Is Your Garden and Lawn Spring Ready?

Winter is finally over in Texas and Spring has sprung! What better way to welcome spring in than by beautiful grass, flowers, garden beds and landscaping. I’m sure we can all agree that lawn care, landscaping, and garden prep are a bit of a hassle when the time to starts comes around. But truth be told, much of the difficulty comes from a lack of direction.

With an understanding of what needs to be done and when it needs to happen, preparing your garden and lawn for Spring should be easy! Here are some of our tips on how you can get started this year:

Preparing Your Garden and Lawn for Spring

Implementing proper landscaping practices before Spring starts is absolutely essential if you are planning on having a well-maintained garden and lawn this year. Keeping a healthy lawn and crops is largely dependent on how you set everything up before Spring.

If you are looking at preparing your lawn for Spring, here are some of our tips on what you should pay attention to:

1)  Soil Testing

Soil testing is one of the most important things you can do in preparation for Spring. If you haven’t had your soil tested in over 3 years, make sure to get it done ASAP. It will give you key insights into whether or not your soil has enough nutrients to support your crops and lawn.

2)  Fertilizer Selection

Regardless of what your soil test results are, it’s always good to start out the season with a fresh layer of new soil. Selecting a fertilizer is rather simple – you will be presented with the option to go with carbon-based fertilizers or petroleum-based fertilizers. Here’s a quick run-down on the difference between the two:

Petroleum-Based Fertilizers: Petroleum-based fertilizers, also known as synthetic or chemical fertilizers, are sort of a “band-aid” fix to a much larger problem. They provide a quick boost of nutrient energy for plants that dissipates quickly and leaves your lawn potentially damaged and nutrient-ridden in the long run.

Carbon-Based Fertilizers: Carbon-based fertilizers, on the other hand, build the structure of your soil and prepare it for the current year as well as seasons to come. They are natural and healthy in the long term for your lawn.

3)  Weed Control

Weed control – the phrase probably makes you shiver. If any of you have weeded your yard, you know full-well of the backaches and dirty knees that follow the dreaded task.

Luckily, Spring gives you the opportunity at a fresh start through pre-emergent strategies. Using a pre-emergent herbicide essentially combats the weeds from ever appearing in the first place! That means less backaches and bruised knees in the summer time, a healthier lawn, and a beautiful landscape for seasons to come!

Conclusion

Preparing your garden and lawn for Spring doesn’t have to ever be a difficult task. With a little leg-work upfront by testing your soil, laying down fresh, carbon-based fertilizer, and proper pre-emergent weed control strategies, you’ll be well on your way to a beautiful, lush lawn this year!

Getting Your Home Ready for Spring Party Hosting

We all search for ideas to paint our walls, update the floors, and buy new furniture to bring a facelift to the interior of our homes. However, seldom do we pay close attention to the various ways we can improve the exterior of our homes.

With Spring just around the corner, there are plenty of ways that you can prepare your luxury home for the season. Whether you want to be the new “host” for Spring and Summer parties, or are just looking for a way to liven up the outside of your luxury home, here are a few steps you can take to get the ball rolling on the whole process:

1. Garden Tips

Perhaps one of the best places to start with an outdoor renovation is a garden. Whether you already have one or are looking to start, it’s always a great place to begin when preparing for the new season.

For a healthy, lush garden make sure you replace your soil with carbon-based fertilizers. Unlike synthetic and petroleum-based alternatives, carbon fertilizers will build up the structure of your soil and keep it healthy for the rest of the year.

Adding crocuses and tulips is a great way to bring a beautiful color splash for a lively spring garden!

2. Updating Your Patio

Many homeowners have neglected the project of updating their patio. It seems like a daunting task, and the seasonality of patio usage can defer people from attempting. However, giving a new look to your patio doesn’t have to be difficult.

When selecting new patio furniture, keep in mind that darker colors are going to look better for longer periods of time, as weathering will not be as evident.

Building a simple wood frame for a pergola is also a simple step that can take your patio to the next level.

3. Landscaping Essentials

While the topic of proper landscaping is a much larger subject matter, there are a few essentials that you can start now to prepare your home for Spring.

