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.

Silverthorne Colorado home

Green has been a buzzword in design for at least 25 years (I am going off of my Earth Day 1992 tote bag that was just unearthed from my parents home). What are some creative ways that you can use renewable materials in your home design?

Smart light bulbs, eco-mattresses, and a Tesla Powerwall that can run a 2 bedroom home on solar are some of the more obvious products available in the sustainable design market. For something less expected, you can also purchase a mushroom mycelium lamp that is painted with non-toxic paint that is grown instead of manufactured. Another unusual selection is

MushLume Trumpet Pendant (Photo credit: Nix + Gerber Studio)

When designing your new construction or remodel, here are some easy choices to make your home a little more green and a little more sustainable with items that you already need:

Trex Decking: made from 95% recycled wood and plastic. This company also employs practices right in their manufacturing facility like eliminating the use of harmful chemicals and reclaiming factory waste.

Milk Paint: “green paint” refers to any paint that is an alternative to petroleum based paints. Milk Paint contains no VOC’s (volatile organic compounds) or additives that can be harmful to the environment. So you can breathe easy knowing that your walls, cabinets or outdoor spaces are working with you and the Earth.

Bio-glass backspash: recycled glass takes just 30% of the energy that would be required to produce it from raw materials. And there are stunning options to choose from!

LEED Certified Windows: these ensure energy efficiency is not compromised when embracing the views from your house.

Virtual Reality and 3D modeling: architect Michelle Kaufman has said “The most green material you can use is one that you never use.” With employing 3D modeling that allows you to go inside of your remodel or new construction, space planning is at a premium and every inch is accounted for. You can experience your home through VR and feel the space rather than just trusting or guessing what it the finished product will be like. Find a design team that will allow you to go inside your house and see your design selections well before purchasing or installation.

For more information on defining renewable vs nonrenewable materials, check out Karen S. Garvin’s article via LIVESTRONG.

Have you incorporated any green design selections in your house?

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.

MELISSA RAYWORTH, For The Associated Press | It’s a design opportunity that’s easily missed: Even the most stylishly decorated rooms often have bland wooden doors with cheap hardware.High-end designers have always made doors a priority, says Brian Patrick Flynn, an interior designer and founder of FlynnsideOut. “If you look at any Fifth Avenue apartment” in New York City, he says, “you’ll probably fall in love with their doors because they blend architecture with decorating and make it really special.”

But many of us ignore the doors in our homes, not realizing what a difference they can make to the look of a room. Whether your style is traditional or modern, subtle or bold, improving your doors can give your rooms an easy facelift.

Interior designer Emily Henderson, host of HGTV’s “Secrets from a Stylist,” uses doors as a canvas for anything from wallpaper or stenciling to textured paint or artfully applied gold leaf. Decorated doors can “bring a bit of surprise glamour,” she says, and highlight architectural elements.

But know what sort of change you’re looking for. “Sometimes you want your door to be disguised” and blend quietly into the space, Henderson says. Other times, you’re seeking a burst of color or texture to draw attention.

INFUSING STYLE

Painting with bold or contrasting colors can quickly make a door the star of a space, Flynn says. Try painting an entire door white and letting it dry for at least one day. Then put painters’ tape over the areas you’d like to keep as white accents, and paint the entire door another color (glossy black is great, he says). After removing the tape, touch up any imperfect spots with a tiny brush.

Another option that Flynn loves: Have doors upholstered with leather or geometric print fabric to add softness and style. Leather is easy to wipe clean, he says, and “if it ages over time, that only adds to the look.”

Bring the door to an upholsterer or do it yourself by wrapping the door in cotton batting and attaching fabric with a staple gun along the sides. Tap the staples with a hammer to recess them, then paint over them in a color that matches the fabric. You can also glue ribbon over the staples to hide them.

BRINGING THE LOOK OF YOUR HOME TOGETHER

“Look at your doors,” says Los Angeles-based designer Betsy Burnham. “Do they all match?” If you want a cohesive style throughout the home, try painting every door the same color and accessorizing each with the same stylish hardware.

Burnham usually chooses white or off-white paint for doors and door frames, “but in one house I did all the doors sort of a khaki,” she says, “which was more modern.” If you want a bolder statement, she suggests painting all the doors a dark shade of charcoal and using oil-rubbed bronze doorknobs.

Henderson and Flynn agree that consistency is important for doors that all face the same hallway. On the sides facing into rooms, you can indulge your imagination. But for the sides facing a hallway, “it could look unintentionally messy” rather than creative if the hardware and paint colors don’t match.

