Author Archives: FultonHomes

Integrating Space in an Open Floor Plan

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integrating-space-in-an-open-floor-planwLiving with an open floor plan has so many advantages.  The space works well for families and entertaining and arrangements can be modified to expand and contract living and dining areas to meet specific needs. However, open architecture does present decorating challenges. Here are some tips to make your open living space work well.

Define living areas: Use furniture, area rugs and artwork to define each living area. Without walls you can have the back of a sofa, a bookshelf, or a table set limits for a particular space.  Notice in this photo from the Cooley Station community how the sofa defines the end of the dining area and the start of the living area. Large pieces of furniture like sofas are some of the best tools for defining each space.

Create transitions: The plants on the kitchen counter and the floor and artwork make a softer natural transition between the kitchen and the dining area. Without these, the adjustment from one area to another can feel too abrupt. Having two larger houseplants in the dining area also helps define that space and keeps it connected.

Use lighting: Chandeliers such as the one over the dining table also help create a specific mood in one area of a large living space. Often the family room will have a ceiling fan. Our brains turn those light fixtures into room definitions.

Use color: Pulling the same accent colors throughout the space helps everything feel integrated. Throw pillows, area rugs, artwork and accessories in this room all use dark rust and peach tones to tie this living space together.

Guest Bath with Color

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Guest-Bath-with-ColorwYou don’t have to put color in your permanent elements to make a room colorful. Let’s take a look at the savvy choices that make this guest bathroom something special.

Tile mosaic: Although this mosaic contains only neutral tones, the variety of dark and light tiles open the space for color. When you add bright color near neutrals with strong contrasts, the colors will reflect onto the neutrals, pulling color into their space. Take a look at this photo. It looks like the backsplash mosaic has some color in it although it doesn’t.

Art: Art is one of the easiest ways to add color. these two canvases are different yet link together by color, style and subject matter. It’s smart to start choosing your color palette in a room like this one by choosing art. The rest of the color can be drawn out of the selection of prints or canvases you choose.

Towels: Today you can get towels in any color range from vivid almost-neon tones to soft muted shades. It’s smart to choose two or at the most three colors for a bathroom towel set so that the colors work well together yet provide enough contrast to make the space interesting.

Shower curtain: If your bathroom needs a shower curtain, consider adding a floor-to-ceiling decorative curtain like this one. This pulls the colors from the art and towels to another location in the bathroom and adds additional patterns to the mix. Altogether a nice addition to the space.

Accessories: The flowers are a bright spot in the bathroom. You don’t need a lot of accessories for this bath. Just enough to add interest and one more spot of color.

When you decorate your bathroom, don’t be afraid to add color wherever you can. You will also be adding warmth, personality and interest.

Dare to go Dark

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dare-to-go-dark2wJust how daring are you willing to be with your master bedroom’s look? How about painting a wall this dark? It may seem scary but it works remarkably well thanks to several thoughtful decisions.

Natural light: This wall comes between two generously-sized windows. The dark dark wall provides an inviting contrast to the natural light on either side. This is further supported by having curtains on only one side of each window, allowing the dark wall to seem as if it is part of the entire window display.

Light bedding: Yes, there are darker pillows, but the primary bedspread color is cream. Once again this places light right near the dark wall. The pillows pull that spread and the wall together, serving as an effective transition.

Rich color scheme: By bringing rich colors into the room, the dark wall feels like a natural continuation of the color choices. Rich and dark tones complement each other.

Gold: Gold always works well with black. In this case the trim on the nightstands and lamps combine with the dark wood to create a warm rich feel.

Plenty of light: Even at night the ceiling fan with lights and the matching lamps on either side of the bed will keep the room well lit.

Would you like to have a bedroom with this look of drama? How about considering a dark accent wall? To see this room in person, visit Fulton Home’s Cooley Station.

Comics Influence Boy’s Room

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comic-books-influence-boy's-roomw - CopyIf you’re having trouble coming up with a good theme for a boy’s bedroom, take a clue from the comics. With their bright strong-contrast colors and powerful graphics they can quickly turn a room into an attention-grabber. Let’s take a look at how this room became a comic-book lover’s dream with very little effort or cost.

