Tag Archives: relaxation in the home

Make the Most of your Kitchen Island

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Fulton Homes Daylight Model

Fulton Homes Daylight Model

Kitchen islands create a better work situation in a kitchen, particularly when you have more than one cook. For example one person can chop vegetables while another pulls seasonings from a cabinet.

Or with a sink in the island like this one in the Daylight model of the ____ community, one person can stay ahead of the dishes when preparing for a party or big family dinner.

But an island also plays a role outside of cooking. How about using it as a place for appetizers as people arrive for a party? It provides a central location to draw people together as they get to know each other – people will always follow the food. You can start moving appetizers into the family room as your guests get more comfortable and break into smaller conversational groups.

A kitchen island makes a dynamite location for a buffet. Traffic can move on all four sides, and the trip from the kitchen is just a step. This works particularly well for hot or cold food that you want to keep refreshing. Setting chairs and tables in other parts of your home will encourage people to help themselves to food and then settle elsewhere.

When it’s just a few family members, eating at the island opens up a cozy setting for two or three. It’s also a great place for breakfast when family members are short on time and have staggered departures. Just provide plates and platters of food and everyone can help themselves. Or how about a cereal bar – several types of cereal, bowls, milk and extras such as raisins and fruit?

Look at your island as the kitchen’s stage, and you can take advantage of it for all of your food performances.

Outdoor Living – Many Choices

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Fulton Homes Daylight Model

Now while we’re in the outdoor living stretch in Arizona, take a few minutes to think about how you want your yard to function. Do you enjoy having your coffee and reading the paper in comfy chairs outside in the morning? Are family dinners more fun outside? Should there be a spot for the kids to play, or is your focus entertaining and your dream a plush outdoor kitchen?

This time of year it’s tempting to buy outdoor furniture first and then arrange the space, but you may find yourself with pieces that don’t coordinate, or that don’t meet your real outdoor goals. Just a bit of planning can help you create a space that looks beautiful and really works for you.

Take a look at the table in the foreground. It seats six comfortably, and you could put three chairs on a side and make it big enough to handle eight. Planning a larger party? How about using the table as a buffet, and arranging the chairs around the yard. The raised planters have a nice wide ledge that’s perfect for perching with a plate.

The fact that the two chairs in the background are the same color as the dining set but a different material and style keeps this yard from being too matchy-matchy. With today’s amazing weather-proof fabrics, you can find cushions that can handle the outdoors in a rich selection of colors and prints. Adding cushions to the dining chairs in a stripe that picks up the rust from the easy chairs would pull everything together beautifully.

With careful thought and shopping, you can make your backyard lovely, functional and versatile enough to meet all of your outdoor plans this spring.

Warm up Your Home for Winter

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5899210_SWhat a cozy scene. The soft shaggy rug, a fringed wool throw, and a linen-covered throw pillow set the picture. Add a cup that used to hold hot tea and a good book and you’re set to enjoy a chilly afternoon – wrapping up with a nap.

It’s easy to create this type of winter mood in your home. Try these additions to your normal décor.

Soft rugs: The bare wood and tile floors that are so cool and inviting in the summer feel chilly when winter comes. Adding some area rugs – preferably thick and inviting to your toes – warms up the look as well as the feel of a space.

Throws: Bring a wool or knitted throw into your living room, family room or bedroom. Displayed casually in a basket or tossed across the arm of a sofa, a throw says cozy comfort. Those with fringe and in plaids or heather tones look especially comfy. If you have a large family you may need more than one to avoid arguments on cold evenings.

24439134_SPillows: Look for knitted covers or natural textures that fit well with your throw or throws. Think of the feel and look of a pile of sweaters lying on your couch. If you sew, consider picking up a sweater or two at the local thrift shop and cutting them down into pillow covers. Knitted cables, leather or wooden buttons just add to the winter personality.

Hot drinks: Soup in a mug, hot tea or coffee, and the always inspiring hot cocoa – with marshmallows – will warm up any room. include a few cookies or cheese and crackers – read a favorite book or put an old movie on your television and make the most of the winter days!

Brighten Your Home with the Right Lighting

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Design Center 038Lighting provides a powerful design statement in a home. Do you like traditional styles, or would you rather have contemporary lighting? Do you want lighting to be front-and-center or subtle?

After you choose your cabinets and countertops, your flooring and doors, make sure you take the time to select lighting that blends well with the design image you’re creating for your home.

Start with the dining room chandelier. This gives the strongest message of any light in your house. Hanging over your dining table, it becomes the focal point for the space and will serve as a beacon for all of your family meals. That selection will help you throughout the house.

Design Center 054Next, consider accent lighting. Notice the selection of pendant lights to the right in the photo below. The Fulton Design Center has a generous selection of pendants, ranging from graceful interpretations of the chandeliers to whimsical colorful modern pendants in a range of colors and shapes.

