Homeowners considering a build-out of their home are wise to consider all of their options. A second story is expensive and time-consuming, but building out also can provide more space, add a particularly functional room, and add significant value to your property. Here are a few of the simplest ways to accomplish this goal:

Enlarge a Room – One of the easiest ways to improve a kitchen, family room or other communal area is to give it a little more room. Relocating a single exterior room is quite affordable and provides significant bang for the buck in terms of money spent versus room created.

Add a Room Over the Garage – While a little more expensive, the area over a garage provides a space where almost anything is possible – a media, craft or game room.

Build an Outbuilding – Adding some extra entertainment space is as easy as adding a pool house, a pergola or a backyard work space. In every case, you will free up space in the main house.

For more information on planning a home or its expansion, please contact us at Trilogy Partners.

If you’re renovating the home, you have a lot of building material options available for use. Consider the following materials to add a beautiful, unique look to your dream home:

• Limestone can make your home’s walls stand out. By texturing the limestone, you will be able to accentuate the shadows, giving your wall a dramatic effect. This texturing will visually soften the hard material, giving your home an elegant, inviting look.

• If you are looking to style up the shelves in your home, you can use a patinated aluminum material that features a spiderweb pattern. This will give your shelves a bold look, making it enjoyable every time you go to grab your socks or clothes. To vary the spider web patterns, the horizontal pieces can be flipped.

• For a truly bold look, you can combine different materials together, such as round glass tiles, terrazzo and wood slats. The contrast can add a lot of intrigue.

For more information on these kinds of building materials, contact us today.

Mountain home style designs often have a specific aesthetic value. Big albeit simple gable roofs imitate the shape of mountains while at the same time shedding snow and rain. Huge, tree-like timbers are normally used to hold up these roofs. All of the aforementioned rest on local stone constructed into chimneys, plinths, and foundations. Metal plates and anchors connecting those elements have a scale and heft to match the surroundings.

Source: Trilogy Partners

• Gable Roofs – Big and plain gable roofs allow homes to reflect a wide landscape of mountains and trees as well as provide shelter.

• Stones – Stone plinths, a stone base and stone chimney secure the mountain home style design to its site despite the fact that the roof is supported on all the tree-like poles.

• Metal Roofs – Choose a metal roof that looks akin to a tent, stretched taut over the simple pole structure. This gives your mountain home a more sophisticated look.

• Large Glass Doors – Large stretches of glass keep your home interior bright and light while at the same time, confining your home’s best views.

Contact us for information about hiring a professional to help you refurbish or construct your mountain home style design.

After building your Colorado dream home, odds are you have leftover building materials you may not know how to properly dispose of. Here are some tips on what to do with your remaining materials:

• Tiles – Tiles can be used as coasters or broken up to be used as decorative wall mosaics. Use them in your garden as pathways or flowerbed borders. To dispose of them, place an ad on Craigslist or donate them to a local school, non-profit organization, or salvage yard.

• Bricks – Use your leftover bricks to build a firepit or an outdoor barbeque. If you can’t use them, call local bricklayers or landscapers or donate them to Habitat for Humanity.

• Wood – Scrap wood has endless uses. Build a bookshelf, a birdhouse, or get creative with rustic furniture frames. Your leftover wood can even be recycled and used for soil enhancement.

• Paint – You can always cover your paint can and use it later, or you can use it now to touch up old furniture. Check your states’ laws to dispose of your paint properly.

Contact us to learn more about what do with your leftover building materials as well as other tips for sustainable building and custom home design.

Singapore is known for many things from their vibrant food culture to their rich multi-cultural heritage to their high-tech industry. To add to their list, Singapore is leading the way in Asia in terms of green building.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone since Singapore Island only covers 85 square miles and is one of the most highly urbanized areas on Earth. This level of urbanization creates many special ecological and economic problems which Singapore is dealing with via green building technology.

Buildings in Singapore use a wide variety of methods to go green. These range from advanced solar paneling, landscaping the buildings themselves, using better types of recycled/sustainable building materials, as well as improved ‘smart lighting’ which works in tandem with available natural light.

The Singapore government has promoted this move towards green building with a generous incentive plan which has led to 1,534 new buildings passing the local equivalent of LEEDs certification. Along with older retrofitted properties, green structures account for 1/5 of all Singapore buildings making them Asia’s most green country.

Contact us to learn more about green and sustainable building or remodeling as well as other sustainable building tips for custom home design or remodeling.

