Tag Archives: Arizona home builder

Decorating the Exterior of your Home for the Holidays

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Models 070With the expansive exteriors of Fulton Home’s new Legacy community, the traditional wreath on the door may get lost. Here are a few suggestions to create a festive exterior for your new Legacy home.

Start decorating before you get to the door. You could place wreaths on the front of the matching columns to start setting the mood right away. The symmetrical arrangement supports carrying a doubled theme from the front pillars right to the front door.

Models 090Go big. Look for oversized wreaths and decorations. Before you shop, measure your front door and decide what size range would work best.

Go for multiples. One option is to purchase a number of large poinsettias from Costco or a similar retailer and place two on either side of each stair. You would create a sea of red holiday charm all the way to your door. If you would rather use smaller plants, you could line the walls with them or even place them in the planters shown in the top photo.

Consider luminaria. For a spark of charm consider lining your walkway and walls with many luminarias – a common holiday decorating choice in the Southwest. These simple decorations – just brown paper bags partially filled with sand with a lighted candle inside – could be used to outline the dramatic arrangement of the landscape and walls surrounding the front of your Legacy home.

No matter what decorating choice you make, your home will be lovely and ready to entertain family and friends this holiday season. For more on the Fulton Homes Legacy community, visit us online at: http://www.fultonhomes.com/our-communities/freeman-farms/legacy.

 

Our Design Center is the Foundation for Creating your Dream Home

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Design Center 025If you’ve been checking out our photos and stories about Fulton Homes’ Legacy community on Facebook and our blog site, you’ve had the chance to see some amazing kitchens, living areas, bedrooms and baths. Now, we’re proud of how lovely our models are and the options we’re offering to help you make your Fulton Home beautiful. But we want to remind you of why you have all of these choices for creating a unique space of your own; our 13,000 square foot Fulton Design Center.

We’re proud of our Design Center, and everyone on the team works hard to create an environment designed to help you make your home perfect for you. We have physical samples of almost everything we offer, and you can carry those samples with you throughout the Design Center to coordinate your home’s look.

One of our well-trained designers will work with you to help you make your vision for your home come true. Years of experience putting beautiful homes together make our designers a valuable resource as you plan your space.

And even before your appointment, we offer you options to help you make the right decisions to match your taste and style. Fulton Homes Design Online allows you to spend time getting to know details of many of our options, and the Kitchen Design online application lets you experiment with different cabinetry, flooring and appliances to help you determine the look you want.

Finally, we offer browse nights every first and third Thursday evening of every month. There you can take your time exploring your choices, and we have our design team available to answer any questions. The Fulton Design Center is open to anyone, so even if you’re just contemplating the purchase of a Fulton Home, we encourage you to visit us. We think you’ll be amazed and impressed with all of the ways we help you make your home special.

Join us this Thursday from 5-8 p.m. This link gives you more information about our Design Center and directions: http://www.fultonhomes.com/design-center. We hope to see you there this week.

 

Fulton Homes’ is committed to Building 100% Energy Star Certified Homes

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energy_star_photosFulton Homes takes pride in its long-term commitment to make sure every new home it builds is not only Energy Star Certified but actually surpasses all current Energy Star requirements. Energy Star is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency voluntary program that helps businesses and individuals save money and protect our climate through superior energy efficiency. What does this mean for you when you buy a Fulton Energy Star Home?

First, it will save you money every month. Fulton homes are well insulated, helping to ensure that the energy used to heat and cool your home is used efficiently. Fulton adds a Lousiana Pacific Tech Shield Radiant Barrier that deflects heat away from your attic to every home – helping you save on cooling all summer long. Fulton also equips every home with a 14 SEER Carrier Air Conditioner with excellent cooling and energy efficiency. Fulton’s new Legacy community offers an even higher standard: a 16 SEER Carrier Unit. And by installing Merv 6 Return Air Filters your A/C unit will run even more smoothly.

The tight construction standards Fulton Homes practices include Foam Seal on All Exterior Doors to reduce air leakage and High-performance Vinyl Windows (minimum of .35 & .25) that also reduce the UV rays from entering your home. This type of well-sealed home requires a precise approach to fresh air exchange to avoid the problem of indoor air pollution. To support that, Fulton Homes installs an outside air exchange fan.

Fulton Homes is proud to certify all our new homes to EPA’s Indoor airPLUS indoor air quality standard. To meet that goal, we only use Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) interior paints and carpeting which protect your family as well as the environment.

Finally, our Energy Star homes are inspected by a 3rd party inspection company, where exhaustive tests are performed on all Fulton homes by Energy Inspectors. At Fulton, we have an ongoing commitment to meeting and exceeding Energy Star standards on 100% of the homes we build because it’s the right thing to do – for our environment and our homebuyers.

 

How would you use a Butler’s Pantry?