Soil Testing: Properly testing your soil is a landscaping essential every few years. After a while, the nutrients is pulled out of your soil and can hurt your crops.

Fresh Mulch: An easy landscaping project is to add a fresh, 1-inch thick layer of new mulch around all your trees and shrubs. It will help keep the moisture in the soil and bring a new, fresh look to your home this spring!

Weed Control: Lastly, the most time consuming (but also most important) step is to bring some weed control practices into the mix. A great way to prepare for spring is by applying a week control to keep weeds from ever being a problem in the first place.

Of course, if you are ready to tackle a major spring home renovation, give Tony McClung a call! His experience in architectural design is one that you can always trust!

Re-Carpeting Ideas for Your Home

Your carpets say a lot about your home. A simple difference in both the material and color of your carpet can give off an entirely different vibe for each room. However, few people are willing to embark on the endeavor of completely reinstalling new carpet, and we totally understand why.

Re-carpeting a home, let alone a single room can seem like a difficult task. But with a little bit of research you’ll be well on your way to giving your house interior a much needed facelift. Since installation can either be done yourself or by a hired professional, we will focus here primarily on how to select the right carpet for your home.

Selecting Carpet for Your Home

There are two overarching criteria to keep in mind while selecting a new carpet for your luxury home:

Color

Color is the first decision that comes to any homeowner’s mind when making a carpet selection. Depending on the natural light in a room, the color of your walls and furniture, style of house, and current family needs, color can be a very important factor.

Bright Colored Carpet

Hindsight is 20/20, and many parents of young children can testify to this after installing brand new white carpets. Stains are easy to show and hard to get out. On the bright side, lighter colors will help to amplify the natural and artificial light in a room which can bring a nice touch. If you are going for lighter colors, purchase an off-white cream or similar color, but avoid the bleached white look. You’ll thank us later.

Dark Colored Carpet

If you are thinking about using a darker carpet, be careful of what room you install it in. Dark carpet immediately pulls the light out of the room, which can be a nice addition to a bedroom or basement but should be avoided for common living areas.

Feel

The next most important factor to evaluate is how the carpet will actually feel. But remember – a carpet’s durability is directly correlated to how soft it is. The softer the carpet, the less time it’s going to last.

Really spend time evaluating exactly what you want. Do you want carpet that is going to stick around for a while, or are you fine with remodeling every 10 or so years for the sake of the added comfort? Carpet materials may also vary, so talking with a professional about a good balance between durability and softness may give you extra options.

Conclusion

The most stressful part of re-carpeting a house is simply the decision regarding what you want. But with a bit of research and a couple conversations with design professionals, you can be well on your way to selecting carpet to fit your luxury home!

Popular Lighting Styles for Your Luxury Home

Lighting is a key element in the design and feel of any home. In fact, the entire vibe of a room can be altered by changing the source, brightness, temperature, and placement of light. Depending on the type of house and location you live in, along with the type of feel you are going for, there are tons of lighting approaches you can take to bring your luxury home to the next level. Here are a couple tips on lighting your luxury home.

Popular Lighting Styles

There are three overarching categories that should be kept in mind when taking on a lighting design project in your luxury home:

1) Brightness

2) Temperature

3) Placement

Your specific combination of these elements will help you to achieve the look you are going for with your upcoming lighting project! Here are some of our tips on lighting designs for popular trends today, along with how these elements can be properly balanced for a stunning look:

Modern Lighting Design

Lighting techniques have been largely affected by modern interior design trends. A focus has been placed on artificial, clear, and classy lighting techniques to provide a home with a very modern feel.

A couple of common techniques are:

Cove Lighting: Cove lighting is a technique where LED light strips are placed behind a long edge. Light shows behind the edge, but the actual source of light is out of sight. This is a very classy way to achieve a well-distributed, evenly-lit room in a classy modern style.

Cool Temperatures: A room doesn’t need to be “blue” to err on the side of cool lighting temperature. Focus on brighter lights that are primarily white to get a classic modern interior lighting design.

Cozy & Deep Lighting Design

For those who are seeking a lighting design that conveys sophistication and a degree of “deepness”, we recommend strategies that create poorly distributed lighting, warmer temperatures, and an overall darker room.

