Creating the Perfect Kitchen: A Guide for Your New Home

The kitchen is the heart of any home, and designing the perfect kitchen in your new home is a thrilling opportunity to blend functionality, style, and personal flair. When working with a reputable builder like Mark Scott Homes, you can ensure a well-crafted space that caters to your unique needs. In this blog post, we will guide you through the essential elements and considerations for creating the best kitchen in your new home.

Thoughtful Layout and Flow:

A well-designed kitchen starts with careful planning. Collaborate with the your team to determine the most efficient layout for your kitchen. Consider the classic kitchen work triangle, which connects the stove, sink, and refrigerator, allowing for easy movement and optimal functionality. Aim for a layout that maximizes counter space, minimizes traffic congestion, and creates a seamless flow for cooking, cleaning, and entertaining.

Quality Materials and Appliances:

When working with Mark Scott Homes, you can expect superior craftsmanship and attention to detail. Opt for high-quality materials that combine durability with aesthetic appeal. Choose sturdy cabinetry, countertops, and flooring that withstand the demands of daily use. Select appliances that align with your cooking style and preferences, ensuring they offer the latest technology and energy efficiency for a seamless culinary experience.

Ample Storage and Organization:

Storage is essential in any kitchen. Work closely with your designer to incorporate ample storage solutions that cater to your needs. Utilize a mix of cabinets, drawers, and pantry space to optimize organization and keep your kitchen clutter-free. Consider features such as pull-out shelves, spice racks, and customized dividers to make the most of every inch of storage space.

Functional Workspaces:

A well-designed kitchen provides functional workspaces for food preparation, cooking, and cleanup. Incorporate a spacious and durable countertop where you can comfortably chop, mix, and assemble ingredients. Install a multi-burner stove and a well-placed range hood to create an efficient cooking area. Don't forget to include a functional sink with easy access to water and a dishwasher for convenient cleanup.

Lighting and Ambiance:

Proper lighting is crucial in creating a warm and inviting atmosphere in your kitchen. Strategically place a combination of ambient, task, and accent lighting to ensure a well-lit workspace. Consider pendant lights over the island, under-cabinet lighting for countertop tasks, and dimmable fixtures to set the mood during meal times or gatherings. Collaborate with your designer to create a lighting plan that complements your kitchen's design and enhances its functionality.

Personal Touches and Design Elements:

Infuse your personality into the kitchen design by incorporating unique design elements and personal touches. Consider adding a backsplash with a captivating pattern or texture, incorporating statement fixtures, or integrating open shelving to showcase your favorite kitchenware or decor. Work with the professionals at Mark Scott Homes to find the perfect balance between style, functionality, and personalization.

Conclusion:

With the expertise of Mark Scott Homes, you can create the best kitchen for your new home, where functionality meets style and craftsmanship. By considering layout, quality materials, storage solutions, functional workspaces, lighting, and personal touches, you can design a kitchen that perfectly suits your lifestyle and culinary aspirations. Collaborate with the skilled team at Mark Scott Homes to transform your vision into a reality and create a kitchen that will be the heart of your new home for years to come.

Unlocking Design Inspiration for Your New Home

Designing your new home can be an exciting and creative process, but it can also be overwhelming with countless options to consider. Thankfully, Pinterest has emerged as a powerful tool that can transform your design journey into a visually stunning and organized experience. In this blog post, we'll explore how you can effectively use Pinterest to gather ideas, refine your vision, and create a beautiful and personalized home design.

Creating a Vision Board:

Pinterest allows you to create virtual vision boards where you can curate images, ideas, and inspiration for your new home. Start by creating a board specifically dedicated to your home design project. Consider naming it something descriptive, like "My Dream Home" or "Home Design Inspiration." This will serve as a central hub for all your ideas.

Explore and Follow Design Influencers:

To begin gathering inspiration, explore Pinterest's vast collection of home design content. Follow design influencers, architects, interior designers, and home décor brands to discover their boards and ideas. This will expose you to a wide range of styles, color palettes, furniture arrangements, and architectural elements that can spark your creativity.

