Many homeowners forget about the smaller details when planning their home design. This is simply because they are too focused on the bigger features. However, the smaller details are what help to add a finished touch to the design. The following are a few examples of decorative hardware that you should use for inspiration when taking into account the details of your design:

Source: Houzz

• Sleek metal pulls – If you have modern cabinet and drawer styles in your kitchen, then metal pulls are the perfect compliment.

• Vintage glass knobs – Clear glass knobs go great with pretty much any décor. To add contrast to your cabinets or to simply brighten up the space, pick out some vintage colored glass knobs.

• Bronze or blackened steel handles – These are a great option for warm wood doors if you’re looking to compliment them instead of adding contrast such as chrome or nickel.

• Round handles – If your space is full of right-angled forms, then adding round handles to your rectangular cabinetry is a great way to break up the visual monotony.

These are just a few ideas for using decorative hardware. For additional home design advice, contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

If you’re looking for building materials that will provide your home with a unique aesthetic as well as a bit of personality, then we recommend combining the use of metal and wood together for beautiful results. The following are just a few examples of how you can mix metal with wood:

Source: Houzz

• Warm and inviting – Compliment your bronze light fixtures with several different types of wood in order to elevate the visual dimension of the space.
• Beautiful contrast – Choose a light wooden table and surround it with metal chairs or stools to add some interesting visual contrast instead of complimenting it with wood chairs.
• Industrial style – Build your kitchen island out of distressed wood and add metal to it to create a strong focal point. Add a bit of visual balance by surrounding the island with lighter metal stools.
• Wood furniture and metal décor – If you have distressed wood furniture pieces, such as dressers or bookcases, add some metal décor – like a small metal lamp – to provide some texture and depth.

Use these examples to inspire your use of wood and metal. Contact us at Trilogy Builds for additional home design advice.

Creating a green home design is a not only a great way to help reduce your environmental footprint, it’s also a fantastic way to introduce a unique aesthetic to your home. The following are a few ideas for upcycling, which involves repurposing different elements for new home design features:

Source: Houzz

• Backyard bathhouse – Build a luxurious little bathhouse outside of your home using your old claw foot tub and build a small roof above it – complete with a rolling bamboo privacy screen.
• Sliding barn door – If you have multiple uses for a pair of bookcases, use a sliding barn door to cover up one side when the other is in use. This is a great way to hide your electronics in your room’s design.
• Ladder shelf – Have an old ladder out in your shed that you never use? Attach it horizontally to your wall and use the rungs as book ends for your books! You can even paint the ladder whatever color you want to fit your interior design.

Use these ideas for inspiration in order to repurpose old objects for your green home design. For additional information on green home design, contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

Home automation is something that many people are implementing into their home designs due to the fact that it makes the home more convenient and functional. However, there’s an added benefit to home automation: reducing your environmental footprint.

Source: Freshome

So how exactly is home automation a green building feature? Well, one of the features that home automation can provide is the ability to integrate smart lighting controls that allow you to turn off all your lights at once with the touch of a button, as well as power controllers that will turn off appliances automatically. This makes using electricity much more efficient and helps to ensure that you’re not wasting energy.

Another excellent home automation feature is the occupancy sensor. We’ve all forgotten to turn off the lights when leaving the house at one point or another. By installing an occupancy sensor, you’ll ensure that your lights don’t just stay on until you return. This is because an occupancy sensor can detect if no one is at home and will automatically turn off your lights in an empty house.

Consider home automation as part of your green building design and contact us at Trilogy Builds for more green building techniques.

Green building is something that more and more homeowners and home builders are looking to employ, and for good reason. Not only are more people aware of the need for sustainable living than ever before, but implementing green building practices will end up saving you money! Green building techniques are improving every day as well – just check out the innovation of self-repairing concrete.

Source: Trilogy Partners

According to the EPA, the use of bricks and insulation uses up a lot of resources. In fact, both residential and commercial building contributes upwards of 40 percent of landfill wastes, with roughly 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions being linked to the construction industry.

Thankfully, new technology such as self-repairing concrete could help cut down on those numbers. Self-repairing concrete is created with an engineered bacterial that releases a calcium carbonate when mixed into the concrete as part of its waste process. This material will then fill in cracks and holes within the concrete.

