6 Home Improvements That Add a Luxurious Feel to Your Living Spaces

Real estate observers reported the resurgence of luxury living in the past few years. In some emerging markets, luxury homes have become so popular that property developers can’t keep up with the demand.

You don’t have to be a purveyor of luxury to understand the appeal: living in a high-quality home that caters to your taste and specific requirements is indeed ideal.

While a custom-built luxury home sounds dreamy, you can also experience luxury living in your existing property with a few, well-chosen upgrades. This solution is perfect if you love your current location but are looking to update the look, feel and function of your living spaces.

Don’t worry — a home makeover need not be an unreasonably costly, drawn-out affair. With smart planning, strategic changes and tailored solutions from leading home builders, you can give your existing interiors a touch of luxury according to your vision and budget.

The following are some home enhancements you can apply to immediately give your home a luxe feel:

1. Go for Classic Hues

There’s nothing like neutrals to give home interiors a classy, roomy and zen feel. Establish a neutral color base for your flooring, furnishings and fixtures. Neutrals will give you a huge canvas to make bold color splashes for your focal points. You can integrate bold colors and textures by using accessories such as curtains, cushions, vases, clocks, photo frames, etc., which have both utilitarian and aesthetic appeal.

2. Get Rid of Aging Fixtures

Whether it’s an old lampshade that’s been gathering dust, or a bunch of chipped ornate door knobs, get them replaced. If you really love your vintage pieces, take them to a specialist for cleaning, polishing and repairs. Small fixes like these can affect the overall look of your place, and you can always begin with the little things.

3. Coordinate as You Accessorize

Whether it’s your kitchen or bathroom, or any other part of your home, coordinating hardware finishes works extra to create a polished and luxurious appeal to your home interiors. For your kitchen, you may want to consider investing in stainless steel upgrades that will give your cooking area a classic, clean and coordinated appearance.

4. Attract Attention Vertically

In making your place look luxurious, you can start from the top by employing decorative ceiling medallions that will add “oomph” to your ceiling light fixture. Lightweight polyurethane ceiling medallions come in various sizes and can be done in your choice of color. They work exceedingly well to create a professional architectural touch, and as interesting focal points up in the ceiling. To maintain this look longer at less the cost, use LED lights to power your lighting fixtures.

5. Let Tiles do the Work

Coming in a range of colors, designs, sizes, shapes and materials, tiles are versatile tools and are your home makeover best friends. To add spice to your kitchen’s style, consider various options for tile colors and textures. Subway tiles spell bright and modern. Upcycled bricks or reclaimed wood showcase rustic chic and are eco-friendly. You can go fancy using glass tiles, artsy with Moroccan mosaic tiles, or full-on luxe with marble or gunmetal tiles.

6. Dandy up Your Walkway

You need not keep all your home enhancements indoors. Update the look of your home facade by laying a color of fresh paint on your mailbox. Get rid of weeds and plant pretty flowers around it. Get those trees and bushes neatly trimmed, and rid your garden of any overgrowth. You may also want to upgrade to a well-designed driveway made of long-lasting and low maintenance material.

Luxury is a State of Mind

Keep in mind that whatever time, energy, effort and cash you invest in home improvements will go a long way in making your house aesthetically pleasing, and even quite similar to splendid luxury homes. At the same time, you are also increasing its resale value, whether or not you are looking to sell it any time soon.

AUTHOR BIO

Robert Allam is the Finance and Sales Manager for Trendsetter Homes. Through his journey from being a Sales Consultant then Office Manager, to assuming his current role, Robert has seen the company grow and has guided many clients through the process of developing their dream of a unique luxury home.

Is Your Home FALLing Apart? Why Fall May Be the Best Season to Renovate.

If you’re starting to fall out of in love with your home, fall may be the best season to fall back in. While the best time to plan your home renovation is when you and your family are ready, there may be slight advantages/disadvantages to renovating your home during certain times of the year. Here’s why you should consider starting your next kitchen, bathroom, or entire home renovation this fall.

1. Your Home Will Be Ready for the Holidays.

Starting your home renovation in September gives your contractor enough time to have your home ready for friends and family to gather at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Of course after your new renovation, you’ll need to prepare to have your home volunteered to host the next Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner!

2. Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold.

Fall temperatures typically minimize the risk of encountering extreme external factors that could potentially delay your project timeline. Typically, fall is warm enough to avoid tracking cold air into your home yet cool enough for remodelers to perform their work at maximum efficiency.

3. Create a Win, Win Situation for You and Your Builder.

Renovating in the fall is beneficial for homeowners and contractors. By hiring your contractor slightly off season, you ensure that you receive excellent service and flexible schedule, often at a lower prices due to factors such as weather and reduced material costs.

While fall is an ideal time for interior renovations, it might not be the best timing to install that new underground pool and deck you’ve been dreaming of. While the work is certainly possible, who wants to wait months before setting foot in their new swimming pool? At the end of the day, each season has its positives and negatives, and the decision ultimately depends on the individual homeowner.

Thinking of renovating your home this fall? Call Turnberry Construction Group (610) 775-7575 to schedule a free estimate with President Kevin Kozo or to chat about your ideas for your next home project.

The Benefits of Bringing the Outdoors In

“Home is not a place, it is a feeling”

According to a survey by the national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans spend 93% of our entire life indoors while only 7% of our time is spent in the great outdoors. And, with the exception of work, we spend most of our indoor time in the special place we call HOME. Here are four beneficial ways to incorporate more outdoor life into the 93% of time we spend indoors.

1. Purify the Air with House Plants

House plants don’t just sit still and look pretty. Several studies, including NASA’s clean air study, found that plants purify the air by removing toxins, increase productivity in the workplace and boost your mood. Research in the Journal of Alternative Complement Medicine showed that exposure to pictures of nature, including images of plants, significantly reduced stress of patients in a hospital waiting room.

