In this day and age, it’s quite rare to encounter a kitchen design that does not include an island. But depending on your specific needs in the kitchen, a traditional island may not be the most ideal design solution.

That’s where a peninsula might be of interest.

If you remember anything from geography class, then the concept of a peninsula might be somewhat familiar. Specifically, a peninsula is a piece of land that’s bordered by water on three sides but is still connected to a mainland. Can you see how this applies in contrast to a kitchen island?

Renewal Design Build

A peninsula offers the same advantages of a kitchen island without being free-floating. Instead, one end of the four sides is connected to a wall. And it can be quite advantageous in a number of ways if a traditional island isn’t for you.

Ideal for smaller kitchens
Homeowners that have smaller kitchen spaces to work with should consider a peninsula instead. This is because there’s no need to plan for walking room around all four sides of an island since only three sides are open to the kitchen.

Speaking of an open kitchen…
A peninsula is the perfect option for an open kitchen design. Instead of having a fourth wall, you can introduce the use of a peninsula. By using a peninsula, you’ll be visually and physically separating the kitchen area from the room it opens up to without sacrificing the feeling of an open layout.

Extra Counter and Storage Space  
No matter how you incorporate a peninsula, you’ll be providing the kitchen with more storage and counter space, in some cases even more than a kitchen island could provide. Even a tiny peninsula that juts out in the middle of your kitchen will provide that extra storage and counter space that you need.

Seating
Peninsulas will especially benefit smaller kitchens that would otherwise have no space for seating. Even a small peninsula provides space to pull chairs up to for a quick informal meal, or simply space to sit while working in the kitchen.

Need more kitchen ideas? Read our post on The Infamous L-Shaped Kitchen Layout.

Island vs. peninsula: which one is right for your Atlanta kitchen renovation? Contact Renewal Design Build today for help making the right decision. You can also check out pictures of our finished kitchen projects on our website!

From Decatur to Dunwoody to Sandy Springs, there are many homes around Atlanta that have been around for decades. And while certain architectural styles, such as Arts and Crafts are rather ubiquitous in the area, it’s possible to update your charming Atlanta home with something refreshing.

Renewal Design Build

A touch of architectural detail in the kitchen can give the room that final touch that makes it look completely finished and put-together. Beadboard wainscoting is a feature often seen in hallways, bathrooms and main living rooms, but it can also have a place in the kitchen.

Beadboard is a durable and detailed material that can be painted or stained to fit any design scheme. It is easy to install and can fit in a wide variety of design applications.  Often, beadboard is used in the bathroom area and painted with a water-resistant high-gloss paint as an alternative to tile.  The same features of durability and water-resistance that make it an ideal bathroom material also help it to perform well in the kitchen.

There are two main types of beadboard from which to choose. You can install individual boards that fit together with tongue and groove joints or you can opt for entire sheets of pre-manufactured beadboard, where the characteristic joints are simply carved into the wood. Tongue in groove beadboard panels do take longer to install, but they tend to be of a higher quality and many people feel they look much better.  They also have plenty of space to allow for the natural expansion and contraction that occur throughout the seasons.  Panels are more affordable and much easier to install, but its quality is also lower than tongue and groove.

Beadboard has many potential uses in a kitchen.  It can be applied as a backsplash in place of tile, or you can use it on cabinet doors for a more unique look than the popular slab or recessed style doors.  Beadboard can also be used on the kitchen island to create contrast with the other cabinetry, which is currently a very popular kitchen design decision.

For information about integrating beadboard details into your kitchen, contact us at Renewal Design-Build.

Renewal Design Build

There are a lot of benefits to building an addition to your home. In addition to enjoying more space, which can be quite helpful if your family is growing, you can also reap the rewards of added value to your home if you decide to sell. However, one thing that you should keep in mind when planning your home addition in Atlanta is successfully blending it with the rest of your house.

If your addition stands out from the original house because the style and materials of the addition are completely different than the rest of the house, then it won’t add as much value and it can hurt your curb appeal.  A well-designed addition should look like it’s always been part of the home; for example, if you have an Arts and Crafts style home, then the last thing you want to do is build a contemporary add on. You should use similar windows, roofing, siding and paint color as the rest of the home, and the same goes for the interior of the addition. Using a cohesive interior design in the new part of your home will provide continuity throughout the house.  For example, if you use wood flooring in your original home, your addition should use the same wood flooring with the same stain to look like it was designed at the same time.

