes:

THE TRADITIONALIST “It has to be a subtle, un-strident mix, and the key, of course, is getting the personality of both house and those living in it right.” —Nicky Haslam

THE ICONOCLAST “Being an iconoclast is a state of mind and heart. It’s having a free spirit, finding inspiration everywhere, and not minding rules. It’s appreciating the raw and natural, finding beauty in anomalies.” —Kelly Wearstler

THE MINIMALIST “I like to try to achieve a calm serenity in my work. I want to create interiors that allow furniture, art, and, of course, architecture space to breathe—but there must always be a warmth in the atmosphere.” —Rose Uniacke

THE MODERNIST “We often think of the principal responsibility of a modern interior, particularly one in a project with a beautiful site or a great view, as staying out of the way.” —Steven Harris

A natural looking home doesn’t have to be a log cabin or a traditional space. In fact, incorporating natural elements into your more contemporary home is relatively easy and can create a wonderful contrast to the structured look of most modern home designs. Use these tips from Trilogy Partners to help you add a bit of nature to your space:

Source: Trilogy Partners

• Use natural wood beams and supports in your home without painting or staining them. The texture of natural wood can make a stunning addition to a modern home, especially when incorporating repeating horizontal lines.

• Blend neutral colors into your design and look for décor that incorporates natural elements like untreated leather. These subtle pieces of décor can make your space feel refined and still full of nature.

• Skip the window treatments, especially if you have a lot of windows or floor to ceiling glass. If you can’t skip the window treatments altogether for privacy reasons, choose a type that won’t take up a lot of visual space when they are drawn or pulled up. Letting nature in is the best way to incorporate it into your home.

Contact Trilogy Partners for home inspiration ideas you can use in your home.

Think about adding a reclaimed wood coffee table to your home

If you’re looking to bring some visual interest and a traditional vibe into your kitchen, think about introducing reclaimed wood.  We’ve gathered a few ideas to get you started.

One of the best places to start is with the kitchen table.  Bringing in a traditional farm table (which is easier to find than you’d think) will serve as a focal point and a conversation piece in the heart of your home.  Or, go ahead and build your own table with reclaimed wood, which, as long as it’s structurally sound, will sand down and finish into something beautiful and unique.  Using reclaimed wood to build shelving or cabinet fronts is another fine way to make your kitchen both traditional and unique.  Architectural salvage shops are good places to find old wood; some people even re-use wine crates and older palettes.

If you don’t want to commit to old wood cabinets, using it as a contrasting feature on a kitchen island is a possibility.   Or, if you want to go really big, reclaimed wood makes a great kitchen ceiling, and certainly, floor.

At Trilogy Builds, we’re happy to help you design the right custom kitchen.  View our website for  more information.

photo courtesy of Tom Borowski on Flickr

We are always searching for unique ways to incorporate green design into our homes, and using reclaimed scaffolding wood for the home’s structure or in its interior design scheme is one way to accomplish this.

Image: Inhabit.com

An excellent example of a home that benefited from the use of reclaimed wood is ‘Casa Box‘, which is a spectacular modern renovation of a caretaker’s home located on a Brazilian island. From the coastline, the home is essentially a concrete cube, but its contemporary design utilizes reclaimed wood from the original structure for the doors, windows, and stairway. Architect Alan Chu of Silveira e Cristiano Arns Kato Architectos designed the home with the intention of using the recycled leftover wood from the original structure to create contrast and layers of depth to the unique and simple structure. The use of the recycled wood adds tremendous character to this already stunning home, reminding it of where it once came from.

To learn more about ways that Trilogy Partners has incorporated repurposed materials into our projects, please be sure to view our sustainable design portfolio.

The study of architecture combines the technical know-how of engineering with the artist’s vision of form and function. Natural talent and ability can only take you so far in his demanding field; it is also necessary to study under and work with the best teachers and mentors that you can find. Fortunately, the United States is blessed with hundreds of universities that offer a top-notch education and the required training to produce some of the best architects in the world.

Milstein Hall at Cornell University. Photo via ArchDaily

Every year, the prestigious magazine, DesignIntelligence, thoroughly investigates and rates the various architecture schools in North America. With dozens of top architecture schools vying for the honor, it is a difficult task to decide on the actual winners. Still, these five schools were chosen for their fine sensibilities about and dedication to interior design:

• Savannah College of Art and Design
• Rhode Island School of Design
• Pratt Institute
• Cornell University
• Parsons The New School of Design

Each of these schools has graduated and continues to graduate some of the finest architects around. It is a singular honor to be included on this list.