Category: Modern Living

Ways to Incorporate Your Side Yard Into Your Home Design

A side yard won’t quite support a swimming pool, but it’s large enough to fulfill a function on your property. If you are building a home, consider which elements you may be able to fulfill outside of the home, such as an entertainment or dining area. Design the side yard while simultaneously building your home to make the best use of your property.

  • Extra kitchen space. If you entertain guests often, but like do so outside, consider incorporating a cooking area into your kitchen design. When building the home, design a structure that can support a small outdoor kitchen and cooktop area.
  • Dining underneath the stars. Do you live in area with welcoming evening weather? Choose a long table and chairs to create an intimate outdoor dining setting. Opt for a more informal dining area in the home.
  • Reading Nook. Do you need a place to enjoy coffee and a good book? Create a comforting book nook with an arbor, plush seating and a crushed stone pathway over-layed with wood or stone walkway.

Are you building a home and in need of some guidance to bridge the interior and exterior design? Contact us at TAB Associates to discuss your building needs.

Three Trending Luxury Home Features to Include In Your Design

If you are designing the home of your dreams to suit your lifestyle and needs, consider trending luxury home features that you would like to include in your home. Luxury homes go above and beyond superior comfort and design. What truly sets luxury homes apart are the unique features and experiences that the home’s well-planned design provides.

Luxury amenities for your home
Source: TAB Associates
  • Wellness. Health and wellness are certain components in a luxury lifestyle and trending luxury home features include spa bathrooms complete with saunas, walk-in showers and grand spa bathtubs. Small features like mood-lighting and towel warmers also add to the space.
  • Large urban spaces. Homeowners want to enjoy proximity to the city without sacrificing space. Giving each lifestyle component a dedicated space in the home is fundamental to the luxury lifestyle. There is no need to share spaces.
  • Rooftop lounge. Luxury homeowners extend luxury beyond the basic needs of a comfortable place to enjoy a meal and lay one’s head. In addition, luxury entertainment hubs such as a rooftop terrace are key. Include an outdoor fireplace, herb garden or dining area.

Would you like to design your residence with trending luxury home features? Contact us at TAB Associates to discuss your new home today.

Get to Know the Modern Version of the Mountain Chalet

If your ideal home design gives the feeling of a cozy, welcoming haven, consider incorporating a “mountain chalet” design feel. While the rustic mountain chalet might seem like a thing of the past, you can bring it back to life in your home by evoking simplicity and austerity in your interiors. At TAB Associates, we’d like to call attention to some modern architectural projects that pull from the tradition of mountain homes of the past:

mountain chalet style
Source: TAB Associates
  • The Speculative Residence- Set in the mountains, this home is situated to take full advantage of the view. Going beyond the simple cabin style home, this reaches 5000 square feet.
  • TS Lot 42- taking some concepts of a more traditional mountain chalet home and expanding them, these townhomes are made from natural material to help them fit into their rustic environment.

Don’t be afraid to build out with your mountain chalet home, and include some more modern ideas like full glass walls. For more design ideas, follow our posts on Facebook.

To learn about the architectural and design services we offer at TAB Associates, contact us with inquiries.

Aligning a Custom Home With the View Outside

If your home is on a beautiful piece of property, or if you can see lovely scenery of the mountains from your plot, it’s essential that this view can be enjoyed from the inside of the home. Our architects are experts are designing homes to capitalize on the view of the outdoors. There are many different ways to do this, and a good way to decide which styles you prefer is to look at examples:

A home that we designed in Avon, Colorado offers a beautiful view of Beaver Creek and Game Creek. Set in the mountains, its master bedroom faces the Gorge Range for a spectacular view.

This duplex in Wildridge offers a design that showcases the elevation. The duplex is built in contour with the slope of the land, and large windows make it easy to look out into the mountains.

This home in Red Sky Ranch is another one of our masterpieces, offering beautiful views of the Gore Mountain Range from the dining room and living room. The design of the living space perfectly frames the mountain views as the deck reaches out into the landscape seamlessly bringing the outside in.

Contact TAB Associates to discuss your custom home design, including a the importance of a view, with our qualified architects.  We study your site with the views in the forefront of importance.  We use a topographical program to verify views surveyed on site and study them in both plan and section.  In this way, the windows of the home frame the views and do not cut off the tops of the mountains from anywhere in the home.

For more information on the art and science of capturing dynamite views, click here.

Take Care of the Environments by Building These Green Features Into Your Home

Building an environmentally-friendly home preserves nature, lowers your energy bills, and results in a happier, healthier home environment for you and your family. If you’re building a new home, it’s important to do your research about green building before you settle on plans. Follow these tips for a greener, more eco-friendly home.

Green Building in Colorado
Source: TAB Associates

 

  • Choose the right doors and windows. Those that allow warmth to escape are not very energy-efficient. Front doors without windows, especially when made with eco-friendly materials, are the most energy efficient choice. Also, make sure you choose Energy Star certified windows.
  • Pay close attention to your siding choices. Some siding materials like PVC vinyl release toxins and are not biodegradable. Stucco and wood are greener choices, and aluminum siding is also quite green.
  • Consider using renewable energy sources to heat and cool your home. This can include installing solar panels, which capture the sun’s energy and convert it to heat. If solar panels are not an option, heat with natural gas. It’s not renewable, but there are very efficient natural gas heaters available.