Dark Lamps: Look for lamps with darker shades. Black, dark blue or purple, or deep grays help to keep the light projecting up and down rather than out. This strategy is particularly helpful to create lighting “zones”, instead of projecting light to a whole room.

Warm Temperatures: Warmer light bulbs give a room a very inviting and cozy feel. They also keep lighting zones from appearing harsh or overbearing.

Conclusion

There are dozens of approaches you can take to lighting projects, and each will create a different feel in your luxury home. It’s often best practice to narrow your options to a selection between a couple popular styles, such as the aforementioned: Modern Lighting, and Cozy & Deep Lighting designs. Modern lighting approaches are focused on creating evenly distributed, bright, and cooler temperature lighting, whereas cozy lightning is focused on a darker atmosphere with warmer segregated lighting “zones”.

Try out one of the methods above to give your luxury home a beautiful interior lighting design this season! And as always, if you have any custom home design questions, please reach out to Tony McClung at 214-668-7802.

Installing A Beautiful Hardwood Floor in Your Luxury Home

New Year’s often brings a heightened sense of inspiration. Resolutions, goals, and plans get made and we’re fired up to tackle anything that comes our way. Unfortunately, most of that fizzles away after the month of January, and for that reason, we are encouraging you to channel that brief window of energy on tackling a new home design project.

Installing a Hardwood Floor: Tips for Your Luxury Home

For most of us, flooring is the long-forgotten element of our home. We stare at it and wish for something new, but never get around to doing anything about it. Lucky for you, installing a beautiful hardwood floor doesn’t have to be an intense process, and with these few tips, you’ll be on your way to putting the finishing touches on your luxury home.

Selecting a Material

There are so many different types of wood that can be used for flooring that it can be daunting to go about selecting one. It’s smart to think in terms of brightness – light furniture, paint, and amenities compliment darker woods, and darker furniture, paint, and amenities compliment lighter woods. Here’s a simplified breakdown of common hardwood floor types:

Darker Woods: Mahogany, Walnut, Oak, and Cherry

Lighter Woods: Maple, Beech, Ash, and Pine

Keep in mind – darker woods tend to scratch easier, but this can be avoided through proper maintenance and treatment.

Installation Tips

So you’ve selected a material and now it’s time to install your new hardwood floors. There are a few potential hiccups you may encounter along the way, so make sure to be aware of these issues before proceeding!

Moisture: If the place you are installing your hardwood floor is below or at ground level, you will need to be particularly aware of moisture. Ensure the moisture level of the concrete base doesn’t exceed 4%, and that the air never exceeds 60%, otherwise you’re at risk for rot or fungi issues.

Adapting Flooring to Room Environment: Your wood comes with a natural level of moisture in it, which is most likely different than that of the room you plan on installing it in. Before installing, lay your wood down in the room it will be installed in and leave it there for 3-4 days. This will allow it to take on the natural moisture of the room so that it will settle in place with more ease.

Methods of Hardwood Floor Installation

Nails: Nailing your boards to the floor is great for thinner boards. If you are installing above concrete, make sure you drill small holes before attempting to use nails.

Staples: Stapling a hardwood floor down is easy, quick, and cost-effective. Staple every 12 inches apart and make sure you staple at a 45-degree angle – to high and you’ll split your wood and miss the base floor, too low and you might break the wood entirely.

Conclusion

Installing a hardwood floor doesn’t have to be a difficult project. Select the right wood for the lighting of your home (contrast against your current furniture, paint, and amenities), and get to work! It’s always smart to hire a professional, for pre-project assessment at the least. So, be sure to reach out to Tony McClung for his expert architectural design skills. Luxury Homes Designed and Built by Tony McClung will help you get the beautiful floors in your home that you have always dreamed of!

Remodeling Your Luxury Home in 2019

A new year brings the opportunity for a fresh start. After all, that’s what New Year’s resolutions are all about! This season may be your chance to finally embark on that remodeling project you’ve been planning to do. Whether it be a small re-painting job, or a full interior restructuring, 2019 is a great year to tackle those plans and bring your dream home to life.

