We at Trilogy Partners were very proud when the kitchen we designed with the assistance of Kathye Conti made the cover of Timber Home Living Magazine. This kitchen had proved quite a challenge indeed. From the beginning we were dealing with a bit of a tight space. Still, we needed to create a kitchen suitable for pros. This kitchen would feature two sinks, Dacor appliances including a 48″ Fridge, 2 dishwashers, microwave, cappuccino  maker, a wall oven and a 36″ Range with convection oven.

Perhaps the biggest challenge however was that during construction we discovered that we had no way to vent the range hood. A downdraft vent would not work with the range oven we had chosen, and venting upward would mean our vent pipe would perfectly bisect a roof valley. This would certainly cause the roof to leak, if not this year, then next. After studying the problem for a week, we decided we really didn’t want to build a chase to hide the vent pipe. We instead came up with a far better, albeit unorthodox, solution.

As the photos show, we left the vent pipe exposed, ran it across the ceiling, and used it as the structure for a hanging pot rack.  A problem had been solved and the solution became one of the highlights of Caleb’s Kitchen.

A solution good enough to make the cover of Timber Home Living magazine.

Is it cold and wet where you are?  When it’s like this it’s so tempting to light up a fireplace isn’t it?  Except do you know it’s terrible for the environment?  It really is.  The NY Times had an article about that here.

Anyway, we love the idea of using firewood as decoration though.  It’s so organic (so overused, we know), but it just adds warmth to a room without having the hassles and expenses, you know?

Here are a couple of pictures:

Source: The New York Times

Source: Erin Martin Design

Source: InsideAvenue

Every once and a while I think it’s probably a good idea to take a step back and think about why we’re doing what we’re doing. For instance, I’m currently in LA at the Design Bloggers Conference. I’m meeting people who work in the design world, like myself, who are also spending a lot of time these days writing, or blogging, about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Which begs the question: why am I writing this little piece right now? What’s this blog all about? It’s a question I think I know the answer to.  We at Trilogy Partners are different than most other firms in our industry when it comes to design and build because we are fully integrated and truly a “one stop shop.” We see it from all angles. We are designers and ditchdiggers. We are builders, planners, and accountants. We are carpenters and tradesmen and we are passionate about how things look and feel. We are storytellers. In effect, we wear a whole lot of hats around here for one reason. So that we can serve our clients fully and completely. And we want people to know that. But there’s more to it than just what we do.

We’ve been doing this for quite a while now. In the course of each project we learn a whole lot, and I want to take the time now to pass along some of what we’ve learned. The good lessons, the hard lessons. Each project is a journey and is its own story. Building a home is a rather long process that grows from concept to creation to a lasting realization of a vision and a dream. These journeys oftentimes take years, and during the course of these years things happen that are worthy of words and remembrance. Each project brings with it a separate wisdom. So I’m here to pass along the stories, and the knowledge of what it takes to design and build homes because, honestly, I couldn’t find anyone else who was. This is the only place where you can get a complete picture of both sides of the home design and build process that I’ve yet to find.

I can tell you this: designing, building, it’s hard work and harder still to do really well. But it’s a lot of fun. And it’s really rewarding to drive by a spot where once nothing stood and see, now, a wonderful home alight and alive with the people that live within its walls. That’s also what I want to write about. The joy and the how of what we do. And the gratitude we feel for being allowed to do what we truly love. With the hope that some out there will read our words and benefit from what we’ve learned. And be inspired to move forward, with confidence, in pursuit of their dreams.

Enjoy!

Posted By Mike Chino On February 11, 2011 – The idea of energy-efficient lighting appeals to most homeowners, but many people don’t have the time to research and understand all the complexity out there when it comes to finding the most energy-efficient and environmentally responsible lighting systems. That’s why Inhabitat is here to help in our Green Lighting 101 editorial series (which is generously sponsored by Philips). So far in our Green Lighting 101 series we’ve showcased the state-of-the-art in energy-efficient lighting tech and shared 6 green lighting tips to help cut down your energy bill – but what about the actual lamps fixtures that bring green energy technology to light? There’s a million ways to make a lamp – but all lamps are not suited to the same purposes, nor are they all made from eco-friendly materials or able to illuminate with energy-efficient light. With this in mind, we’ve rounded up the 15 most innovative, interesting eco-friendly lamps that bathe your home in low-energy light – read on for our top picks to suit any lighting situation!