You still have plenty of freedom with the design of your home addition. Trying to exactly replicate the rest of your house could result in missing some of the modern-day features that are available. There can be differences between the addition and the home, it’s just important to tie things together using light fixtures, paint and cosmetic details in order to make it look like an addition that has been there for years.

To plan a home addition that blends with your home in Atlanta, contact us at Renewal Design-Build.

When designing your home, be sure not to ignore your bathroom. Many homeowners mistakenly think that there’s no need to design such a small area that only serves as a function of cleaning. The bathroom should feel like an extension of the rest of your home, not just a space for cleaning oneself. Consider adding a touch of elegance to your bathroom space by using one of the following vanity designs.

Renewal Design Build

Furniture-Style
Adding pilaster-style legs to the vanity cabinets to lift them off of the ground gives your vanity the look of a classic piece of furniture. Add other elements such as detailed feet and varying heights to create a unique-looking vanity that looks like it would be at home in the living room. If you don’t like the idea of lifting the vanity off the ground, use furniture base molding to provide a similar effect.

Use Actual Furniture
Instead of styling your vanities to look like furniture, you can also use actual furniture pieces or antiques, such as an old desk. Not only does furniture like a desk help your vanity stand apart from the more standard designs, it will also provide you with a helpful desk drawers that can be used to hold toiletries and the other small necessities that clutter the more common vanity cabinets. If you prefer a more open look, you can also use a small table with a deep apron that will hide the plumbing of a drop-in sink.  Another piece of furniture that you could put to use as a vanity is a dresser. A dresser will fit a smaller space better than a desk, but will also provide more storage space then a table.

Contact  Renewal Design Build to help renovate your bathroom today.  We would be happy to help create a unique bathroom design for you!

Renewal Design Build

Renovating your Atlanta home doesn’t always have to mean completely gutting the structure and starting from scratch. Sometimes you have a perfectly sound foundation that just needs a pick me up. One such place is often the kitchen, particularly the cabinets. This super important space, after all, does provide the most return on your investment when it comes to updating your home. And if your cabinet boxes are still in decent shape, you might opt for refacing instead of replacing.

Refacing the kitchen cabinets? What does that mean?

Refacing is simply the process of changing out the cabinet doors, but the original cabinet structure remains in place. But why would anyone choose to reface over replacing with custom kitchen cabinets?

• Refacing takes less time – It takes much longer to have your cabinets replaced than to have them refaced. In addition to having to actually pick out new cabinets, you’ll also have to wait for the materials to arrive, have your old cabinets torn out and then have the new cabinets installed. Refacing your cabinets can generally take a week or less.
• Refacing isn’t as disruptive –  When replacing your cabinets, you won’t be able to use your kitchen until the construction is finished. You can still use the kitchen during a refacing project, which will make things for your family a lot easier.
• Comparable Quality – You can completely redo your cabinets by refacing them. You can add a thin veneer of plastic laminate or authentic wood to the surface of your cabinets in addition to adding new knobs, molding, pulls and hinges, thereby making your old cabinets look brand new. Custom cabinets really are necessary for an amazing makeover.
• It’s green –  When cabinet boxes are gutted, they’re often sent to a local landfill. By refacing, you’ve saved materials and the energy/fuel it would have required to send those scraps to a landfill. It’s the ultimate way to use what you’ve got!

Would you like to find out if cabinet refacing is the right choice for your kitchen makeover? Be sure to contact Renewal Design Build right here in Atlanta for expert help in making the right choice!

Renewal Design Build

Georgia’s weather is once again working its way up to the extreme heat we are known for in summer.  Whether it’s warm or cold outside, good insulation is vital to keeping your home a comfortable temperature without spending a fortune on your utility bills.  In winter, good insulation in your walls keeps heat from escaping from your home, and in summer it keeps the heat from entering, allowing your heating and air conditioning to work more efficiently.