Remember to take a look at your options in additional lighting such as sconces and recessed lighting. A generous number of spots in your kitchen can make meal preparation easier and more pleasant.

With your lighting selections throughout your home, remember to consider task lighting and ambient lighting as well as standard fixtures. Parties, work and other events are easier to create and decorate for when you build flexibility into the light choices in your home.

Finally, take a minute to look at your exterior lighting. Will you want an extra outdoor spotlight where you plan to put your grill? Would you like a motion-activated light on the path to your front door?

Take the time to make the right decisions now so that you can eliminate the frustrations of not having lights where you need and want them later. And you will find yourself appreciating your efforts every time you flip a switch!

A Fresh Start on Organizing your Home: Keeping the Guest Bath Company Ready

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From the Fulton Homes La Quinta Model

From the Fulton Homes La Quinta Model

Every homeowner with children has a dream of a guest bath that is always ready for company. Instead this bathroom, often the most convenient for children playing outside or in the main living area, ends up a disaster.

Sinks don’t stay pristine when dirty hands get a quick wash before dinner, and it’s almost impossible to find any child under the age of 21 who replaces the toilet paper when they run out.Towels also get grimy and often end up on the floor and mirrors may have multiple handprints. And if you have boys, at best there’s a 20 percent chance that the toilet seat is down at any given moment.

What can you do to discourage a messy guest bath and keep it nice and organized, ready for actual guests? Here are a few quick tips.

Close the door: The simple act of hiding the room will encourage family members to head to another location. They may assume it’s occupied. You can also use this as a code for your family – if the guest bath door is shut, that means that you want it to stay nice for expected company.

Invest in home disposable towels. In packages designed to rest on top of a towel rack, these will keep scruffy hands away from the nicer guest towels or the dressier rectangular disposable towels that sit on your sink.

If your bath is designed with a pedestal sink which provides no storage, add a small storage bin or chest to hold extra toilet paper and a box of kitchen counter wipes. In a pinch, you can do a fast sweep of the sink with one of those wipes.

Have a lined wastebasket in your guest bath. This encourages the family to place trash in the right spot, and a liner is easy to remove when guests are coming over.

You’ll never really solve the problem as long as your kids live t home, but you’ve made your life easier. You can’t expect your guest bath to stay the way you want it constantly, but with these simple steps you may be able to create a space that is ready for company – at least most of the time.

A Fresh Start on Organizing Your Home: Your Calendar

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22422960_SSo, as we move into 2014 and the holiday decorations are down, it’s time to dive into all those plans to organize your life. How about starting with your calendar?

With just a little effort up front, your calendar, whether tangible or online, can be the central planning tool for just you or for your entire family. Here’s how to start.

Select your calendar. If you choose a paper calendar, it should be one that breaks everything down at least by the week, so you have plenty of room for appointment locations and directions if needed. This is where an online calendar comes in handy. Many of them have plenty of space for whatever notes you need to make, as well as the option for reminder emails.

Fill in all family birthdays and special holidays such as anniversaries. Then run through and add all of the standard appointments such as kid sports practices or Monday morning meetings at the office. If there are a number of family members, you might want to assign each one a color so everyone can see their events at a glance.

Place a paper calendar in a good central location, possibly connecting it to a desk drawer with string so it can’t walk away. The kitchen is the best place because everyone walks through there at least once a day. If you keep your calendar on the computer, choose a program such as Google calendar that everyone can log into, so that access is easy.

Finally, make it clear that any appointments or events that are not on the calendar are not part of your responsibility. If a child needs a ride or a spouse wants you to attend a company party, there had better be a note about it on the calendar, after they’ve cleared your part of the task with you, of course. You can also set ground rules, such as that in case of conflicts; the first event posted on the calendar takes precedence, with exceptions to be negotiated individually.

While this is only the beginning of what you have to do to get organized, this small step is an important one in the right direction.

Design Inspiration: Set a Foggy Mood

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14773707_SNow, we’re not talking about a place where you can’t keep your mind focused and aren’t sure where you’re going. Instead, think of it as a soft, misty feeling that is soothing and somewhat private – maybe with screens or curtains hung so that everything is not right in sight when you walk into a room.

Think of grey and white, with maybe just a few glimpses of a strong color once in a while.

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Take a look at the room to the right. The sheer roman shade can come down to hint at what’s outside, and the frosted glass on the French doors keep the next room half hidden.

There are a few surprises awaiting you as you move into the space. Only the bright green plants and the black clock in the corner provide any density of color and tone, just as a glimpse of a tree or flower can appear through the fog.

The wood flooring is touched with a bit of a grey wash to keep it from taking over a room characterized by warm grey walls and white trim and furniture. The space provides a sense of softness – this room allows you to relax in its soothing fog-filled mood.