Different types of lighting

Directional Lighting

Directional lighting refers to light fixtures that focus illumination in a single direction. When set in a series, these fixtures provide dynamic focus to a room and can efficiently distribute light throughout a room. Directional lighting is commonly provided by bulbs affixed to a ceiling-mounted track, where individual lights can be angled and rotated on a pivot. Another popular choice comes in the form of recessed downward lighting, where the light is regulated by “can fixtures.”

Task Lighting

Task lighting is a specific type of directional lighting that is focuses illumination upon a specific area where a task needs to be performed. Task lighting should not be used to replace overall lighting needs, but rather to complement or fill the void of existing lighting. Task lighting typically comes in the form of table and desk lamps, clamp-type flexible arm lamps, book lights, and for the more adventurous, headlights.

Ambient Lighting

Ambient lighting is designed to illuminate an entire room in a uniform and low-key manner. Ambient lighting should never be harsh on the eyes — it should create a comfortable environment that accommodates basic lighting needs. Popular lighting solutions for achieving this type of illumination include floor lamps, chandeliers, hanging lamps with low-watt bulbs, or hanging lamps filtered by cylindrical shades.

Hanging Pendant Lamps / Chandeliers

Bic Pen Chandelier by En Pieza

The Bic ballpoint is an iconic writing utensil that has been honored by the MOMA for its refined utilitarian design – so imagine the attention that this recycled pen chandelier will draw in your home! Each brilliant recycled chandelier is designed by En Pieza using hundreds of Bic Crystal pens that refract and disperse light from within. You can also step up this chandelier’s eco cred by popping in an energy-efficient CFL or LED bulb.

Cola Bottle Lamp by Sarah Turner

It’s hard to believe that Sarah Turner‘s brilliant starburst pendant lamps start out as a bunch of plain plastic bottles! The UK-based designer sandblasts old coke bottles, carefully cuts them into ribbon-like shapes, and then assembles them into orbital lanterns. Each elegant pendant lamp can be lit with a CFL or low-energy LED bulb.

Clothes Hanger Chandelier by Luis Teixeira

Luis Teixeira‘s elegant recycled chandeliers are composed of cast-off clothes hangers fanned out in a circular array. We love how each unique hanging lamp lights up with a sparkling gleam that rivals the finest crystal chandeliers.

Pop Pendant Light by Mauricio Affonso

We love seeing innovative new uses for everyday materials, so we flipped our tops when we spotted this Pop Pendant Light painstakingly crafted from soda can pull tabs by Mauricio Affonso. Like a disco ball or punched tin lamp, the 15″ sphere casts a beautiful array of light beams and shadows when illuminated from within by an energy-efficient bulb.

Recycled Coffee Stirrer Lamp by Studio Verissimo

Throwaway plastic coffee stirrers are a tremendous source of waste that plagues cafés around the world. Capitalizing on the way that plastic mimics the light-refracting properties of crystal, Studio Verissimo transformed hundreds of single-use stirrers into a stunning translucent chandelier!

Philips Ledino Suspension Light

Philips’ Ledino Suspension Light is a streamlined fixture that consists of a single strip of glass fused with brushed aluminum and three 7.5W LED lights. The fixture boasts a lighter-than air aesthetic that complements any interior space, and its array of dimmable LED lights can emit four different shades of light — from warm white to cool white.

Floor Lamps

Urchin Lamp by Molo

Molo’s brilliant flat-pack Urchin Softlights start out as condensed reams of craft paper – but they unfurl into beautiful hexagonal honeycomb forms. Simply install a CFL or low-energy LED bulb and these cloud-like lamps will lend a warm, enchanting ambience to any room.