Self-repairing concrete is just one of many green building innovations. For more information about green building and how you can implement it into your home design, be sure to contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

Using green building materials is a great way to lower your environmental impact. Here are 3 energy-efficient building materials that we recommend for every home project. Source: Pixabay

If you’re concerned about the impact you’ll have on the environment when building your home, then you should strongly consider using energy-efficient building materials. The following are three energy-efficient building materials that we highly recommend for every home project:

1. Recycled steel – Wood is not a very environmentally-friendly option, and a house that’s 2,000 square feet large would require between 40 and 50 trees to build. Instead, use customized recycled steel beams and panels, which also happen to be incredibly durable and resistant to high winds.
2. Cool roofing – Cool roofing materials tend to be a little more expensive, but they help reflect heat during the summers, helping to keep your home cool and efficient. This helps cut down on that expensive electricity bill.
3. Insulating concrete forms – These are basically concrete walls that are cast in place and that are inserted between two layers of insulation. Insulated concrete forms can end up cut down your energy usage by 20 percent.

These are just a few of the green home building materials that we recommend you use for your home building project. For all of your home building needs, be sure to contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

When designing a new home you should strive to create a passive house. A passive house is basically a home that is incredibly energy efficient, thereby helping you to reduce your environmental footprint as well as save up to 90 percent of your space heating costs.

Passive homes are houses that are insulated extremely well and practically air-tight. They are primarily heated through passive solar gain in addition to internal gains from electrical equipment and people, thereby helping to minimize the loss of energy. Whatever additional heat demand exists is provided through a very small source.

The layout of the home, such as the window orientation and the shading of the building, also helps to limit the home’s cooling load. Not to mention that passive homes also contain energy recovery ventilators to provide a balanced and constant fresh air supply. Other features of a passive home include triple-glazed high performance windows and high quality insulation.

To save as much energy as possible and to make sure your home is as efficient as possible, you should consider designing your home with a passive home system in mind. Be sure to contact us at Trilogy Builds for additional information and advice.

If you’re planning a green home design, then odds are you have some idea about a few of the green home building materials that you can use. However, there are a few surprising materials out there that we can incorporate  for a green home design. Here are a few of those materials:

• Tires and other trash – Believe it or not, you can use tires, cans, old appliance parts, and more to build your interior walls as well as your roof.
• Straw bales – Straw bales are a fantastic option for insulating your home, whether you’re planning a standard wood-framed house or a steel-framed one. When stacked above one another, they’re even strong enough to be load-bearing.
• Shipping containers – You won’t believe how many shipping containers are being used everyday around the world. There are plenty of empty ones that just sit around. And guess what? They are a fantastic building material as they are fireproof, waterproof, durable and insulated!

These are just a few of the materials that you may not have realized can be used for your green home project. Find out more by contacting us at Trilogy Builds today.

Making sure that you limit your environmental footprint as much as possible is an important consideration to make when designing a new home. There are a lot of green building techniques that you can implement in order to achieve this. One that we highly recommend that you look into is superinsulation.

Source: Shutterstock.com

The main idea behind superinsulation is to reduce heat loss and heat gain by creating a much more airtight building design than what is normal while also using much higher levels of insulation. Homes that make use of superinsulation tend to incorporate details that ensure the continuity of insulation where the walls meet the foundations, roofs, and other walls. Although the insulation levels are usually quite high, the house has to be airtight, especially around the windows and doors, in order for the insulation to be as effective as possible. To complement a superinsulation system, a very small conventional heating system is often used in addition to a heat recovery ventilation system, which helps to provide fresh air to the home.

Superinsulation is definitely something that you should consider when designing your home. For additional information and advice, be sure to contact us at Trilogy Builds today.

Are you looking for some ideas for your interior design? If you are, consider a natural interior. Using natural elements in your home’s design is a great way to create a beautiful and relaxing atmosphere and can be done no matter what type of interior design you have. The following are some tips for designing a natural interior:

• Flooring – Wood floors provide a warmth that other materials just don’t have. However, if you want more eco-friendly options, then consider cork, bamboo, or reclaimed wood, all of which provide that same warmth.
• Furniture – Be sure to keep an eye out for furniture pieces that make use of natural materials and fibers as well as textiles with more subtle and organic prints. Be sure to look for wood furniture pieces as well, such as end tables, trunks, and more.
• Area rugs – Area rugs are a great way to provide a little bit of warmth underfoot as well as tie the design of a room together. Look for area rugs that have botanical designs on them.

These are some ideas that you can use to create a more natural interior. For home building advice, contact us at Trilogy Builds today.