Choosing an indoor plant for your home needs to be done with careful consideration and research. While some exotic plants may be beautiful to look at, they could place loved ones, including children and family pets, in danger. The safest bet is to keep all house plants out of touch if possible. Some popular kid and pet friendly plants include the Christmas Cactus, spider plant, Boston fern and African violets.

2. Use Windows & Skylights to Let the Sun Shine through Your Home

Indoors does not mean you have to shut out the sun. Having spacious windows and skylights will welcome plenty of natural sunlight into your home. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that daily light exposure in the workplace is significantly correlated with a person’s sleep, activity and overall quality of life. People who work in an environment without windows or any exposure to daylight have poorer sleep quality, more physical health issues and less vitality.

According to a skylight company Freelite, having skylights in your home reduces energy consumption, mildew and mold, and deficiencies in vitamins D and B1. In addition to increasing efficiency and health benefits, skylights are a worthwhile investment that increase your home’s visual interior appeal and resale value.

3. Cozy up by the Fireplace

Throughout human history, the use of fire has been very important to us, from cooking to protecting and hunting. The good news is that you don’t have to go outside anymore to sit close to a warm fire. An indoor fireplace can supply you and your family with an additional heat source and psychological benefits. Research has shown that there are stress-alleviating health benefits associated with sitting and gazing at a fireplace.

To reap the benefits of an indoor fireplace, you may not even need a real fireplace! If you have cable, Netflix, or internet access to YouTube, you may be in luck. Research from the University of Alabama suggests that merely watching a video of a fireplace, especially supplemented with a crackling sound, makes you feel more relaxed and reduces your blood pressure.

4. Keep the Kids Happy & Healthy with Natural Elements

A classroom study in Austria found that classrooms with natural wood elements can keep the kids healthier, calmer and less stressed than traditional classrooms. Another study reported that using wood in your home’s interior provides a positive atmosphere and reduces the risk of allergies.

To bring these benefits into your own home, try incorporating natural wood elements into your decorating style. Styles such as mid-century modern highlight natural wood elements with touches of color, but you can bring natural wood into your own home by investing in wooden storage options, wood beams and wood furniture.

Collectively, research has shown that bringing outdoor elements into your home provides numerous physical and psychological benefits. Having a functional indoor environment with outdoor style will promote the well-being of your family.

About the Authors

Leah Williams is an intern for Turnberry Custom Homes and a senior at Albright College majoring in English, communications and Spanish.

Toe Aung is a psychobiology major in his senior year at Albright College and is pursuing his PhD in Anthropology at Penn State University.

Building a Home for Your Family’s Ever-changing Needs

Here’s what we learned after speaking with one of our previous clients who built a custom home with us in 2013. We wanted to know how their life changed, if their home fit their needs in the long run, and what advice they have for future homeowners.

Life happens. Whether new children are welcomed into your life, in-laws move into your home, or new pets become a part of the family, you’ll want your home to be a comfortable place for the ever-changing needs of your family. Since your home may be the largest investment you make, it’s important to not only think about your family situation now, but to consider the possibilities of the future.

At Turnberry Custom Homes, we wanted to know in what ways families’ needs change and how we can continue to build quality homes that lead to a lifetime of comfort. We spoke to one of our previous clients who built a custom home with us in 2013.

Warm & Welcoming Entryway of the “M” Residence

At the time, Erin and Tim were building a home with us for their family of three, plus two miniature dachshunds. Now, the house provides a home for Erin, Tim, and their three children, along with their two dogs.

When Erin and Tim designed their home, they kept in mind that their family could grow within the next few years.
Their home has three bedrooms on the second floor and one guest bedroom on the first floor. drawingWith the guest room on the first floor, there’s no need for guests to share a bathroom with their children. When the family goes on vacation, another relative can conveniently stay at their home in the guest room to take care of their two dogs while they are away.

We specifically wanted to know how our previous clients felt looking back onto their own construction experience. Reality TV often highlights the conflicting needs and desires of homeowners, but Erin and Tim had a positive decision-making process and overall home building experience.
tvAccording to Erin, “People kept saying we would fight and argue. We argued over nothing. Everything was very seamless.”

The one room that Erin wishes they could have expanded, if their budget and floor plan would have allowed, is the master bathroom. They love their shower, but overall, they feel their bathroom is tight. When building their home, they needed to have enough closet space, a “necessary evil” for their master bedroom, taking away potential space for a larger bathroom. However, Erin said she loves their home and “would probably do the same thing over again with the same amount of space.”

In their original design, the “M” family designed the dining room to fit their vision of having a large, 10-person dining room table to share meals at. stairsWith their growing family, they ended up using their dining room as a playroom instead. Although this is not their ideal situation, the room currently offers a safe play area for their baby.

When asked how Turnberry Custom Homes can give clients the best home building experience possible, Erin responded: “We’ve had a great great building experience. fireplace-mantleKevin was phenomenal in that he told us from the very beginning ‘you’re not going to go over budget and if you do, its because you sign a paper saying you’re going over budget.'” In addition, she expressed that the timeline was spot on and that during the construction process, they could go into their home whenever they wanted to see the progress.

Above all, Erin stressed the importance of making sure your home is a comfortable place. She wanted her home to be a warm, welcoming place where family and friends would feel comfortable enough to “take their shoes off and go to the refrigerator.” Check out more pictures of the “M” residence on our Pinterest.

kitchen
The “M” couple in their new kitchen with Kevin Kozo, owner of Turnberry Custom Homes

Turnberry Custom Homes, located in Reading, PA, specializes in new construction, renovations/additions, and commercial fit-outs. We serve Berks, Montgomery, Chester, and surrounding counties.

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