Traffic Cone Light by Laura Haaker

This clever cone lamp by Laura Haaker is constructed from 6 connected traffic cones that expand outwards in a brilliant burst of color. This funky floor lamp can be easily outfitted with an energy-efficient LED or CFL bulb to add a dose of urban flare to any space.

Task Lamps

Leaf Lamp by Yves Béhar

Although it was initially released in 2006, Yves Béhar’s Leaf Lamp continues to set the standard for energy-efficient task lighting. The desk lamp consists of two beautifully-sculpted strands of aluminum that are highly recyclable and keep material use to a minimum. The adjustable arm bristles with 20 bright LEDs, and a set of touch-sensitive controls at the lamp’s base allows for easy adjustment of light intensity. The entire lamp is made of 37% recycled materials and is 95% recyclable.

Equo Desk Lamp by Koncept

Koncept’s svelte Equo lamp benefits from a pared-down profile that is as easy on the eyes as the light it sheds. A set of 28 bright white LEDs consume just 6 watts of energy, and a counterbalanced arm makes adjustments a snap.

Ledino Desk Lamp by Philips

This minimalist Ledino Desk Lamp by Philips packs a powerful LED light source and a lighter-than-air aesthetic. Its streamlined aluminum arm can be easily adjusted into any position, and its warm white light source is rated to last for 20 years of use.

Seagull Light by QisDesign

This streamlined Seagull LED lamp by QisDesign takes off with a lyrical design reminiscent of a bird in flight. The pared-down light improves upon conventional task lamps with a dual-panel design that can be easily adjusted to suit a wide range of lighting needs.

Table Lamps

Paper Tube Light by Ruth Oh

Ruth Oh transforms everyday paper postage tubes into elegant cylindrical table lamps by simply slicing away sections of carboard. They’re designed to use energy-efficient bulbs like LEDs or CFLs which run at cooler temperatures than incandescents.

Crystal Lamp by QisDesign

Designed by QisDesign, the Crystal Light consists of a series of modular icosahedron LED blocks that snap together to form practically any shape. This gorgeous glowing table lamp can be also configured to light up in an array of colors and patterns – perfect for setting the mood in any interior space.

Ledino Table Light

Philips’ Ledino Table Light is a versatile lighting solution that makes a great centerpiece for any room. The space-saving compact lamp is illuminated by a 3 LEDS that can cast either a directional spot light or a diffused lighting effect for at least 20,000 hours.

Bedroom Lighting Tips

When it comes to lighting your home, there are a few little technicalities to consider — but thankfully they’re easy. Lets start with bedrooms, which are actually one of the easiest areas to light in your home. For general lighting you have three options: a flush-mounted fixture, a semi-flush mounted fixture, or a chandelier. Chandeliers can only be used if the bottom of the chandelier is at least 6 feet from the ground — more space is preferable unless it’s directly over a bed, in which case no one will be hitting their heads on it. The question of flush-mount vs semi-flush mount is also simple — the advantage to having a semi-flush is that light bounces of your ceiling, so you get more illumination for your buck — but of course it also depends on your style.

Supplement your general lighting with table lamps for good ambient lighting, and remember these table lamps aren’t for reading — lower wattage is great here! You can save energy with lower-watt lights that are gentler on your eyes if you need to turn them on in the middle of the night. If you do read in bed, purchasing a task light instead of a table lamp could be a great idea to maximize the light when reading and save your eyes from straining. In general floor lamps can also be used in bedrooms that do not have power in their ceilings. In this is the case the best thing to do is to look for a torchiere-style floor lamp which typically uses a high watt fluorescent to shine light at your ceiling so it can reflect and light the room.

Kitchen Lighting Tips

As for the kitchen, pendant lamps look great over counters/islands/peninsulas and provide good light for cooking. Just remember to mount your pendants about 32-34 inches from the top of the counter. If the island is very narrow or isn’t a sit-down island, around 36 inches is the sweet spot. Determining the light size is simple — most pendants categorized as mini-pendants will do just fine for islands that are not very large. Just take into account how many pendants you would like, and space them out as symmetrically as possible for the best results.

