interior design

Five Must-Have Enhancements to Your Custom Home

Highlight Homes Atlanta Custom Homes
Five Must-Have Enhancements to Your Custom Home

Even though humans have been building homes for hundreds of years, we’re still constantly learning how to make them better – structurally, aesthetically, technologically and more. When building a custom home, it’s easy to consider all the special elements you’ve always dreamed of incorporating. But thanks to the ever-evolving world of architecture and construction, it’s also wise to consider integrating elements that time and experience have taught us are clever additions. While these additions can potentially number in the hundreds, Atlanta custom homebuilder and luxury renovation company – Highlight Homes – has narrowed down that list to our top five must-have enhancements to your custom home…

  1. Open Concept Floor Plan with Minimalist Design: Instead of breaking the interior of your home into well-defined rooms, one of the newest trends in home design is to create a seamless flow between main living spaces. This enhances the sense of spaciousness – making your home ideal for entertaining and encouraging a connection between family members who occupy those spaces. Your kitchen island may serve as the perfect vantage point to the dining room and family room – truly making your kitchen the living, breathing heart of the home. By adding a minimalist design to the equation, you also augment the feel of timelessness. When adhering to a specific design style – while it may be one of the hottest trends on the market – you could be dating your home over time. By going a safer route through minimalist design, you can still introduce furnishings and décor that suggest a hot design trend that can easily be altered over time to take advantage of the NEXT hot design trend.
  2. Smart Home Technology: From HVAC and lighting controls to a sound system designed to play the soundtrack to your life to a whole home security system, technology is playing a larger role in home design than ever before. Not only is technology designed to make your life easier, but the right combination of tools could also save you money in the long run, in power bills and innovative security measures. In addition to Smart Home Technology, you can also incorporate technologically smart elements like outlets tucked inside bathroom drawers to help eliminate clutter, as well as outdoor outlets and media connections to help make your exterior living spaces as fully functioning as your interior spaces.
  3. A Blend of Natural Elements and Artistic Flair: Bringing the outdoors in is a trend that has steadily gained steam in home design in recent years, from stacked stone fireplaces with heavy timber mantle to hardwood floors to stone countertops. You can also bring artisanal elements in to add a little bit of your family’s collective personality or design taste to the forefront through distinctive lighting choices, woodwork and more. Industrial-themed lighting or farmhouse-inspired shiplap walls can coexist harmoniously with natural elements and lend a little character to any room.
  4. Unification of Interior and Exterior Living Spaces: Just as the incorporation of natural elements in your interior design continues to grow in popularity, so does the unification of indoor and outdoor living spaces. One simple and beautiful way to accomplish this is through the addition of well-designed windows to extend the view outdoors and let loads of natural light indoors. Another way to achieve a fusion of indoor and outdoor living spaces is through placement and décor. Placement of an outdoor patio or covered porch or deck just off of a main living space encourages flow from the inside to the outside. And by having a clear design style/color theme throughout the interior and exterior of the home, you’ll be tying your living spaces together – rather than making them feel like separate parts of the same whole.
  5. Signature Spaces: Of course, one of the best things about building a custom home is the opportunity to make it your OWN. As a custom home builder, we encourage our clients to create signature spaces that are true to their family’s unique interests and wishes. For those who love movies, a dedicated home theater is likely a must. For families who love to entertain and celebrate the outdoors, a pool with tiki bar and outdoor kitchen may be the perfect addition that makes this home truly their own. There is no limit to the ways you can make a custom home truly YOURS. Make a wish list of the ways you would like to infuse parts of your family into your home, and a good custom home builder – like Highlight Homes – will find ways to make them happen.

Atlanta-based Highlight Homes welcomes the opportunity to help you realize the custom home of your dreams. To get started, simply call us at 678-873-9234, email us at info@highlighthomesga.com or fill out our convenient online contact form and someone will be in touch with you shortly!  To learn more about Highlight Homes and view our online gallery of work, please visit www.highlighthomesga.com.

Unifying the Interior and Exterior of Your Home

Highlight Homes Atlanta Custom Homes, Luxury Renovations
Unifying the Interior and Exterior of Your Home

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is Home.” ~ Gary Snyder

With Spring just around the corner, the promise of the return of green leaves to the trees and flowers to flower beds fuels the desire to get outside and play. No matter the time of year, there is a growing trend among homeowners and home buyers to infuse elements in their homes that create an undeniable connectivity between the great indoors and the Great Outdoors. Premier Atlanta builder and renovation company, Highlight Homes, is pleased to present a list of ways you can do just that in the design of your custom-built home or the renovation of your current home.