If you are looking for ideas on how you can remodel your luxury home in 2019, here are a few noteworthy trends for inspiration:

1)  Repainting

While many design trends and décor items go in and out of style seasonally, you can expect a repainting project to remain in style for the next decade. And 2019 is a prime year to start, with new and fresh painting trends flooding in thanks to many of the major design influencers on TV and social media.

For those looking to create a bright and welcoming feel, opt in for a hazelnut. It offers the same light reflection and feel as a flat white but with added warmth and character. More so, hazelnut matches with just about any color, making it an easy and versatile color to work with as you swap out decorations and furniture over the next multiple years. No wonder it’s becoming a new interior color trend this upcoming season!

2)  Ceilings

For the last several decades, popcorn ceilings have been the trend through and through. They’re easy and cheap to install and remain peripherally invisible to visitors.

However, a statement ceiling can be a fun, stylish addition to a home, and we’re seeing the trend rising in recent years. In 2019, be on the lookout for a unique ceiling design. Anything from molded tin, wallpaper, or paint-patterned designs are all bound to add a fun combination of contemporary and modern buzz to your luxury home.

3)  Furniture

When’s the last time you swapped out furniture? For most of us, furniture is one of the last elements we replace, and as a result, makes our homes suffer dramatically from outdated interiors. Follow some rising trends in 2019 by making the addition of curved furniture to your rooms! What used to be a retro style is coming back full force this season along with the opportunity to lift your luxury home’s living rooms to the next level.

Conclusion

2019 is a year full of trends – from paint to furniture, decorations, and interior structuring, there are so many different opportunities for you and your family to bring a modern facelift to your luxury home this season. And redesigning doesn’t have to be a major task! Keep your eyes open for the right furniture and put your hands to work with a little paint and watch your luxury house be transformed!

Cheers to a new year!

Decorating Your Luxury Home for Christmas

We all know the usual Christmas routine – tear down the Thanksgiving and fall decorations, break out the box of Christmas décor you purchased 10 years ago, and the whole family is on deck to style your home the same way you do every year. Trust us, we get it. Tradition is fun! But every once in a while, it’s fun to twist it up with the addition of a few extras.

Your luxury home is the perfect canvas for luxury Christmas decorations. This season, consider adding a few of these decorations to your usual Christmas theme to spiff up the place for the holidays!

Luxury Christmas Decorations

1)  Crystal Decorations

Crystal decorations have been popular for over a century. They are a timeless style that always adds the extra “sparkle” your luxury home needs this season.

The best part about crystal decorations is that they come in tons of different types, sizes, and styles. Whether its décor of the trinket type, table centerpieces, chandeliers, or ornaments, you’re sure to find one that works for your luxury home!

2)  Gold Graduated Cone Trees

You’ve probably seen cone trees in the Christmas décor aisle of every retail store. They’re not all that hard to find. However, gold cone trees make for a classy, sleek style that’s bound to draw the attention of friends and family at any party you host this year.

Gold cone trees have a wide-variety of applications in a home. They work great as dining table centerpieces or living room shelf accents; there are even LED golden cone trees that work as unique additions to your outdoor patio décor collection!

3)  Meteor Christmas Lights

Many of us use the same white or colored Christmas lights every year. This year, change it up with the addition of luxurious meteor Christmas lights!

Meteor Christmas lights give the illusion of “trickling” in order to mimic falling stars. They are unique, eye-catching, and absolutely gorgeous. Add them to your outdoor trees or patio for a fabulous, luxurious lighting solution this year!

Conclusion

Decorating for Christmas doesn’t have to be the same routine every year. Mix it up with the addition of a few luxurious Christmas decorations this season and see how they transform your home and bring it to the next level!

Selecting a Pool for Your Luxury Home

I know, it is a bit crazy to start talking about pools when it is finally Christmastime. But, if you are thinking about installing a pool in your backyard for this coming summer, it is time to start getting plans and things in order.

Pools have long been an envied luxury addition to custom homes. But unlike painting, decorating, or even moderate interior construction, building a pool is a major endeavor. Depending on the specifications of your selection, installing a pool can be an expensive and lengthy processes. However, as anyone who is installing a pool knows, they can add so much value to your family and friends’ life. They make hosting easier, parties more fun, and those hot Texas summers a bit more tolerable.