One of the most efficient forms of insulation available is foam board insulation, which provides incredible insulation with far less thickness than other types. Rigid foam board can be used in nearly every part of the home, from the foundation to the attic. There are some great reasons to use this type of insulation:

• Foam board is easy to install. Unlike fiberglass batting, it’s simple to cut the rigid sheets with a small handsaw or utility knife. It’s also safer to your health; there are no irritating fibers to cause sinus congestion and itching. It can be easily cut to any size or shape, and nailed or glued rather than stapled, which makes installation a lot quicker and easier.
• Foam board comes in a variety of R-values and thicknesses. It can be installed on the exterior of the building under new siding, over concrete basement walls, ceilings, and between studs on interior walls. The extremely dense, extruded-expanded polystyrene foam board is more resistant to moisture and can be used for low walls and roofs where other types of insulation won’t suffice.
• Foam board insulation serves year-around: In hot and humid Atlanta summers, it’s the most cost-effective way to provide excellent thermal resistance, preventing heat conduction through the structural elements like wood or steel studs. Rigid foam board is also much more resistant to mildew and mold growth than fiberglass.
• Less material goes a lot further: Polyisocyanurate foam board (polyiso) Is used for both residential and commercial construction applications. It has a reflective foil facing and a high insulating R-value of 7.0 to 8.0 per inch of thickness. It’s also easy to seal with foil-faced tapes.

If you want to renovate your Atlanta home with insulating foam board, we can help.  Just contact Renewal Design-Build by calling 404-378-6962.

Renewal Design Build

The prospect of purchasing a fixer-upper can seem like the greatest DIY project that anyone could ever take on. Besides being a bargain buy, it is also a wide-open opportunity to draft the home of your dreams. However, when proper planning is not in place, renovations often end in overextended budgets, frustration, disenchantment and even regret.

Being prepared for what a home renovation really entails is the key to avoiding those pitfalls — and bringing that property back to life. So, what can you (and should you) expect when embarking on taking your fixer-upper from drab to fab?

Get Ready for a Ride

When you buy a fixer upper, you make different types of investments. In addition to monetary commitments, you will also spend time and energy on the forthcoming project. Materials might not come in on time or bad weather may delay an installation. Prepare yourself that when opening up the walls of an older home you might find plumbing issues, old wiring, or mold.

Prepare for Replacements

Fixer-upper homes are properties that need a little TLC, if not a lot of it. You should be ready to repair or replace appliances and other mainstay fixtures, such as furnaces and water heaters. Right off the top, incorporate these reparative possibilities into your preliminary budget. Take care to inspect the home’s infrastructure by evaluating the property’s electrical wiring, plumbing and foundation. Depending on how extensive the repairs or replacements are means the difference between landing safely within your spending parameters — or way outside of your budgetary means.

Build a Team

Renovating is by no means a one-person project. You will need a team. This is the part where choosing the right design-build firm comes in handy. At Renewal Design-Build, it’s our job to take the pressure off of you – the homeowner – and spearhead your renovation from start to finish. From repairing the home’s foundation to hanging window treatments, you won’t have to worry about a single thing when you’re working with us. Sure, there are plenty of small projects around the house that are fitting for you to handle yourself. But when it comes to your entire home – when comfort and even resale value are at stake – you’ll want to enlist the help of professionals who know exactly what to do.

Contact us today by calling 404-378-6962. We’d love to discuss how our team can bring your fixer-upper back to life!

Reclaimed Heart Pine Flooring

Wood flooring is widely considered to be a timeless design choice regardless of what your preferred design style may be. If you are considering replacing the flooring of your home in Atlanta with wood, consider using reclaimed wood instead of newer wood products. Reclaimed wood is salvaged from previous projects, and it tends to have much more character than new wood.  In addition to character, reclaimed wood offers several benefits to a home design:

• Reclaimed wood is wonderful for the environment.
  The American Society of Interior Designers urges incorporating it into green design. It’s the most sustainable choice over petroleum-based materials like carpeting and vinyl. Rather than biodegrading in a landfill, it’s resurfaced and gets a second life as a beautiful wood floor.
• Reclaimed wood is frequently stronger and more durable than fresh wood. That’s because in comparison, old-growthtimber has had time to grow stronger and is therefore harder than first-generation, virgin flooring stock. It’s as much as forty points harder on the Janka scale, which measures how much force it takes to embed a steel ball into a wood sample.
• Reclaimed wood is beautiful and has unique properties. Sometimes it’s available in extra-long lengths or wide widths. It can be less expensive than virgin wood stock, and it often has special character and aging. After being refinished, some aged woods only require clear coating because the natural vintage tone of the wood is so appealing. And of course, it can be stained to any shade just like any other lumber.