Pinning and Organizing Ideas:

As you browse through different boards and images, start pinning the ideas that resonate with you. Pinning allows you to save images to your boards for future reference. Be sure to pin a variety of elements such as room layouts, color schemes, furniture styles, lighting options, and even specific design details like flooring or backsplashes. Organize your pins into subcategories within your main board to make them easily accessible.

Refining Your Style:

As you continue to pin and gather inspiration, you may notice recurring themes or a consistent style emerging. Pay attention to the elements that catch your eye repeatedly. This will help you define your design preferences and refine your personal style. Consider the overall aesthetic, whether it's modern, rustic, minimalist, or eclectic. Note the colors, textures, and patterns that appeal to you the most.

Collaboration and Communication:

Pinterest offers a collaborative feature that allows you to invite family members, partners, or designers to contribute to your boards. This enables seamless communication and collaboration throughout the design process. Share ideas, exchange comments, and gather feedback to ensure that everyone's visions align and that you're collectively creating the home of your dreams.

Bridging Pinterest and Reality:

While Pinterest is a fantastic tool for gathering inspiration, it's essential to remember that not everything you find will be feasible or suitable for your specific home. Use your Pinterest boards as a starting point to communicate your preferences to architects, designers, and contractors. Work with professionals to translate your Pinterest-inspired ideas into practical and achievable design elements within your home's constraints.

DIY Projects and Tutorials:

Pinterest is a treasure trove of DIY projects and tutorials. From simple crafts to complex renovations, you can find step-by-step guides and creative ideas to add personal touches to your new home. Explore DIY boards for inspiration on everything from repurposing furniture to creating handmade decorations. Incorporating DIY projects can make your home design even more unique and reflective of your personality.

Conclusion:

Pinterest has revolutionized the way we approach home design, offering a boundless source of inspiration and organization. By creating boards, exploring content, refining your style, and collaborating with others, you can leverage Pinterest to bring your dream home to life. Whether you're embarking on a major renovation or simply redecorating, let Pinterest be your guide as you curate ideas, collect inspiration, and embark on the exciting journey of designing your new home.

Paint Color Trends of 2021

read time ~ 4 minutes

Thanks to 2020, our homes wear many hats.

What was once a place of relaxation is now the hub for all things living. Home is now our gym, our classroom, our office, our favorite restaurant, our kids' playground and our weekend getaway.

The chaos of 2020 and this change in the definition of "home" as we know it prompted the color trends of 2021. These trends feature creating a home environment where we can feel comfortable, soothed and at ease. 

Overall, we see a lot of warm, nature-infused tones to invite calm into our space and create a steady base from where we can add bursts of color to inspire joy and optimism in our lives.

Comfort. Calm. Creativity. Joy. Doesn't that pretty much sum up what we're craving in 2021? 

We think so. 

Let's step into the anticipation of 2021 and experience these color trends of the year ahead that could inspire new designs in your own home.

New year, new bedroom paint. Isn't that what the kids say these days?

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BENJAMIN MOORE

The Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2021, Aegean Teal, is a hue that beckons you to savor the small moments. 

Here's how they describe it: "Celebrate the simple pleasures -- think the faded rumple of linen sheets in the morning and perfectly ripened fruits on the windowsill. The twelve hues in the palette radiate warmth and wellbeing. These are colors that make your home feel even more like home. Settle in."

Well, if that doesn't make you want to sip your coffee slowly at your kitchen table with a warm pastry to keep you company while your walls set the mood for you, we don't know what will.

Benjamin Moore's 2021 color palette invites presence. Its blend from familiar neutrals to earthy tones stall and expand the seemingly mundane, yet sacred moments that make up our lives.

For a strong sense of serenity and comfort, pair Aegean Teal with any of these hues to elevate your home.

Love it so much you just want your home transformed already?! C.E. Lee Decorating Center is your new go-to consultant when it comes to design. They have the Benjamin Moore products you need to make this 2021 color palette come to life in your space!

