Posts Tagged ‘design trends’

Making home work: design keeps up with home office trends

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
Treymore traditional staircase

By LISA BOONE — Los Angeles Times

It happened by accident. When Kurtis and Wanda Weller Sakai went to remodel their 1971 Ojai, Calif., ranch house, the original plan was to add a fourth bedroom for Kurtis to use as an office.

“We realized that if we went over 500 square feet, the add-on permits would get very expensive,” Kurtis said.

A new master suite consumed much of that square footage, so architect Darwin McCredie’s shifted gears and added to the front of the house a compact 14-by-14-foot office – no bathroom, no walk-in closet, to stay under that magic number of 500.

The result is a work space that feels apart from the rest of the house, a quality enhanced by the fact that the office is accessible only by an exterior door at the end of a long covered porch. (more…)

Dreambuilder recommends Houzz for ideas and inspiration

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

When we work with a client on a new home or remodeling project, we encourage them to clip out plans, pictures and anything else that captures their eye.  When brought to the table, these clippings become  fuel for our creative fire.  Houzz is a great online tool where you can create ‘virtual clippings’ for the same purpose.

On the web at www.houzz.com, Houzz is a site where interior designers, architects, builders and other professionals upload pictures of their work.  All of the pictures are categorized and tagged for easy browsing and searching.  You can then ‘favorite’ pictures as you easily scroll through them and share them with your builder via email.  It’s really great because it’s much easier to show a picture of what you like then trying to simply describe it verbally.

Here at Dreambuilder we recommend all of our clients spend some time on Houzz.  In addition to the online site, Houzz is also available as an iPhone and iPad app — free of charge.

Check out Houzz today and let us know what you think!


Browse Outdoor Products on Houzz- For Example:

Builder Magazine: Eight Design Trends for Fresh Elevations, Updated Interiors

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Cost-effective and beautiful, the latest trend in home design is a return to simplicity

By:  Claire Easley

Spring has officially sprung, and after years of chilled sales, the home building industry has never been happier to put winter behind it and turn its attention to the most active selling season of the year. But many of the plans builders will be putting into action this year will look significantly different than they might have a few years ago, morphed by changing economic conditions and an increased emphasis on design features that can help differentiate new homes from used—and particularly distressed—units. To offer a gauge on what’s happening in home design today, Heather McCune, director of marketing at Bassenian/Lagoni Architects, and Victor Mirontschuk, president of architecture firm EDI International, recently presented at a webinar hosted by the National Association of Home Builders to talk about the latest and greatest in design trends. Both presenters acted as judges, along with Builder Senior Editor Amy Albert, for this year’s Best in American Living Awards, and drew on winning projects for visual illustrations of the styles defining today’s home designs.

Read the entire article and view pictures here.

11 Emerging Kitchen and Bath Design Trends

Friday, March 18th, 2011

Custom Home Online features an article this month on the latest in kitchen and bath design trends.  Highlights include:

  • Darker cabinet finishes still strong
  • French door refrigerators are gaining popularity
  • LED lighting is emerging as an energy-conserving alternative
  • Vessel sinks in bathrooms
  • Matte-finished faucets such as brushed nickel

See the complete list and a slideshow of examples here.

Spring is on its way: time to spruce up your outdoor entertainment space!

Monday, March 14th, 2011

A backyard transformed into beautiful living space

With spring right around the corner, now is the time to begin planning that long-overdue renovation to your backyard.  Patio?  Covered porch?  Summer kitchen?  Deck?  Pool?  Dreambuilder can handle all of it for you in one unified project from design to completion.  We can even help you divide the project into phases that  you can implement over time, allowing all of the pieces to fit in one master plan.

Custom Home Online recently featureed an article on the latest in outdoor living trends.  And take a look at a smaller-scale outdoor renovation project, Dreambuilder Six.