Sixty percent or more remodelers and designers use wood flooring for kitchens and bathrooms, and reclaimed wood like oak and heart pine are durable enough for high traffic patterns. They can be sealed with polyester varnish, though bathrooms that have high humidity are better served with Tung oil, which is absorbed into the wood and maintains flexibility.

If you want to remodel your Atlanta home with reclaimed wood, Renewal Design-Build will be happy to help. Contact us for information or call us at 404-378-6962.

One of the most important things to consider when designing your home is your lighting scheme. There are three main types of lighting: ambient lighting, task lighting and accent lighting. Ambient lighting provides the area’s general lighting. Task lighting is reserved for specific purposes. Accent lighting is often used to emphasize a part of your home’s decor or to add visual interest to a room. The following are a few examples of how accent lighting can be used throughout the home.

Renewal Design Build

Focal Points
Accent lighting can be used to draw attention to different objects around the home. For example, you can use track lighting in your walk-in closet to showcase different parts of your wardrobe. You can also use wall sconces or even recessed lights to draw attention to a sculpture, a painting on your wall or the fireplace in your living room.

Ambiance
Accent lighting can also be added with no other purpose but to add ambiance. For example, you can install accent lights underneath your kitchen cabinets to help increase your décor’s ambiance. Consider using recessed lighting around your living room to supplement or act as an alternative mood to your ambient lighting. Use different fixtures to add visual interest to architectural areas or smaller spaces, such as a breakfast nook or reading area.

Outdoors  
Accent lighting can be used outside of your home as well. You can light up a pathway by adding accent lighting to your sidewalks or you can hang lights from your roof overhang, or place them around your yard to highlight trees, bushes or flowers. Not only does adding accent lighting here make it easier to see where you are going, it also provides your home with added curb appeal.

For additional information about implementing accent lighting into your home renovation, feel free to contact Renewal Design Build.

If you are taking a second look at the exterior of your home and trying to determine some fantastic methods to improve on the curb appeal, one solution can be found in shutters. Shutters can be either decorative or functional, but they make the exterior of a home look complete.

Decorative shutters are made to simply bring attention to the windows and add a homey feel to the house’s facade. The material is typically lightweight but durable for easy installation and a long life outdoors.

Renewal Design Build

Functional shutters are a great way to not only beautify your residence but also provide an added layer of protection in the event of severe weather. Residential shutters have a long history of being used to control the interior temperature of a home and safeguarding the occupants and possessions within.

Functional exterior shutters can be closed over windows immediately, producing a physical layer of protection against harsh elements. Regions with high winds are especially fond of this form of shutters.

Being able to close outside shutters also provides a great way to lock up a home that is going to sit vacant. The use of shutters is often preferential to placing unsightly boards across windows for many homeowners.

Closing shutters over windows also delivers an obvious barrier to both light and outside temperatures. The way that shutters are created enables the resident to open the slats to control the flow of air without suffering the harsh, bright sunlight.  This can help regulate the temperature within your home during sunny summer days as well, potentially saving money on energy bills.

Shutters come in a variety of materials, including vinyl and wood. Vinyl is typically reserved for decorative pieces because of the large selection of colors that are available. Wood shutters are most commonly associated with the functional forms used by homeowners.

If you need to improve the curb appeal of your Atlanta home, contact Renewal Design-Build at 404-378-6962.

Renewal Design-Build

When we work with homeowners on green home renovations in Atlanta, one of our first suggestions is to replace old appliances with Energy Star Certified counterparts. Something as simple as replacing your old refrigerator with an Energy Star certified refrigerator can save as much as $1,100 over the refrigerator’s lifetime. This is just one of the wonders of a refrigerator that meets Energy Star certification requirements.