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SHERWIN WILLIAMS

Sherwin Williams chose a sophisticated Urbane Bronze as their color of the year 2021. 

“The pandemic has caused us to seek comfort in our surroundings and be mindful of how we’re living,” says Sue Wadden, director of color marketing. “As a result, the focus in design and color has shifted to building relaxing sanctuaries within our existing spaces and interior paint colors can help accomplish this feeling. Urbane Bronze creates a sense of calm while making us feel safe and secure.”

Royal in nature, this color is noted by Wadden to work especially well in kitchen spaces. Got darker cabinet colors? Or metallic shades dispersed throughout your kitchen? Urbane Bronze is the perfect color partner to sophisticate your space.

But hey, maybe you already love your kitchen color. After all, you painted it the color of the year 2020 for heaven's sake!

We get it. Urbane Bronze is gorgeous not only in the kitchen, but also a great choice for an accent wall, an outdoor shed (which Wadden did herself) or any space where you want to highlight an architectural design, like behind your fireplace. 

Balance and rhythm. Balance and rhythm in design, in our routine and in our lives is the core message Sherwin Williams wants to send with their choice for the color of the year 2021. 

To shop Urbane Bronze and more, visit Sherwin Williams in South Bend, Granger or Niles!

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BEHR

Behr's color trends of 2021 highlight warmth and restoration. In their palette of 21 hues, we see a lot of subtle, neutral tones and "restorative blues and greens" to "elevate comfort" in our homes, as well as bold, rich hues that inspire optimism. 

Versatility ties these hues together. We're in a global moment where our homes are being just about everything we need them to be for us. With an emphasis on versatility and personalization, Behr's palette gives the freedom to update any space exactly how we want it and need it.

When uncertainty erupts, we crave familiarity and comfort. These hues give us that, and more. If it's not a wall to paint, these colors work well for doors, trim and cabinets. 

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PPG PAINTS

PPG Paint's color trends of the year 2021 orbit around a central theme: transcend. 

In their words, these colors are "intended for the person who wants to fully embrace mindfulness and intention" as "the color trio celebrates beauty of all kinds and relates to those who prioritize wellness in mind, body and spirit."

Their versatility allows for each of them to either take on a supporting or dominant role in a space. These natural hues are grounding, nostalgic and fresh, offering relief and support to the tired working man or woman, mom or dad, or anyone who needs a space to unwind.

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DULUX

Brave Ground is Dulux's choice for color of the year 2021. This shade "connects back to nature and the simple things. A warm, earthy tone, it creates a feeling of stability, growth and potential."

It's timeless. Subtle. Relaxing. 

Brave Ground is complimentary and practical, and pairs especially well with warmer tones to bring a balanced energy to any space. Designed for the person who wants a solid, foundational color in their home as 2020 has forced us to muster up the courage to embrace change, to reassess what really matters and to work together to build a better future.

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Regardless of the visual variety we see in the paint color trends of 2021, the intention behind them remains consistent: that in 2021, we'll seek to design our homes with colors that give us comfort and calm, inspire creativity and cultivate joy.

What do you think of the color trends of 2021? Like what you see? We think they set a great foundation for design in the new year with the balance of warmth and optimism. 2021 - we're ready for you!

How To Use Pinterest To Design Your Home

Read time ~ 5 minutes

Pinterest has changed the way we create. From planning mom’s 60th birthday party to announcing an engagement to designing your bathroom to making brunch to DIYing lipstick, inspiration is everywhere on this handy platform.

So, thank you, Pinterest. Now we can never show up to another family BBQ without giving the dessert table a once-over and checking to see if the chip dip matches the ceiling fan.

Jokes aside, Pinterest is an incredible tool for all things creative, especially when it comes to designing your home. If you are building, renovating, or designing your home but don’t have a Pinterest account it’s time to make one.

Since its launch in 2010, Pinterest has made some major improvements, making it even easier to streamline your process for gathering inspiration and storing your ideas for the home of your dreams all in one place.