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Legacy Models 032Traditionally, a butler’s pantry was a small room between the kitchen and the dining room used to store china and serving pieces. Today, however, butler’s pantries are coming back as a resource for entertaining and display.

Now that we’ve moved into the holiday season, wouldn’t you enjoy one of these butler’s pantries when holding a holiday event? How would you use this space in your own home? Here are a few suggestions.

As drinks-central: Whether you are serving wine and cocktails or soft-drinks and juice or after-dinner coffee, this space is perfect for holding the glassware, drink options and any other items you may need. Away from the kitchen, people can help themselves to their choice of beverage without interfering with dinner or appetizer preparations.

Legacy Models 072 (1)As an extension of the buffet: Perhaps this would be a good place to present a small dessert bar or position extra plates and silverware. You could also provide room for napkins and extra placemats or other table linens.

As a clean-up resource: Use the space under the sink to hold an emergency clean-up kit for spills. Clean small white towels, paper towels, and a reliable carpet spot cleaner can easily be accessed to address unexpected messes.

As a children’s snack center: items such as pretzels, mini graham crackers and juice boxes could be arranged on this butler’s pantry, giving little hands an easily-accessed source for the kind of treats kids appreciate rather than the fancier appetizers prepared for adults. And don’t be surprised if you see some of your older guests wander over and grab a chocolate teddy-graham or two.

However you choose to use this space, a butler’s pantry provides a nice additional resource for entertaining friends and family this season and all year round. For an opportunity to check out these two butler’s pantries in person, visit our Legacy community in Gilbert.

 

Lighting that Shows Style as well as Function

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Legacy Models 131 (1)One of the special treats awaiting you at Fulton Home’s Legacy community is a wealth of great lighting options. Take the opportunity to get a glimpse of the newest lighting styles as well as smart lighting decisions room-by-room.

This space, the breakfast nook in the Basha model, demonstrates how lighting can transform a space. The dramatic double light fixture over the table catches the eye immediately. Combining the strong lines to the ceiling with the contemporary-meets-traditional line of the glass framing the lights, and you have fixtures that set the tone for the entire room.

These fixtures mirror the contrast between dark and light painted wood in this space. Clean lines and this contrast make the space comfortable yet still on point for design. The smart choice to use two chandeliers provides even lighting across the table while adding balance for the generous breakfast arrangement.

The other lighting in the room – under the molding and cupboards on the built-in cabinetry – allows you to highlight certain accessories while adding another design feature. The additional lighting is particularly effective in highlighting the tile lining the back of the counter.

This space is ideal for holding a brunch buffet, and the lights combined with the backsplash add a splash of style to the space. Dark and metallic serving dishes would make the arrangement feel integrated and inviting as guests helped themselves.

Every model at Legacy showcases the smartest and most intriguing lighting decisions. We look forward to sharing these special design features with you when you visit.

Laundry Room Luxuries

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DSC_0050What does your dream laundry room contain? Let’s start with the newest front-loading washer and dryer. Would you prefer traditional white or do you have the design courage to choose this fire-engine red? Everyone knows that the police notice a red car so that the color sticks out if you’re speeding, but in your laundry room safe in your own home, you can enjoy this daring color with no fear of a ticket.

Next, how about a laundry room sink? Large and deep, this works well for hand laundry, washing small pets, and rinsing out stains.

Some people like to make these sinks home central for mopping floors, with plenty of space to fit a bucket and let a mop drain.

By the way, notice the nice location right above the sink with a rod to hang clothes that need to drip dry. This well-designed laundry room is ready to handle all of your clothes washing needs, and wants!

 DSC_0051Next, how about cabinet and counter space? In this room, open built-in bins can be assigned to each family member to handle homework, mail and other personal items that get misplaced throughout the house. This space makes a great family-central for books, backpacks, keys and mobile devices. There are plenty of outlets to charge anything, and keeping it all in one location makes it easier for you.

DSC_0049Want more? How about yet another area of cabinets and counters? Tucked in the back of the generously-sized room, this unit could be used to hold craft or sewing supplies, pet items or for storing any items of interest to the family. Maybe this could become board-game storage or a good location to handle wrapping paper, ribbon and decorations for birthday and other holiday events. Your choices are only limited by your imagination.

Is this the laundry room of your dreams? Not sure? Well, how about visiting the Fulton Homes Legacy community and taking a look? You’ll find this dream room in the Basha model home. It’s just one space designed with you in mind at Legacy.

 

Balancing Cabinetry and Appliances in your Kitchen

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Models 061This kitchen, from the Fulton model at Legacy, shows two ways of approaching appliances in your kitchen: showcasing them like this Bertazzoni range and hood, or reducing their impact by blending them in with the cabinetry. You can see this with the built-in refrigerator to the right.