Hanging a Dining Room Chandelier

The next part of lighting your kitchen or dining room that many people find frustrating is putting a chandelier over a table — just how big should that chandelier be? Well, there is a simple formula that will fix the frustration — take the shortest width of the table if it’s rectangular (or if it’s round then take the circumference), divide it by two, and then add a couple inches. For instance if you have a 48 inch table, you would use a 24-26 inch wide chandelier. The same rule for hanging pendants applies for chandeliers as well — mount it about 32-34 inches above the table, depending on the style of the chandelier. Take all these helpful tips and combine them with some of these green lighting options below to have your home look and function beautifully.

Green Lighting 101 >

+ 6 Green Lighting Tips

+ Your Guide to Energy-Efficient Lighting

Article taken from Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World – http://inhabitat.com
URL to article: http://inhabitat.com/15-green-lamps-to-light-up-your-life/

Some things about this industry so amaze me. Take for example the client who is hoping to get the best house for the least amount of money. So they hire a builder, any builder, who is willing to build for less. It’s a logic that even the clients don’t believe. These clients are driving expensive cars, not cheap cars. They spend more money to send their children to school. They have all of their lives invested sensibly but in quality. So why is it when it comes to one of the most important investments that they are every going to make, that they suddenly want to go cheap? Suddenly quality doesn’t matter. And that amazes me.

Lowest Bid Could Cost More

As I’ve posted before, I’m not a big fan of the bid process when it comes to complex residential builds. There’s just too much room for things to get overlooked in the bid. And it’s pretty much always the case that if a construction bid comes in low, that a lot of things are being overlooked. Left out, intentionally or not, there will be a day of reckoning. The rewards to the client for hiring quality are immediate and lasting. Quality building companies bring not only construction expertise to the table. But accounting know how. Problem solving abilities. A work hard ethic. And essential creativity. Not to mention that quality building companies are, for the most part, comprised of intelligent people with more than an average level of integrity. One need only check the builders’ references to separate quality builders from used car salesmen. In a “zen” sense, the house is ultimately a direct reflection of not only the architect and owner, but the builder as well. And chances are that if you blend all the above ingredients together, that the price of the construction is going to be what it should be, and both the owner and the builder will continue to have a strong relationship long after the last nail is driven home.

Quality Is An Investment

My belief is that in construction, as in other aspects of life, quality costs more. A quality builder is going to cost more than someone who is desperate for a job and will do anything to get it. Low bids go hand in hand with insufficient allowances for finishes and features. And with hidden costs and fine print. Quality costs, but quality is an investment. And we are used to hearing this, saying this, living this in life. But why is it when it comes to home building, we’re willing to forget about quality and be suckered in by the cheapest bid from fly by night contracting incorporated? It just doesn’t make sense. But I see it happen again and again. The construction industry may have a bad reputation, but it doesn’t help that clients sometimes encourage poor behavior by buying into it.

As previously posted, I often work with clients to develop a “fictional story” that will aid in the design of a home. This story is the lynchpin for a thematic approach for design. In the case of the house on lot 231, AKA Caleb’s Journey, we wanted a home that looked like it simply belonged in Colorado. The Highlands in Breckenridge development is filled with homes that fit the mold of mountain contemporary. We wanted something mountain authentic. So we invented Caleb, the man who built the house. His story goes like this: Caleb was a man who had spent years building homes for other people. Whenever he finished a home he took the left over scraps with him and they became, over the years, a very large pile in the backyard behind his cabin. One day Caleb estimated he had enough material to begin the construction of his own home. And over the next couple of years, he built the home of his dreams from castaway materials.The result was a rustic, well worn dwelling completely at home in the Colorado Mountains. This home features a timber frame made from 20″ logs and hewn douglas fir dimensional beams, reclaimed siding and ceiling cladding, and gorgeous oak floors recycled from a granary. Perhaps Caleb was only a figment of our imagination. But he came to life within the walls of Caleb’s Journey.

If you were going to design a home, where would your ideas come from?