We’re giving you four tips on the best ways to do it.

Here’s how to use Pinterest to design your home:

1. Create and Organize Your Boards

Depending on if you’re renovating your entire home or a single room, be specific when you create your boards to organize your pins. Avoid creating a board titled, “Dream Home”, but break it down further and create boards for each room so you can easily find what you’re looking for. Are you renovating your master bath? Re-designing your closet? Building a front porch? Create boards for each project.

Pinterest is all about giving you the freshest, most relevant content. As you create each board, set a goal for when you want to finish say, designing your mudroom to get reminders about planning and keep your recommended pins relevant.

Want your partner, teen, or bff to give you their two cents? “Group boards” are a great option if you want collaboration on your pins to get everyone’s ideas in one place.

Don’t want your neighbors stealing your design ideas? We get it. You can also create “Secret Boards” so you can keep your brilliance to yourself.

Organize your boards on your profile either from A-Z, last saved to or drag and drop them in an order that makes the most sense to you.

Inside your boards, you can organize your pins any way you want. Maybe you want to move the pins you love the most towards the top for easy access, to put all the dining room tables you love next to each other to compare them side by side, or push your partner’s suggestion down towards the bottom.

The better you can organize your pins and boards as you go, the easier it will be to finish your project!

2. Find Your Favorite Pinners

Don’t follow hundreds and hundreds of pinners. Find the brands and bloggers who are active on Pinterest and creating quality content on the regular that aligns with your style. These will become the brands you trust and love (if they aren’t already).

Here are a few of our favorites:

• Luxe Interiors + Design Magazine

• Jean Stoffer Design

• Studio McGee

• Becki Owens

If you don’t follow hundreds and hundreds of accounts, your “following feed” will be more streamlined and less cluttered.

If following only a few pinners makes you panic, don’t worry. Pinterest saw that coming. On your “Home” and “Today” tab, you’ll get served the latest, most relevant content that matches the content of your most recent searches that aren’t limited to the accounts you follow.

3. Be specific with Your Searches

The more specific you can get with your searches, the better the content you’ll get. For example, if you search “mid-century modern brass lamp” you’ll get pages of great options and likely find what you’re looking for faster than if you had searched “cool brass lamp”.

Once you type in your super specific search, you can use the “Explore” tab or the “Shop” tab. With the “Shop” tab, you can see hundreds of mid-century modern brass lamps with their brand and prices and if you so desire, you can buy it right then and there. There’s always the option to use “More Ideas” for similar pins, or to “Shop Similar” whenever you search. Pinterest is making this too easy for us!

If you’re not ready to buy just yet but definitely want to save the idea, when you save each pin, make sure to comment what you love or don’t love about the pin to remind yourself of the specifics when you revisit it later. For example, “love the color, not the shape”. This is a great way to customize your pins!

Pinterest also lets you share or download your pins. Share your pins with your friends who are fellow pinners on the app by messaging it to them or sending them the link. Download the image if you want it saved to your phone or computer. These features make it easy to interact with your friends on or off the app and save the images to a folder on your computer if you want to store your ideas there, too.

4. Share it with Your Contractor or Designer

Keep your boards to yourself, or better yet, share them with your contractor or designer so they can get a better feel for your style.

This is where all the hard work you put into organizing your boards and pins pays off! Easily show your contractor or designer your dream for your living room, backyard patio or kitchen. Let them know exactly what you want.

Refer to any comments you made previously on your pins to point out the specifics. Maybe you loved the countertops, but you hated the backsplash. Or you loved the layout of the living room, but would love it even more if there were bigger windows. Point out what you like or don’t like about the design and let them browse your boards so they can make your dream home a reality.

Designing your home just got easier with Pinterest. Use these four tips next time you curl up on your couch with a glass of wine and get to work designing your home with this app.

Did we mention we’re big Pinterest fans, too? Follow us @markscotthomes to see our latest projects and get inspired for your own!