Selecting a Pool Style

Building a pool is so much more than just digging a hole in the ground – there are dozens of styles, each meant for a different home and backyard landscape. If you are looking to get a pool for Summer 2019, here are a few popular styles that are sure to work with your luxury home!

1)  Modern Pools

Modern pools are becoming increasingly popular. They are often characterized by square or rectangular designs, simplistic materials, sharp corners, and mosaic tiles. The great thing about modern pools is that they are a classy addition to any home – they are stylistically versatile and can help to add that extra “spiff” to your house.

2)  Tropical Pools

Yep, you read that right. Tropical pools are a statement design that give a fun, engaging, and vacation-like feel to your backyard. Big boulders, trees, and even small waterfalls are a few of many elements that can be added to tropical pools. It’s a fun and relaxing twist to the common pool!

3)  Traditional Pools

It’s really hard to create a category for “traditional” pools, as there are truly so many different design elements that fall under the umbrella. Generally speaking, traditional pools are rectangular or hour-glass shaped with natural stone or bricks. They’re classic, nostalgic, and “homey” – it’s hard to go wrong with a traditional design.

Conclusion

Adding a pool to your home is an exciting (and sometimes stressful) task! Pools bring so much life and fun to a home – both stylistically and functionally. If you are looking to make the installation soon, be sure to settle on a style that works best for you. Whether you are going for fun and exciting (tropical), elegant and classy (modern), classic and homey (traditional), or something entirely different, you are bound to find a pool style that fits your home perfectly!

If you are ready to get to work so you can have a pool in your backyard for this coming summer, give Tony McClung a call now at 214-668-7802!

Selecting Paint Colors for Your Luxury Home

There's so much hype on the web today about styling your home. Endless Pinterest and blog posts on decorating for the holidays, and the overall theme of your house, are becoming the norm of interior design. But often times, people forget to place attention on how the color of their walls can affect the overall look and mood of their house. In fact, we would go so far as to say the paint color you choose far outweighs the importance of decor when attempting to change the mood of your home.

2 Approaches to Selecting Paint Colors for Your Luxury Home

If you are looking for an update to the interior design of your home, we suggest you look into a repainting project. If you need help with selecting colors and theme, here are a couple of our recommendations:

Painting Thematically

When we use the term "theme" in this context, we are referring to elements that are stylistically cohesive. This includes everything from color, temperature, texture, brightness, and gloss. But here’s what’s different:

Many people make the mistake of assuming "theme" implies "similar". This is where we recommend you break the norm and have some fun! A house can be painted thematically without using similar colors. Pinks, grays, blues, reds, and so many other colors can be represented from room to room while still working thematically.

If you want to paint your house thematically, we recommend focusing on between 1-4 colors. The biggest trick is selecting paint that has the same texture, matte/gloss, and brightness level. Bring the more neutral colors in areas such as the kitchen and living room, while leaving the larger statement colors for bedrooms, bathrooms, and laundry rooms.

Painting Representationally

Another (less-popular) form of painting would involve what we refer to as "representational painting". Another way of looking at this is painting a home to represent the colors of the earth from the ground up. Here's an example:

Homes can be painted representationally by painting the lower levels (basement) with more earthy textures (browns, golds, and darker colors). The middle levels are painted with more lively colors (greens, yellows, oranges, reds, etc.) And finally, top levels (upstairs or attic) are painted to represent sky-like colors (blues, whites, and purples).

Why would you paint a home this way? The emotional impact of the color differentiation can make a house feel taller than it truly is. Color theory proves that humans associate colors to things we are familiar with, and in the case of a home painted to represent colors from the ground to the sky, we subconsciously acknowledge a home as being "tall" based on its interior colors. We unknowingly associated browns and darker colors with the ground, and whites and blues with the sky, which alters our perception of a house’s actual characteristics. Thank you, science!

Conclusion

Painting a home is daunting! While many people are scared of taking on the workload, I think most of us can agree that color selection is the most intimidating part of the process by far.