18918213_SThe entryway on the left also captures a bit of the feel of fog. Very cool grey walls fit well with the soft-toned tile flooring. Every other piece of furniture and trim is white, with the half-table showing some soft edges of grey with its shabby-chic-style paint.

Notice again that there are only a couple of accessories to add contrast. The silver candlesticks ,the wall sconce and the mirror reflect light softly the way fog captures and reflects the sun. A small pop of the dark purple candle gives us the startling appeal of some item suddenly coming into view through a foggy day.

Driving in the fog can be unnerving, but taking a walk can provide an unmatched sense of magic. You never know what will appear with the next step. If you want to create that mood in your home, visualize a foggy day as you make your decorating choices.

Bridging Generations: Together in One Home

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8929512_SIn years past, it was common for three or more generations to share a home. For many years that idea seemed old fashioned, but recently it’s come back. Some aging parents can’t stay in their homes alone anymore, and many adult children need a landing pad after graduating from college, losing a job or experiencing a divorce. Today’s homes need to reflect these new demands.

Fulton Homes has many choices for multi-generational living. From simple shifts such as more bathrooms in a home to garages prepared to handle adult and teen vehicles, you want to find a home that works for you now and in the future as your family’s lives change. Here are some things to consider as you choose a home that will meet today’s and tomorrow’s needs:

Multiple-use rooms: Today’s bedroom can be tomorrow’s home office. A formal dining space could change into a TV room. Look for larger rooms in versatile arrangements. Bonus rooms can change roles as your family’s needs change.

Storage space: When people move in, they bring their stuff. Walk-in closets, built-in cabinetry in the house or garage, and plenty of shelf space can help absorb mementos and other favorite items.

Multiple living spaces: With a living room and a family room, different members of the family can entertain their guests at the same time.

Luxurious master suites: When dealing with three or more generations living in one home, it’s important for you to have an escape. Treat your master bedroom and bath as your private resource for relaxation and rejuvenation.

Today’s empty-nester could be tomorrow’s care-giver or helper for an un or under-employed child. Make sure your home is ready for the challenge!

A Bathroom Designed with You in Mind

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glass block showerDo you want a master bath that makes you feel spoiled, with a style that speaks of old-world charm? Maybe you prefer a simple functional space with just a few special touches.

Whatever look you want, take a peek at what Fulton Homes Design Online can show you. From various bathroom layouts, such as the one above that includes a low-threshold walk in shower, to your choice of cabinetry, flooring, countertops, sinks, faucets and finishes, you’ll find everything you need to make your bath work for you.

brushed nickelIn addition to the chrome finish that everyone is familiar with, Fulton also offers brushed nickel or oil-rubbed bronze. Both provide a matte finish that helps your bathroom feel unique. Brushed nickel is ideal for contemporary spaces. Oil-rubbed bronze works well in more traditional designs. Lighting and mirror frames can be selected to complement your faucet oil rubbed bronzefinish choice.

Fulton even offers a variety of water-conserving toilets suitable for your bathroom’s style. Be sure to consider options such as the elongated bowl and the ADA luxury height specially designed for ease of use for anyone who has difficulties transitioning from standing to sitting. And you may want to consider the off-white “biscuit” color finish to maintain a softer look and fit well with warm tones such as the oil-rubbed bronze option.

vanity valetWe talked about the Vanity Valet when it was introduced, but it’s worth mentioning again. It allows you to use the wasted vanity space in front of the sink to house beauty tools such as hair dryers and curling irons, keeping everything tidy and off your counter.

Bathrooms need to function well to meet the needs of you and your family. And if you can also make those spaces personally inviting and designed to follow your taste and style, that’s a bonus you can enjoy every day you live in your new Fulton Home.

 

Decorating with Your Style

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12221608_SIf you want to determine your style, start with looking in the mirror. How do you wear your hair? What types of clothes do you like, casual or dressy? Do you tend to wear colors or neutrals?

You choose your personal style to represent who you really are. You may find yourself drawn to retro sundresses in bright cottons, or a simple silk shell and pencil skirt. For a man, would you feel more comfortable in polo shirts and khakis or a t-shirt and jeans? Evaluating your style is a good first step when planning your home, since your taste should be just as reflected in your surroundings as it is in your wardrobe. This woman demonstrates a classic retro-40s look, with high-fashion hat and gloves and a classic black and white dress. Luxury and careful planning also show in everything about this woman’s look. So, let’s determine what sort of space would suit her style.

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How about this room? Black and white starts the look, but it’s the style of the room that mirrors this woman. Notice the black chandelier. It’s classic, but the black updates the fixture and adds an unexpected level of sophistication.

The rug picks up the blond hair and the light flooring provides contrast with the white/ivory upholstered furniture. If this woman walked into this room, she would have just the right look for it.

Does your living room reflect your personal style? Remember that a home that matches your style comfort zone is a home that will make you happy.