EXPRESSING YOURSELF

Doors are a great way to personalize a space, Burnham says. A classic six-panel door has a very different feeling than a heavy wooden plank door with lots of dramatic hardware.

Front doors can be a great place to express your style. A custom-designed door with expensive hardware can have a huge impact and be worth the investment, Burnham says. One option is to “keep the house sort of neutral and do a pop of color at the front door,” she says. “We’ve seen red doors used really well. You could even do a bright teal.”

Inside your home, you can use doorknobs and other hardware “like jewelry,” Burnham says. Try crystal or chinoiserie knobs, oiled bronze metal hardware or shiny chrome, depending on your style. Lately, Flynn has merged fun and function by putting elaborate door knockers on bedroom doors.

If you want to highlight your home’s history or just bring a vintage look to the rooms, consider using doors reclaimed from older buildings. Flea markets and antique shops may have great doors for low prices. They can be accessorized with vintage hardware or new pieces in a vintage style.

But Henderson cautions that installation can be tough. “I’ve tried replacing knobs,” she says, “and it’s actually turned into a bit of a nightmare.”

Another nontraditional option: Use shiny, metallic paint or cover the back of a door with chalkboard paint so you can leave quick notes, scrawl grocery lists or let kids get creative.

ADDING SQUARE FOOTAGE

If closet doors swing out into a small room, consider replacing them with bi-fold doors or pocket doors. Or remove closet doors entirely and turn the area into open shelving. To give it a finished look, wallpaper the closet interior and hang tieback draperies where the doors were.

Burnham loves this idea, but says it only works if you’re someone who will keep storage areas neat. Many clients ask to have doors removed to expose open shelving, she says, “but it’s a really special client who can keep that looking great.”

One last bit of advice: If you do remove bi-fold doors, don’t get rid of them. They make great freestanding room dividers, Flynn says, especially if you paint or upholster them. In a bedroom that doubles as an office, “it’s a great way to delineate work space from sleep space.”

Source: TheDailyNewsOnline.com

To see more of Trilogy’s unique designs and doors, visit our Instagram page.

SketchUp is the cornerstone of our Project Management Modeling process. When they learned about what we were doing up here in Summit County, they came up with some cameras to see for themselves what this PMM thing was all about.

One of the best ways to understand what it is like to intimately know your home before construction starts and to have an active part in the design of your dream home, is to speak with people who have experienced it from the client end. Enter Donna and Bruce: Trilogy homeowners, retired professors and full-time Summit County residents in the Silverthorne neighborhood of Hamilton Creek.

Much of this home was designed during “real-time design sessions” in the Trilogy office. This is where everyone’s imagination runs wild and Michael sketches in the computer to give these ideas life and show what they would look like in a real world application. Donna’s water feature was dreamed up during a real-time design session at the Trilogy offices. Bruce’s office built-in’s were also done in a real-time design sessions. There was space in the lower level that could have been wasted in a lesser thought out design, that became a hidden office with a sliding bookcase for when their son visits. Bruce has a workshop space to fix his bikes. Every inch of the home was examined for efficiency and owner approved before we broke ground.

One of the most beautiful design aspects of their mountain modern home in Hamilton Creek is the chartreuse and yellow colors that pop throughout the home. When the aspen leaves turn gold in the fall it looks like Donna and Michael went for a walk in the woods to pluck the colors right from nature. You can see a few of those shots in this video.

Thanks to Donna and Bruce for graciously opening up their home to the SketchUp video crew, and to our friends at SketchUp for always being curious about how their product impacts industries and lives around the globe.

Enjoy!

By: Emily Wallace

Every year, Pantone chooses a color for people to focus on and to bring to light in their everyday lives. The 2017 Pantone color of the year is greenery; a symbol of new beginnings. The fresh and fun shade gives light to previously dull and boring aspects.

Green is essentially the color of nature itself. Beautiful shades of green are found all throughout the world. A person can not look at something thriving in nature and not be in awe. Living in a mountain community, we are surrounded with the amazing fullness of nature and greenery. Greenery incorporates nature and prosperity into a home to liven it up but also making it a place of serenity from people’s hectic lives outside their home.

While Trilogy is known for setting trends and not following them, a design goal of Trilogy Partners is often to “bring the outside in.” Our clients hear this phrase often and most people who are building a home in Colorado want to embrace nature. We embrace Pantone’s color of the year because it emphasizes how important bringing natural elements into your inside environment is. Feel more connected and more serene while enjoying the 2017 Color of the Year: Greenery.

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