Ferraro Builders, Your Source for Grand Traverse Real Estate and Unique Design Ideas
Colors...Inside and Out
Here's What Our Design Team Has To Say...
We specialize in custom built homes, timber frame construction and major remodels in Eastport, Northport, Suttons Bay, Traverse City, Glen Arbor, Torch Lake, Elk Rapids, Frankfort and Charlevoix. With such diverse experience here's what our design team suggests you consider, but remember, each home is as unique as its owner...
Our perception of color begins when we are small, selecting our favorite color from the box of Crayolas. Was your favorite green, red or yellow? Did you really like the pinks and purples like the clothing on your Barbie doll? Or the red like the Radio Flyer wagon you had? Believe it or not, some of these favorites may find their way into your concept of the ideal custom built home as an adult.
No more beige on beige for today's homeowners. Buyers today are seeking a creative outlet in their new Grand Traverse area homes. Consider the barn red exterior which has become so popular with its origins in the old Kentucky horse barn. Or, how about the forest green exteriors reminiscent of the cabin up north you visited as a kid? Dark slate blue exteriors remind us of the cottages on the superior Grand Traverse Bay real estate. So many of these old favorites are finding their way into today's new custom built homes--both inside and out.
Where homebuyers historically were only concerned with real estate resale and keeping their new homes neutral, today's homebuyers seek color and focus on creating a home environment that they can settle into. Like the smell of chocolate chip cookies or cinnamon rolls baking, homeowners are looking to add to their new homes those comfort elements that made them so content as children.
Today, the barn red exterior color finds its way inside to the dining room to create a focal point for your favorite hutch or painting. Golden stucco and stone colors on the exterior of your new Grand Traverse area luxury home find their place on the interior walls of your master bedroom. With a bit of texture and faux finish, homeowners are bringing these strong warm colors inside. Yes, even dark brown exterior trim colors are strongly featured inside the home with select walls painted this same dark hue, acting as a back drop and frame for your favorite painting or wall sculpture. Dark forest green and evergreen from exterior trim find their way inside your home office or study as a strong sage color inspiring a sense of nature. Amazingly enough, sea foam green and robin's egg blue are finding their way from the latest in women's fashions to your own living room. Look for the hottest light blue and dark brown outfits to land in today's dining room featuring blue walls surrounded by walnut colored trim to accent the walnut dining table. Tie all this together with a floral centerpiece combining cool greens and blues with warm brown and you have the latest in interior design trends.
Unique Ways to Accent Your Grand Traverse Real Estate
Beyond just paint, color is making the transition from outside in with the use of tile and stone accents. Tuscan designs feature continuous irregular slate tile from the outdoor living center through the kitchen and great room for an old world rustic feel. Look to the timber frame construction style for exterior corbels, which are successfully carried into the kitchen to support the faux finished drywall hood.
Exterior natural or cultured stone can also be brought into the interior of your new home. Use of stone inside the home can bring texture and warmth to the kitchen walls or surrounding the range for an old world hearth effect. Look for stone pillars in the gallery entry in newer custom built homes representing many styles including Tuscan or Rustic. Stone can be used to create transitional archways and, of course, surrounding the fireplace and even extending to the ceiling in multi-story rooms to create a grand visual effect.
Consider use of natural tiles in your courtyard living area and carry it through into your kitchen and great room for that old world textured feel. Accent your outdoor living room with strong ironwork patio furniture, which can carry inside to your kitchen bar stools and curving ironwork staircase. Traditional ironwork utilized for exterior curved railings and scrolled iron gateways in your entry courtyard can carry inside to accent furniture and grace walls with antique medallion ironwork plaques and sconces.
Even soft goods such as interior carpet can carry themes from outside to the interior space. With the incredible array of color, texture and patterned carpet available today, you have the ability to transition from rich exterior stucco colors to interior living spaces such as your living room and bedrooms. Textured Berber carpets inside your den might be a reflection of the round, hand-troweled stucco exteriors of your new custom built home.
Wood, next to paint, is likely the simplest way to create strong transitions from the outside in. Ask the designers at Ferraro Builders about the incredible variety in both natural and manufactured wood products to create transitions from your front porch throughout the interior of your home. Cedar detail on the exterior of your home may translate to hickory or pine flooring in wide plank format throughout your entry and great room. Rough exterior wood work may translate perfectly into today's hand scraped and/or brushed finished wood floors. Stained alder wood, currently popular in luxury new home construction, lends itself to a strong transition from the front door through to the interior trim details.
If your home is to be a true reflection of you from the outside in, drop all of your preconceived notions of bland is best, and allow vibrant colors into your home. Don't feel badly about the red Radio Flyer that still sits in the corner or the green Gumby that inspired you so much as a child and sits in your new sage green study. If you favor yellow sunflowers it's okay to go gold in the nook. And, even if you had just one favorite color in that old box of Crayolas, feel free to choose more--remember Crayolas now come in boxes of 64!
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