Month: May 2015

Add Rustic Touches to Your Kitchen

A kitchen should feel warm and welcoming. A few rustic touches can go a long way towards ensuring your kitchen has a welcoming appeal. Consider these simple rustic touches for your kitchen design:

  • Include an open-air set of hooks in your kitchen design, and use it to hang your pots and pans. Copper pans, especially, have a very rustic appeal.
  • A fireplace adds instant warmth, both literally and figuratively, to your kitchen. You can even use it for roasting marshmallows on cool winter nights.
  • You can add rustic appeal to almost any set of cabinets by choosing antique brass hardware. Choose matching antique brass water faucets and light fixtures to create a unified look.
  • Stone is a natural material that adds rustic appeal when used to make a fireplace, an archway, or even a heat-resistant wall behind your range.
  • Add a vintage accessory here and there to carry the rustic appeal through the room. Old tins, older wall hangings, and other items from a local antique store are perfect choices.

Are you looking for a reliable architecture firm in Colorado to help create your perfect kitchen design? Contact TAB Associates to learn more about our services.

For More information, check out this article:

TVs and Fireplaces are a Terrific Combination

When you think of focal points in a living room, two items come to mind most often — TVs and fireplaces. You don’t necessarily have to choose between them. Here are some ways to work TV and fireplace combinations into your décor.

  • When designing your fireplace, have a frame designed above it in the same style and color as the fireplace. It can even be a continuous unit. Mount the television inside the frame, and you have a beautiful display of both focal points.
  • In an artistic, modern living room, try placing both the fireplace and the television on an otherwise blank wall. Offset them so that the TV is on one side, while the fireplace is on the other.
  • Center a stone backdrop along a long wall in your living room. Build a fireplace into one side of the backdrop, and a television cubby into the other side of it.
  • Choose a fireplace and a television that are the same shape and size. Mount a shelf on the wall directly above the fireplace. Above it, mount the television.
  • Another way to mount a TV above a fireplace is to hide it behind a piece of art on a lift.  When the TV is turned on the art lift activates and slides up the wall above the TV.  this takes care of those that hate a TV in the Living Room, but know it is a logical place for one.

For help designing a living room that balances your TV and fireplace, contact the expert designers at TAB Associates!

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Light Wood vs Dark Wood in Your Home

Light wood, dark wood or somewhere in between — which is best for your home? The answer really depends on the character you’re trying to achieve in your space. Here’s a look at a few factors to consider as you make your decision.

Lighter Wood

Light wood is a good choice if you really want the detail of the wood to call attention to itself. It’s easier to see the grain of light wood, and thus it often looks more natural.

You’ll want to choose light wood if your room does not have a lot of windows to let natural light shine in, since it opens up the space. You can use dark colors as accents without creating a dungeon-like effect.

Dark Wood

Only use dark wood in rooms that get plenty of natural light. Ensure you pair it with light-colored walls so the room doesn’t feel too closed-off.

Dark wood is often used in conjunction with pale cream cabinets in a kitchen, or with white walls in a living or dining room.

For help choosing the perfect wood for your home design, contact the experts at TAB Architects to begin discussing your project.

For other insights into this topic, check out this article:

The Genesis of Today’s Rustic Aesthetic

Log cabins, farmhouses, and country cottages — they’re coming back today with a more modern twist. Rustic designs are increasing in popularity, but where do their beginnings lie?

Cabin homes, made mostly from natural lumber, were originally built by stacking notched logs. The logs tended to warp and expand over time, so early settlers would seal them together with a mixture of mud or clay, mixed with straw.

Cottages can be traced back to several origins. Early cottages were built along beaches in America and in Victorian England. The features they shared were bright, airy interiors, small size, and clapboard siding. Often vacation homes, cottages were designed for seasonal use.

Farmhouses were usually constructed from a variety of natural materials — whatever was available at the time. Wide plank flooring, fieldstone fire places, and roughly hewn ceiling beams were elements still used in farmhouses today. Farmhouses had big porches as these originally served as places to kick boots off and enjoy a view of the fields.

Are you ready to adopt today’s rustic look as your own? Contact TAB Associates to learn more about the rustic cabins, cottages and farmhouses we have built for prior clients and can also build for you!