A Positive Return on Your Investment

While Energy Star certified refrigerators may cost more initially, you’re guaranteed to receive a return on your investment. Energy Star promises homeowners will recoup the extra money spent – and then some – within a reasonable amount of time through energy savings.

Out with the Old

Did you know 61% of Atlanta homes were built prior to 1960? Many homes have been passed down to newer generations with well-maintained infrastructures and appliances intact. However, appliances were considerably less energy efficient prior to the 1990′s. If you own a refrigerator that’s more than ten years old, you’re spending a minimum of $200 more on energy than you need to.

Reduce Energy Consumption

Energy Star certified refrigerators are guaranteed to use 15% less energy than models that aren’t certified. They use 20% less energy than standard refrigerator models that meet minimum government requirements for energy efficiency. That is a significant difference in energy usage and therefore energy costs.

To maximize energy savings and minimize your carbon footprint, consider the following:

• Read the EnergyGuide label carefully to compare energy use with other models.
• Top-mounted freezer models are 10%-25% more efficient than other models.
• The biggest savings are gained by refrigerators in the 16-20 cubic feet range, so don’t buy more fridge than you need.
• Ice makers and door dispensers use 14%-20% more energy.

Green home renovations are a great way to update your home and reduce your carbon footprint. Make an appointment for a Renewal System Solutions energy assessment to learn more ways your home will benefit from energy efficient modifications.

Renewal Design-Build

If you’re considering making a few improvements around your home, then consider the option of renovating your kitchen in order to provide you and your family with a breakfast nook. A breakfast nook is a fantastic addition to any kitchen that has the space available for it.

There are a number of reasons to consider putting a breakfast nook in your kitchen. It’s nice to have another option when it comes to dining that’s not as formal as the dining room. Many breakfast nooks will be built using banquette seating against the wall, complemented with a couple of additional chairs. One of the advantages of banquette seating in a breakfast nook is the fact that it will help save as much space as possible. You don’t necessarily need extra chairs if your family is small, which will keep the breakfast nook out of the way. This doesn’t mean you can’t style it to fit your home’s design. Choose the cushioning for the banquette seat, the table, the chairs and perhaps even a chandelier or a pendant light to fit your design.

The nook can serve as the social hub of the house offering a great place for casual dining, homework, or crafts.  A breakfast nook could be the perfect addition to your home’s kitchen. For more information about Atlanta home improvement, please visit us at Renewal Design-Build online.

Renewal Design-Build

It’s important to keep the entryway of your home clean and clutter-free, both for the safety of people entering the house and to give a good first impression to guests. However, entryways can often get very dirty, especially in winter and spring, when Atlanta is more prone to rain and pollen. If you are interested in keeping your home clean and your entryway inviting, then you should consider adding a mudroom to your home.

A mudroom is a space that acts as a barrier between the outdoors and the indoors. It’s easy to track in mud, dirt, and leaves, and a mudroom will help keep that mess from spreading to the rest of the home. The following are a few renovations that you can make to your entryway to turn it into a mudroom that will still leave a positive first impression on guests.

• Seating – Place comfortable seating in your mudroom, preferably something that has storage space beneath it so that it can serve more than one function. This will allow you and your guests to sit down and remove or put on shoes.

• Shoe Tray – Have a shoe tray near the doorway to keep any water and mud on your shoes from spreading throughout the mudroom.

• Umbrella Stand – This allows you easy access to an umbrella and gives you the chance to put it away without having to leave it open to dry out.

• Hooks – You can never have too many hooks in a mudroom. This makes it easy to hang up coats, backpacks and accessories immediately without having to rummage through the nearest closet.

If you want to renovate your entryway to serve as a mudroom, be sure to take a look at our portfolio. We at Renewal Design-Build would love to help improve your Atlanta home!

Renewal Design-Build

Among the more popular home upgrades today are those that enhance the convenience of daily life at home and those that improve conservation of energy and water. One small yet significant home upgrade that accomplishes both greater convenience and improved water conservation is the hands-free faucet.