“Time to Spare” Room

Why merely add a new room to your home or integrate a flex space to the design of your custom home when you COULD create a space that’s all about relaxation, reflection and reverence of the space beyond the walls of your home. From a screened porch that allows for three-season enjoyment to a sunroom that provides a space to enjoy the outdoors all year round. This is a space where you can drink your morning coffee while watching the birds play in the birdbath or enjoy a nightcap while counting the stars.

Windows of Opportunity

Windows aren’t merely intended to let the light shine into your home or be opened to let the fresh air in. They can be reimagined as veritable works of art where the world beyond your windows serves as the palette. If you have a private backyard that serves as a particularly pleasing backdrop, you can open the frame a bit by creating a wall of windows – blurring the line between where the inside ends and the outside begins.

Feathering Your Nest

Another way to bring the outdoors in is to infuse elements of the natural world throughout your interior design. Use lots of interesting houseplants throughout at a variety of levels. Incorporate wood in your flooring, timber beams, accent walls and interesting furniture pieces. Include stone in your countertops and fireplace surround. Then enhance the sense of nature by adding wall art, throw pillows, rugs and décor that fit your color and design themes, but are inspired by the natural world. These might include birds, butterflies, dragonflies, horses, flowers, the ocean and so much more. Choose something personal to you as your central theme so it has real staying power and holds meaning.

Outside Looking In

Of course, the BEST way to extend your living spaces outdoors is to ADD an outdoor living space that could very well become your favorite “room” of the home. This might include a covered patio or deck with an outdoor hearth, pool with a cabana, outdoor kitchen with inviting seating, an old-fashioned playhouse with swing set, and so much more! Just imagine creating a space where you feel comfortable telling the kids to go outside and play, but “be home by dark” (‘cause they’re already home)! The memories you can make together in this space are virtually limitless, so whatever you create, make sure it’s the right fit for your family.

Highlight Homes welcomes the chance to help you incorporate one or all of these outdoor-focused enhancements in your new custom home or luxury renovation. To learn more about Highlight Homes and our signature design-build method, please visit www.highlighthomesga.com. Once you’re ready to get started, contact us at 678-874-9234 or info@highlighthomesga.com.

Shedding Light on the Subject of Lighting

Highlight Homes Atlanta Custom Homes, Luxury Renovations
Shedding Light on the Subject of Lighting

Since the dawn of man, lighting has been a necessity. Sure, the quest for fire may have largely been fueled by the need for warmth and a more civilized form of cuisine, but its capacity to shed some light on the night opened up new pathways to the future that early man couldn’t even imagine existed. While modern lighting continues to serve a mainly functional purpose, it’s entirely possible to make it the design focal point (or at the very least a design enhancement) in any room. Consider the chandelier – first introduced in the 14th century, it stemmed from the French word “chandelle” which meant “candle holder.” While early designs were simple, it didn’t take long for them to become ornate fixtures meant to draw the eye. They were often costly and difficult to maintain (some designs had to be lowered to be cleaned and have each candle lit), meaning only the wealthy could afford to have them – thrusting them into the category of status symbol. Candles gave way to gas in the early 1800’s, followed by electricity into homes in the mid-to-late 1800’s. Then things really started to get interesting. Chandeliers became even more opulent, and a man named Louis Comfort Tiffany introduced his lead and stained glass “Tiffany Lamps” to the world – which would become a major part of the Art Nouveau movement.

“As a custom home builder, I find that lighting can make or break a room,” said Tony Pourhassan, Principal at Highlight Homes. “With industrial influences remaining strong in the design realm, I’m having a lot of fun finding truly unique lighting to incorporate throughout the home. From soft and romantic lighting in the master bath to bold and impressive lighting fixtures in the main living spaces like the kitchen to carriage house light influences on the exterior of the home. Lighting is one of those areas where form and function can unite for truly beautiful results.”

In addition to being beautiful additions to all of the rooms of your home, lighting can also serve an energy efficient function. That’s a major plus for the planet AND for your family when the electric bill shows up in the mailbox.

Whether building a custom home from the ground up or reimagining your existing home with a renovation, Highlight Homes welcomes the opportunity to work closely with you on everything from the fine details – such as the selection of lighting and all of the design elements that will make your home distinctive to your family, to the big pictures items like the home site and ideal floor plan to fit the way your family lives. To learn more about Atlanta-based Highlight Homes and take a tour of our galleries, please visit us online at www.highlighthomesga.com.

 

View Highlight Homes’ Lighting Gallery