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SPOTLIGHT: COPPERLEAF HOMES
How to build your Parade Home BY TIM KING COPPERLEAF HOMES
This is the season when many people tour the local Parade of Homes productions and dream of what they would desire in a new build. Many of these people believe that such a desire is beyond their reach, budget or capabilities. Truth be told, for those in the new build marketplace there’s no reason why you have to settle for less than parade quality when building your home. In the custom homebuilding arena, Copperleaf Homes believes that every buyer is parade worthy and every project should exude the thought and creativity of the best and brightest industry ideas available. The key to a great build is threefold: Architectural design, interior design and a builder who includes a high level of finishes and features as standard.
ARCHITECTURE
All great home builds begin with the vision and understanding of a gifted and qualified architect. The ability of a good architect to merge lot location with buyer lifestyle is priceless. Architect Rodney Stephens of Design Works states it this way: “The adjacencies of interior and exterior spaces must represent the merging of all the lot has to offer with the way the buyer lives. View corridors include not only what the buyer wants to see, but also what they do not — removing
obstacles while capitalizing on view opportunities is critical to a great home design.” Since the main driver of cost often is total livable square footage, deleting wasted space and obsessing over function is paramount. Again, Stephens observes that, “What each buyer is creating is a sanctuary. We must think in terms of sacred space and islands of sanity. This means addressing the efficiencies of the way the main spaces such as the kitchen, dining, living area and master interact and are created. And then these spaces must be designed to seamlessly incorporate the exterior living spaces such as courtyards and functional decking. There’s no reason a homebuyer cannot have a unique and award-winning home regardless of budget.”
INTERIOR DESIGN
There has never been a better time than the present to get high-end inspiration for designing your dream home. Amy Nelson of Nelson Design provides buyers with a good starting point: “I encourage my clients to create wish lists on websites like Houzz and Pinterest before we meet. Then, when we get together to select their exterior and interior finishes and to design their kitchens and fireplaces, we have a great starting
point. These are great tools for clients to realize what they like and don’t like and it helps their designer know what direction to go.” Nelson continues, “One of the reasons I love working with Copperleaf Homes is they understand that with the help of an architect, designer along with modern day technology, they can build a home inspired by trends yet completely unique to the client.” Some of the trends we see today in enviable Parade Homes are builtin cabinets, wood wainscoting and shiplap interior walls, beams in the kitchen and great room, outdoor living spaces with built-in grills and fire pits, unique stair railings, unique lighting fixtures, theater rooms and mudrooms. A final reminder from Nelson is one of the most important principles of good home design: “Whatever your style, be true to it. Just because you saw it in a Parade Home’s residence doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best option for you. Don’t stress about making your home exactly like a photo or someone else’s home; it should be inspired by these things but unique to you.”
HIGH-END STANDARDS INCLUDED
Ultimately, even with great architecture and interior design, budget often will be the driving factor
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