You have likely encountered hands-free faucets in nicer public restrooms, where they are used to improve sanitation.  In your own home, a hands-free faucet can be installed in the bathroom or the kitchen as a convenient way to avoid turning on your faucet with soapy or grimy hands, creating a mess on your faucet’s lever or handles.  These faucets have many additional benefits that make them a good choice for your green home renovation:

• Hands-free faucets can help to significantly reduce the amount of water that you use in your home. The faucet automatically turns on when a user’s hands approach the sensing field. Once the hands are out of range, the faucet turns off the flow of water within seconds. The typical hands-free faucet uses approximately 30 percent less water than traditional faucets.
• Though hands-free faucets are relatively new to home use, they can accommodate just about any decor style, coming in a variety of designs and finishes.
• Many hands-free faucets offer a thermostatic valve, which helps control the temperature of the water being released from the faucet to prevent the potential for hot water scalding. For this reason, this intuitive technology is ideal for a home with young children or older adults. This feature also helps to reduce the amount of energy it takes to heat the water.

All and all, a hands-free faucet has a number of environmentally friendly advantages in addition to offering a sleek, intuitive design for your bathroom. To learn more about green home renovations in Atlanta, please contact us at Renewal Design- Build.

Renewal Design-Build

Renovating areas of your home, whether it be your kitchen, bathrooms, entryway or even building an addition to your home has several benefits, including increasing the enjoyment that you get out of your home and improving your home’s value. However, actually going through with a renovation can be a long and stressful process. This process can be made less complicated and less stressful by using a design-build team.

In more typical renovation projects, you will have to go through two separate parties: the designer and the contractor. The designer will help you make the plan for the renovation, and then you’ll hire a contractor to actually do the renovation. The problem is that the designer and contractor are not working directly together and rarely have an established system of communication. You’ll have to work as the go-between if there are problems, which can quickly become a stressful process. A design-build team doesn’t encounter this issue; in a design-build team, a designer and contractor work as one entity and under one contract.

There are a number of benefits to using a design-build team over the more typical renovation process, which is known as design-bid-build. There is much clearer communication between everyone involved, which means you don’t have to act as a go-between. Clearer communication leads to higher quality work, and, according to a study on commercial projects, costs are reduced by as much as 8 percent and the time it takes to complete the renovation is decreased by almost 33 percent. Working with one company helps streamline orders, budgeting and billing as well.

For more information about Atlanta design build, visit Renewal Design-Build online. We would be happy to work with you to make your renovation process run smoothly and quickly!

Renewal Design-Build

If you’re in the process of deciding which type of flooring to install in your Atlanta home, consider using carpet. Carpet has been a popular choice among homeowners for decades, and for good reason. Not only are there a huge variety of carpets to choose from, such as polyester, olefin, nylon, wool and more, but there are  several benefits gained by choosing carpeting over other flooring options such as tile or hardwood.

• Warmth – Although it may not often snow in the Atlanta area, it does get cold during the winters. Carpet acts as thermal resistance, helping retain warm air in the home, which can help you save on your heating bills.

• Style – Carpets are aesthetically pleasing and come in a huge variety of colors and styles. This means that no matter what your interior design is, you can find carpeting that will help complement it.

• Safety – Carpet acts as cushioning, making it more difficult to slip on surfaces that are wet. It also makes any falls that do happen less dangerous. This is a huge advantage if you have children in the home.

• Noise – Carpet helps to absorb sound. For example, if you are trying to sleep in your bedroom, you won’t hear someone walking past your room outside like you would if you had hardwood floors. Carpeting on the second floor will help absorb sounds from below as well, meaning that you won’t be disturbed by the noises from the TV if you go to bed earlier than other members of your household.

• Long Lasting – Carpet will last a long time as long as you clean it on a regular basis.  Vacuum it regularly and schedule the occasional professional cleaning in order to keep it in great condition for years.

Consider the benefits that using carpet for your home has over other flooring materials when planning your home renovations.  Contact Renewal Design-Build for more information about Atlanta home improvement.

Although the keeping room was popular in colonial times, it was only recently that modern families began to re-incorporate them into their homes. A keeping room is actually a very basic concept. It is basically a secondary living room that connects to the kitchen area. It was a popular space in colonial times due to the fact that the heat from the kitchen kept the keeping room warm, making it one of the few heated areas in the house.