Bedding: Children can shift interests often, so it’s smart to choose lower-cost theme items for their bedrooms, allowing you to change things out in a few years as their tastes evolve. Bedding is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make a change. A bedspread, shams and a throw pillow start the theme off with recognizable yet relatively generic comic-book images such as stars and lightning bolts. The black European shams on the bed work well with the look yet can be recycled when your child moves on to other interests.

Paint: The red stripe on the wall behind the bed does double duty. It operates as a visual headboard and it dramatically links all the vivid elements together with their common red theme. This is also an easy-to-replace choice. Simply paint the wide stripe in another color or paint the entire wall.

Art: If you have a talented artist in the family, then you can have them create images like these on blank canvases with acrylic paint. If not, look for the right art in comic book stores and poster shops. You might even want to frame some favorite comic book covers or pictures of heroes to personalize the room.

This is a fun theme, so have fun with it. You could add shelves for action figures or table space for piles of comics. This could be your comic-loving child’s best dream come true!

Ceiling Makes Room Special

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ceiling-design-makes-room-specialwWhen planning a home’s décor, most of us start with the flooring, then move on color choices. We may select a daring paint option for a room like the almost-black on this bedroom’s left wall. Window coverings often come next, followed by larger, then smaller pieces of furniture. We finish up with accessories and art.

But one thing we generally don’t do is worth the extra step. Before the flooring, the paint and the furniture, take a minute to look up. What does your ceiling have to offer in a room? If you’re stuck with one of those popcorn ceilings from a few decades ago, it may be time to hire someone to redo it. That will add value and selling your home will be easier if you lose that dated look. However, what about having a ceiling that makes the room something special?

This master bedroom gains luxury and style before you even notice the walls, floor or furniture with its dramatic coffered ceiling. The molding running along the inside adds interest and a bit of traditional flavor to a non-traditional approach. The lights and ceiling fan create shadows that make the entire ceiling intriguing. The white molding works well with the dark ceiling color to create contrast and keep the room feeling cozy and inviting.

When you’re planning a new home, think about every surface. Adding molding, wainscoting, lighting and ceiling architecture becomes the gift that keeps on giving – making your home a special one-of-a-kind place for you and your family.

Fly the Flag and help Wounded Warriors

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fulton-flag-photo-webFulton Homes has partnered with KSLX, 100.7 for its third annual “Fly the Flag for Veteran’s Day” campaign. From now until Veteran’s Day – November 11 – any visitor to a Fulton Homes’ community who tours one of the new model homes has the opportunity to buy a full-size American flag kit for only $10.  Fulton Homes will match any $10 donation offered up a maximum of $25,000, with 100 percent of these donations going to the Wounded Warriors Project. Fulton Homes wants to encourage everyone to display a flag on Veteran’s Day and make a difference in the lives of veterans too.

“Fulton Homes honors all of our military personnel who defend our country and protect our freedoms,” Doug Fulton, Fulton Homes CEO, explained. “Displaying our flag on Veteran’s Day is a way we can honor and support our troops and show our gratitude, and the donations collected will support those who have been wounded while in service. We are indebted to our veterans and their families for the sacrifices they make to keep us safer.”

The Wounded Warrior Project provides programs and services to meet the needs of injured service men and women and works to provide more awareness of the needs of those veterans injured in service to our country. It focuses on honoring and empowering wounded warriors, encouraging them to help each other. For more information, visit their website at: http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/.

We invite you to visit one of our communities to pick up your flag and donate to this good cause.

Balance Formal Casual Traditional Contemporary

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balance-of-casual-and-formal-traditional-and-contemporarywIs this dining room formal or casual? Traditional or contemporary? Actually, it has elements of all four. Let’s take a look at how it’s put together and why it works so well.

Formal: The basic chandelier has classic lines, even crystal pendants, to maintain a formal traditional theme. The table also shows its formal roots with the dark-wood finish, turned legs and detailed edging around the top.

Casual: the choice of placemats and napkins in bright colors and patterns rather than the more classic white tablecloth approach says casual. Also, choosing a simple fabric for the dining chairs’ upholstery maintains a more casual feel.