In this example, both design choices work. The drama and color of the oven creates a focal point in the kitchen. The generous size of the space allows this dramatic piece to shine without overwhelming the room. On the other hand, if the refrigerator had a stainless skin, it would be a distracting influence. Its size would draw the eye away from the strengths of this kitchen – the range and the island.

Transitional design allows you to take advantage of many choices combined into one integrated whole. In this case the moderately-traditional cabinets take a back seat to a strongly-contemporary island and a retro-style range. Smartly, the dark red of the range is allowed to stand alone rather than having the color echo throughout the kitchen. If you wanted to carry the color further, a few accessories would provide all the impact you need.

Notice the stainless microwave to the right. That could have been installed in black, but there are enough stainless accents throughout the kitchen to make this work. The small size ensures that this appliance does not become a distraction. However, cabinet pulls are dark rather than stainless. Design is always about balancing strong features with others that fall into the background.

For a better look at this kitchen as well as two others with interesting style and design elements, visit Fulton Homes Legacy in Gilbert and wander through our three new model homes.

 

The O’Connor: Yellow Accents Family Room

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Models 079This open floor plan demonstrates a good way to make subtle tones pop. The grey upholstery gets a wiggle of color with yellow accents and a warming feeling with plants.

Grey is a sophisticated and versatile neutral, and this space takes full advantage of it. The soft taupe on the walls and floor complement the tile used as the backsplash in the kitchen. Countertops coordinate well with the glossy stone floor, but too much of the warm neutrals would quickly diminish this room. Enter grey to rescue the room with its strong contrast and modern aesthetic.

With the tone showing on all of the upholstered furniture, it’s the contrast of shades that makes it stay in the foreground. First the dark shade for the two sofas and the island chairs, then the lighter patterned chair echoes several of the throw pillows and the dining room chairs.

Yellow is used sparingly, which works well. The accents on the kitchen island and side tables add the interest you want without calling too much attention to them. Then the throw pillows pull all of the shades of grey together with yellow to make the space feel planned and smart.

Finish up with a bevy of sophisticated lighting – from the pendants over the island to the ultra-modern ceiling fan set in a coffered ceiling and the classic contemporary chandelier over the dining table. Each piece is unique, yet they flow together to make the space fit the transitional profile while still leaning in the direction of edgy.

For a closer look, visit Fulton Home’s Legacy community and see the full O’Connor model home for yourself.

The O’Connor: Entertaining from the Kitchen

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Models 081If you enjoy cooking for friends and family, this kitchen could make your dreams come true. With plenty of space for helpers and gawkers, you can prep, heat and dish up to your appreciative audience.

The Viking range and hood provide a close-to-professional cooking space with four gas burners and a center section that can serve as a grill or griddle, you have the capability and BTUs to fix a gourmet meal.

In the meantime, set up a buffet of appetizers to keep your guests happy until dinner. The generously-sized island has the perfect shape to share prep space with munchies. Two sinks provide flexibility to have helpers assigned to different responsibilities.

This kitchen is remarkably functional, but just as important, it shows style and flair. The rich dark color of the cabinets work well against stainless appliances, and the backsplash tiles become even more intriguing by also showing up above the cabinet lines. With two ovens, hot appetizers can bake while the meal does. And notice the pantry through the door in the back – ready to store all of your serving dishes until it’s time to plate.

The refrigerator/freezer is oversize, but with the doors matching the cabinetry, it is still a subtle look. Contemporary countertops and stainless handles work well with the stand-out industrial-style pendant lights over the island. Overall, this kitchen is designed to capture attention and serve as the center of your entertainment events.

Want a closer look? Visit Legacy and see what the O’Connor has to offer.

The Basha: The Power of Hardscaping your Home’s Exterior Spaces

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Legacy Models 112Would you enjoy the luxury of an outside area in your home that is completely private and secure? The interior courtyard offered in Legacy’s Basha model creates a lovely outdoor setting that is accessible from several parts of the home and invites the outdoors in with charm and grace. When it comes to a courtyard, it’s the hardscaping that makes this area a natural continuation of the home’s interior.

Hardscaping refers to all of the permanent architectural features offered in an exterior space. In this case, it includes the stone flooring, which uses a pattern of large squares with dark borders to contrast it with the interior flooring while still making a connection. The outdoor fireplace, another effective hardscaping decision, provides warmth in design as well as extending the season for using this outdoor room.

While the lights strung along the ceiling area aren’t technically considered permanent, they provide the sense of a roof while creating a festival atmosphere within your home. Whether you are enjoying the evening outside under their canopy or looking out from inside as they light up the courtyard itself, those lights are just the right touch to make the space special for you and your family. Imagine a party on a clear night when all you need to do is throw open the doors to provide an indoor-outdoor event that takes advantage of the best of both worlds.

Would a courtyard like this add to your home’s appeal and flexibility? Why not visit the Basha model at Fulton Home’s Legacy community and experience its charm for yourself?