If you are looking to paint your luxury home this year, we recommend taking one of two approaches: thematic painting, or representational painting. The former refers to selecting a couple of color groups that are consistent in brightness and texture. The colors can be similar or wildly different! So long as the overall exposure levels and reflectivity of the paint match, you can tame down some crazy colors and get a beautiful theme throughout your house. The latter refers to painting a home to represent the earth - from the ground to the sky! Paint lower levels with darker colors and upper levels with lighter colors such as blue or white to represent the sky. The emotional impact of the colors makes people assume the house is taller than it truly is.

Regardless of if you've made your mind up on what you want, we recommend getting over to your local paint store and starting to browse! When you see the right colors in person, you'll know which ones are best for your home. And of course, don’t hesitate to give Tony McClung a call if you want to bring in a professional designer!

Selecting a Fireplace for Your Luxury Home

Fireplaces used to be a functional necessity for a home. However, today they are one of the most renovated pieces in home makeovers, and for good reason. You used to have one choice – the classic brick structure with a chimney. Obviously, now days the industry has expanded to thousands of different styles – elegant, rustic, corporate, moody – you name it, there’s a fireplace to match the character of a home, inside or outdoors.

While fireplaces are nice for the warmth, you don’t always need one for purely functional purposes, especially here in the warm Texas winters! There are so many options on the market that you should be able to find the perfect style for your luxury home. If you are looking at investing in a new fireplace for your luxury home this season, here are some of our top recommendations:

Fireplaces for Your Luxury Home

Selecting a fireplace for your luxury home can be a tough decision – and it should be! You want something that will compliment the theme and personality of your house, not a unit that stands out apart from the rest of your design and interior structure.

There truly are many different styles available; you don’t want to jump in and try selecting a fireplace at random. To help you with your decision, we have selected our favorite overarching fireplace design styles to help you find what look best suits your luxury home. Here are some of our top picks, along with their pros and cons:

The Classic – Brick Fireplaces

Just because you update your fireplace doesn’t mean you can’t pay homage to the classics! A modernized brick fireplace can be a great addition to the house. But you can take a few different angles to brick fireplace design. Using an open fireplace as a candle display, painting your bricks white or black, or making a rustic wood frame addition to the outside are just a few of many ways you can modify brick fireplaces.

Pros

• Classic and familiar

• Wood and gas options available

• Simple

• Easy to modify/remodel

• Easy to install

Cons

• Can appear to be outdated

• Sometimes difficult to clean and maintain

• Often understated/non-significant in appearance

“Statement” Design – Island Fireplaces

The island fireplace can’t get any more “opposite” than brick fireplaces. They stray far from the classics. These units have four glass sides and sit in the center of a room – either playing the role of a centerpiece or a loose divider between sections of a home.

Peninsula fireplaces are a related cousin to this style of fireplace, whereby it extends from the wall with 3 viewable glass sides.

Pros

• Very modern, futuristic, and luxurious

• Dozens of different designs available

Cons

• Take up a lot of space

• Difficult installation

• Fragile 4-sided glass (think children here…)

Modernized – Slim Fireplace

Slim fireplaces are quickly rising in popularity these days. Slim fireplaces, sometimes referred to as “shelf fireplaces” are fireplaces that extend far in width (up to 60”) but are usually no taller than 1.5 feet. As a result, they look very modern and elegant and are usually versatile in placement.

Pros

• Easy to put anywhere – kitchen, dining room, bedroom, etc.

• Framing customizability – wood, granite, brick, metal, or any other material can be used on the outside of the fireplace to accommodate the room.

• Easy to install

• Affordable

Cons

• Not super functional (don’t emit much heat)

• Not well-suited for old or traditional styled homes

Conclusion

Fireplace selection is all about finding a unit that compliments the style of your home. A fireplace says a lot about your home’s character and overall appearance, so spend the time necessary to find the perfect one. Getting the right unit takes time and a lot of research. The best place to start is by defining the overarching category you’d like the fireplace to match – traditional, modern, rustic, etc., and then boiling down your options from there!

If you need help, don’t hesitate to reach out to Luxury Homes Designed and Built by Tony McClung! We are always happy to offer suggestions and hear your opinions.