Traditional: The dining table and chairs as well as the chandelier’s basic lines are classic and traditional but…

Contemporary: Choosing the circular frame around the chandelier takes it out of the last century and bumps it firmly into this one. The stoneware is also modern in line and glaze.

Overall, this dining room combines many design approaches into one cohesive whole. It works for several reasons. The proportions fit well together and there is a nice mix of dark and light. It takes courage to blend these different approaches to décor together, but when it works – as it does in this case – it is a pleasure to see.

Avoiding Space-wasting Corner Cabinets

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avoiding-spacer-wasting-corner-cabinetswIf you’ve visited many model homes or investigated many kitchens, you may have seen some designed in a U shape. These kitchens look efficient and take up a small amount of space, but there is one problem: the corner cabinet. When you have a U-shaped kitchen, one or two of the cabinets have space that is not easily accessible, so a large amount of storage space is essentially wasted.

Notice instead how this kitchen is designed to avoid cabinets in the corners. One corner holds the double ovens, and the other is taken up with a generous walk-in pantry. This means that all the space in every cabinet seen here is easily accessible from the front.

Often you have to spend time in a kitchen to determine how well it really is designed. A kitchen can look appealing but once you’ve settled in you find all of the problems. Issues such as corner cabinets with their wasted space aren’t obvious at first glance.

At Fulton Homes, our kitchens are designed to make cooking easy and fun. Plenty of lighting, great accessories and an effective layout of top quality cabinets and countertops make working in this kitchen a pleasure.

To see some of our kitchens in person, why not visit Cooley Station this week? You may just find the right kitchen for you!

Architectural Details Make Home Intriguing

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architectural-details-make-home-intriguingwOne common complaint with production homes is that they all look alike. There are many ways to make sure every home in a community looks and feels unique. Having a nice mix of models to choose from, ensuring that every street has a variety of home styles, and offering a good selection of external architectural details.

This home, one of the Seaboard models at Cooley Station, is a good example. To start, take a look at the stonework on the entryway. This adds color and texture to the home.  That same stone appears on the lower half of the front of the house, providing a base for the window and almost seeming like outdoor wainscoting.

Curves outline the top of each window and the front entry. The white case work also shows up under the roof line, above the lower stone work and atop the two half-columns at the sidewalk entrance. These splashes of white add contrast as well as charm.

Notice how the shutters bring an old-world feeling to the home. This mood is echoed in the gaslight-style outdoor carriage lamp just to the right of the front window.

One final touch of style comes from the pavers making up the driveway and sidewalk. This finishing touch makes this home worth more than a second look.

If this is the home you would like to claim as yours, we invite you to visit it and the rest of our models at Cooley Station. For more information, visit http://www.fultonhomes.com/our-communities/cooley-station.

Fulton Homes Offers Custom Homesites in Prescott

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fulton-preserve-at-the-ranch-webAfter a summer like this one, have you been considering heading up North to beat the heat? Maybe just for the summer, or maybe permanently; either way, it is worth your time to check out the new Fulton Home community of custom homesites in the Williamson Valley area of Prescott, Arizona.

This new gated custom home community provides a unique opportunity to join a small select group of homeowners. This Prescott-based enclave consists of only 38 estate-sized homesites, ranging from four to seven acres each, within a parcel of over 250 acres of unspoiled forest. Each site offers incredible views of Granite Mountain and the surrounding area.

Within the community, each home will be positioned to maximize view corridors and protect privacy with completely underground utilities to eliminate the distractions of wires and poles. All the streets in this community are paved and private.

talking-ranch-plan-webAs an additional advantage to joining this exclusive community of custom Fulton Home property buyers, each owner receives a social club membership to the exclusive Talking Rock Ranch Club located close by.  Talking Rock offers golf clubhouse and locker facilities, a fitness center, full-service dining, bar and patio areas, a post office and coffee shop. The buildings are connected with breezeways, porches and patios. These, combined with indoor and outdoor fireplaces, work together to create a lovely area for socializing and enjoying life.

If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, we invite you to contact us soon. Almost half of the properties have been sold so far. For information on those properties still available, we welcome you to contact our on-site friendly and informative agent, Richard Hanna at Prescott Realty: 928-889-2899 or prescottrealty@gmail.com.