Green villages are catching on rapidly these days, and for many reasons. Whether it’s in urban or suburban areas, the aim is to make sustainable practices part of the neighborhood’s daily life. Here are a few of the main reasons why eco-villages are trending:

• Built-in Eco-Design – When you move into an eco-village, all the green design work is already installed for you. In most green communities, rainwater harvesting and composting, wind and/or solar energy are already being practiced. Other green design facets, for instance recycled and sustainable materials are also included.

• Shared Areas – More Fun and Less Waste – Green villages offer a common swimming pool and playground that reduce the resources and energy that it will take for people to build and maintain them in individual residential property. In addition, these shared areas allow you to mingle with your neighbors.

• Walk around the Village – One of the things that are very appealing about green villages is that everything is within walking distance. There is no need to worry about a car, gas costs, or finding a parking space.

If you are considering a home in a green village, contact us today for advice and tips about eco-living.

We’re committed to helping our clients develop a style that includes as many green home design elements as possible. Some things are simply good old-fashioned common sense, like turning off lights when leaving a room and taking advantage of natural lighting. The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” is perfect for reminding us to lighten our carbon footsteps on our fragile earth.

Get creative with decorating by visiting flea markets and antique shops to look at old objects with a new eye to their purpose. Old glass bottles can turn into unique tiles, scrap metal can be re-purposed into wall panels for an industrial vibe, weathered wood can become flooring or a tabletop depending on your needs.

Conserving water is especially necessary these days. Using rain chains and barrels to divert and store rainwater for use later in the home and garden is a good way to conserve resources. Bring the green inside, as plants are natural air purifiers and make a lush background in your home. You can also save money at the grocery store by planting an indoor herb garden and growing veggies in window boxes.

Trilogy’s integrated design and build process makes living green in Colorado a sustainable lifestyle. Contact us for more information.

Given the mounting interest in green building, it should come as no surprise to learn that non-profits such as the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institution are sponsoring the push to create better building materials. One of the exciting building materials to receive encouragement from its efforts is self-repairing concrete.

Source: Freedigitalphotos.net

In short, the self-repairing concrete is normal concrete that has been mixed with bacteria that has been engineered to be capable of surviving in arid conditions. As the bacteria run through their biological processes, their bodies expel calcium carbonate as a waste product, which is the same substance seen in limestone. Over time, the calcium carbonate serves to fill in the cracks that can open up in concrete, thus extending its period of usefulness far past its normal length.

However, the same challenge that led to self-repairing concrete has also produced a number of other interesting possibilities. Examples include both bacteria-made bricks that use minimal inputs and mushroom-based insulation that can be cultivated right into the spaces between walls. Although some of these building materials are still in their earliest stages, their current performance carries much promise for the future.

Please contact us for more information about green home building practices.

Suspended beds are quite popular in interior design. They give the impression that they’re floating on air, so that you’ll feel like you’re sleeping on a cloud.

Suspension in design is not limited to beds, though. Suspended fireplaces are fast becoming a trend in homes as well, given how sophisticated and unique they can look when done right.

But aside from aesthetic appeal, suspended fireplaces offer function, too. They take up less area because instead of using horizontal space, they use vertical space, a part of the room that’s not usually maximized. They can be mounted on the wall, leaving the area beneath them free. They are a good choice for people who want sleek and modern fireplaces.

Suspended fireplaces can also serve as a room divider when placed between the living and dining room. But because they’re floating, they still work well in open spaces.

Lastly, suspended fireplaces offer a fantastic 360-degree view. Thus, you can install one in your home and treat it like a focal centerpiece. Because you are not hindered by a wall, you can go with any shape and any design you want. So instead of the usual rectangular fireplace, experiment with round and oval ones for a change!

For more information be sure to contact us at Trilogy Partners today!

Colorado is becoming well known for its craft breweries but there are also some great little wineries popping up throughout the area. Buying wine quite often turns into collecting wine. A wine cellar is the perfect place to store your wine collection and can also be the perfect place to relax and enjoy a glass of wine.

Wine cellars can be incorporated into an existing space such as underneath the steps of your home or they can be built to a specific plan. Not all wine cellars need to be damp and dark.

Here are some suggestions for your future wine cellar:

• Use bright colors on the walls to keep things bright and airy.
• If you like a cozy feel wood floors can make the right impact.
• If your cellar is short on height use custom lighting that sits close to the roof.
• Leaving walls and floors concrete can provide the right temperature, add some comfort by laying down plush area rugs to provide texture and warmth.
• Use a color combination making the walls a different color to the racks, this will provide visual appeal.

If you need more information about potentially adding a wine cellar to your home, then be sure to contact the experts at Trilogy Partners today!