We talk about the use of reclaimed building materials on our blog a lot, and while this may seem like a new concept, making use of salvaged materials is nothing new. Since humans began living in built structures, using and re-using various building materials has been a pretty common practice. According to the design blog Networx, today there is a renewed appreciation for these old-world methods, as well as the desire to be environmentally friendly.

Salvaged doors are a great reclaimed material to use in the construction of a new home. They provide a great deal of character to your home. Just think of the story a beautiful craftsman-style door could tell, with unique features like stained glass and architectural details. A salvaged door in good condition is a true piece of art and can add a lot of beauty to your home.

Would you consider adding a salvaged door as a design element in your home? Share your thoughts and ideas with us!

Image Courtesy of Anyajazz65 on Flickr via Networx.com.

Timber Frame Reclaimed From Railroad Trestle

I’m very pleased to announce that we at Trilogy will be collaborating with noted architectural photographer, Roger Wade on a design book tentatively titled “Old Into New – The Use of Reclaimed and Recycled Materials in Modern Architecture.” I have had the pleasure of designing quite a few homes now where we used reclaimed and recycled materials, such as barn beams and posts from old bridges, granary flooring from Chicago, and siding made from everything from redwood to cedar to douglas fir. These weathered, aged, and far from perfect reclaimed materials bring a richness, authenticity, and beauty to new homes that is not possible with “new” materials. I thought it was time we documented some of these truly magnificent homes in print, and on the internet. So stay tuned as we publish, on this blog, chapters one at a time featuring some of the nations most extraordinary homes and their use of reclaimed and recycled materials. Roger, stylist Debbie Grahl, and I worked together on the Architectural Digest article about the Steamboat House.

Were you to build a dream home, would you consider using old, rather than new, as a design element?

1. Proves that you’re a leader and a roll model
2. Demonstrates that beauty is more than skin deep
3. Gives you something to talk and/or brag about at cocktail parties
4. Shows your good taste, common sense, and innate intelligence
5. Helps promote a new, sustainable economy
6. Protects the kritters large and small
7. Proves you’re cool for keeping the planet cool
8. Shows the Kiddies that you care
9. Just plain good Karma
10. Makes you feel good all over

I can remember right after my brother and I decided to build our first house, I called my mother on the phone. “Mom,” I said. “We’re going to build a house. And I don’t know anything about interior design. Can you help me?”  She laughed.”Nope, I’m not an interior designer.” Wise words from Mom. A lot of people think that anyone can do interior design. Often homeowners will tell us, “No, we don’t need an interior designer. I can do that.” When I hear that, all I can do is sigh as I think to myself, “when you get sick and need an operation, do you perform one on yourself?”

Good Interior Design

Good interior design is an equal mix of talent and experience/education. A few of our homeowners have one of these necessary elements. But none so far have had both. And there’s also the element of time. Most owners have work, family, and plenty of other things on their plates already. And so they simply don’t have the time to do a first rate job shopping and selecting materials. Which means that the builder, who is also not an interior designer, ends up acting as the owner’s design assistant.

It Just Doesn’t Make $ense

From a financial standpoint, an owner acting as an owner/designer usually doesn’t make sense either. Designers make most of their income by buying items at wholesale through their dealer network. They then charge the client retail for the design elements. This standard markup means that the owner receives, in exchange for paying the retail price, design services, shopping services, advice, and most importantly, a practiced, skilled eye. In some cases the designer may choose to charge a flat fee and then pass on savings to the owner. But in most cases, adding a professional interior designer to the design team doesn’t cost more money than the “do it yourself” approach.

Hire a Designer

After my Mom refused to help me on my first house, I hired an interior designer. Sure, it cost a little more money than I would have spent had I acted as owner/designer. But my designer saved me a lot of time and ultimately, it was some of the best money I ever spent. The home sold the day we finished it. It turned out beautifully and looks as current today as it did 11 years ago when it was finished. I went on to do several more homes with this interior designer until I gained experience and discovered I had a talent for interior design. At this point Trilogy brought interior design in house. Since then, we’ve been awarded and published and are widely recognized as a top interior design firm. And I advise all my clients to do exactly what I did on my first home. Hire an interior designer. And reap the rewards.