If you’re thinking of building a new home, contact TAB Associates to discuss your plans and find out how we make green home design easier.

How to Design Around the Natural Landscape

The ideal home appears to be integrated into the surrounding landscape, rather than disrupting it. To achieve this look, the architect and home owner must work together to choose the proper site for the home and to work the home around the landscape. There are a couple of different ways to achieve this:

Anchored Look

This look can be achieved by building the home on a slightly sloped surface rather than leveling out the ground before building. A stone foundation reinforces the appearance.

The Gliding Home

Some homes appear to sit lightly on the ground rather than delving into it. To achieve this look, plan on bringing the lawn right up to the edge of the building and avoiding the classic foundation plantings.

Platform Homes

This is probably the most creative way to integrate your home with nature. A dramatic platform allows you to live higher up in the trees and really feel connected with the landscape. A lower one may put you closer to a water source or other interesting natural feature.

For more custom home design tips, contact TAB Associates and discuss your building plans with one of our qualified staff members.

Don’t Neglect to Add These Luxury Home Features to Your Dream House

Are you interested in designing a home that offers all of the amenities of your favorite day spa or retreat? You can by incorporating luxury home features into your new residence. Check out the features below that you and your guests will enjoy:

design elements for entertaining
Source: TAB Associates Inc.
  • Floor to ceiling windows. Floor to ceiling windows are not only beautiful, they also offer a variety of benefits including natural sunlight. Because floor to ceiling windows let in natural light, they reduce the need to use electricity.
  • Roof deck. Beyond a patio and a balcony, luxury home features now extend to the top of a home. A roof deck is the perfect place to entertain your guests and enjoy a view of the mountains or skyline.
  • Wine Room. Create a room to store wine that you’ve collected from around the world. Develop a custom wine room suited to store wine in its ideal environment.
  • Terrace. Enjoy a place of solace all to yourself in the form of a terrace. Whether it’s a place to read, connect with nature through gardening, or work out and stretch, a terrace makes an ideal retreat.

If you would like to incorporate luxury home features into your home, contact us at TAB Associates.

Want to Build a Contemporary Home? Check Out These Features

One of the advantages of working with an architect is the ability to build a home perfectly suited to your needs. If you want contemporary home features in your new residence, consider the essential characteristics of the contemporary home below:

Want to Build a Contemporary_photo

  • Choose natural materials. Natural materials aren’t limited to interior features such as wood flooring or paneling in the living room. Adding natural materials to the exterior of your home serves to blend your home into its natural surroundings and also creates continuity between the indoors and outdoors.
  • Natural light. When designing your home, emphasize a floor plan and design that allows natural light to come in. Natural light can always be controlled with a variety of shades and window covers, however it’s primary benefit is providing healthy natural light during the day. Using natural light will require less resources in using artificial light and may reduce your electric bill.
  • Contemporary exterior finishes. Emphasize contemporary features on your home’s exterior such as a linear roof with an overhang or cantilever. Natural materials are also a nice contemporary touch for the home.

Are you building a contemporary home in Vail? To discuss contemporary home features for your residence, contact us at TAB Associates.

Check Out These Architecture Trends for 2014 to Inspire Your Home

Looking for ideas on what architectural features to include in your new home? You might find inspiration from this year’s hottest trends.

2014 Interior Trends
Source: TAB Associates

These are a few of the top architectural design trends for 2014:

  • Home spa. Having a home spa or whirlpool bath installed gives you a place to relax after a hectic day. It makes your home feel more like a private retreat where you can shut out the rest of the world. More than half of new homes being built in the US include a whirlpool bath, and the home spa industry is on the rise.
  • Multifunctional kitchen. Kitchens are turning into central hubs in homes these days. They’re being used as a place to perform several other tasks besides cooking, such as studying or paying bills. Consider having your new kitchen set up in a way that accommodates this multipurpose trend.
  • Outdoor room. Using outdoor space as an extension of the home is a growing trend. Instead of a simple patio or deck, an entire room can be constructed with eco-friendly materials that can handle the elements.

Want to see examples of homes that use current design trends?  Contact us at TAB Associates to talk about incorporating these trends in your new home!

Building a Home? Why You Should Consider a Timber Structure

When having a home built, you have plenty of materials to choose from. If you’re looking for something that has a lot of aesthetic appeal and provides numerous benefits, timber is a great choice.

Building a home with Timber
Source: TAB Associates

Timber offers the following advantages when it comes to building design:

  • It saves energy. Unlike other building materials, such as glass or steel, wood provides a lot of insulation that helps keep in warm and cool air, which means you’ll have lower energy bills.
  • It’s eco-friendly. Wood might not seem like an environmentally-friendly choice if you’re picturing part of a forest being cut down to provide the timber for your home. However, there are several sustainable sources of timber available that don’t contribute to deforestation. Also, a wooden home lowers your carbon footprint because the timber absorbs carbon dioxide.
  • It’s more cost-effective and quicker to build with. Wooden homes can be constructed in a much shorter amount of time than homes made from concrete or other materials. This saves you a considerable amount of money on the cost of labor and the cost of materials.

Check out our portfolio if you are interested in seeing examples of homes made from timber. Contact us at TAB Associates to start your new home build today!