Renewal Design-Build

These days, the centerpiece of a keeping room is often a fireplace. This helps it to retain the function it had hundreds of years ago – a place where the family can congregate to keep warm. So what’s the point of having one now? When you or any other family members are using the kitchen, you’ll often attract people who wish to keep you company. Having the kitchen open up to a keeping room gives family members and guests more space and comfort.

If you are spending a lot of time in the kitchen cooking or preparing meals, then you probably find that you have five to ten minute increments where you don’t have to do anything except keep track of your food. In a home without a keeping room, you’ll probably remain in the kitchen because going across the house to your living room will prevent you from keeping an eye on the kitchen. A keeping room allows you to sit down for a moment without having to take your eye off the kitchen.

Homeowners are finding that having a keeping room in their house provides added convenience and comfort, which is why it’s becoming a popular feature. For information about implementing a keeping room into your home, contact our design build firm in Atlanta, Renewal Design Build.

The master bedroom has long served as a place to relax after a long and stressful day. These days, however, the master suite has evolved into something much more. In fact, a properly designed master suite can serve as an alternate breakfast nook, a second office or even as a private spa-like space.

Master suites offer a new level of space and comfort traditional bedrooms can’t match

Creating a master suite in an existing structure is not really that difficult or expensive. With a little forethought and planning, a homeowner can easily remodel their existing master bedroom/bath and add some additional space from an existing but unused room. Most importantly, the end result can be tailored to fit the needs, lifestyle and tastes of the homeowner.

For example, a fireplace can be added for romance in the bedroom or a heated floor in the master bath for more comfort on those cold winter mornings. Need just a little more elbow room? Add double sinks or walk-in closets to give both you and your significant other a little more space and convenience. For an even greater comfort, add an entertainment center in a private sitting area. Who knows? If done well, it may even become your favorite spot in the house. The opportunities are endless.

If you are considering creating a master suite out of your existing master bedroom and bath, consider using a reputable design build firm in Atlanta like Renewal Design Build. Our professional team can help you with the entire process from initial planning, through fixture and appliance selection, to final construction. In the long run, you will save money, be less aggravated and be far happier with the final result of your master suite.

With the right thermostat, you can cut down on energy usage

Energy costs can get quite expensive, especially when heating your home during the winter months and cooling it during the summer months. Not only does this cause your heating and cooling bills to rise, but it’s also not very environmentally friendly. It is for these reasons that you should have a programmable thermostat installed.

Now don’t be fooled – having a programmable thermostat does not automatically equal energy savings. In fact, most models are so complicated that homeowners don’t bother trying to program them, thus paying more for heating and cooling costs.

Have you heard about Nest? What’s cool about this sleek newcomer is that all you have to do is set the temperature for a few days – this will train your Nest thermostat. Nest automatically gets a feel for your home and its temperature needs and it will activate various features on its own without you having to lift a finger. You can even control Nest from your smartphone! Check out more at Nest.com!

In general, programmable thermostats have a number of advantages over using normal thermostats. They help to save energy, save money and of course, increase the level of comfort in your home. A programmable thermostat allows you to program the temperature of your home during any time of the day. When that time comes, the programmable thermostat will automatically adjust the temperature to what you programmed it to be.

This is especially helpful when no one is at home. If no one’s home, what’s the point of running the thermostat so that your home is cool or warm? You can program the thermometer to automatically adjust the temperature to a level that you’ll save the most amount of money once you’ve left home. You’ll even be able to set it to switch back to your desired temperature right before you get back home.

There are a number of different models that allow you different types of flexibility in programming. A 7-day model will allow you to set the temperature schedule on a day to day basis. A 5+2-day model lets you use the same schedule during the week and a different one on the weekend. A 5+1+1 model lets you schedule Saturdays and Sundays separately.

Install a programmable thermostat from Georgia Power and save up to $100 a year on energy costs. Be sure to check out their special $100 rebate as well. For more information about sustainable, cost saving home design, contact a design build firm in Atlanta such as Renewal Design Build.

Almost every kitchen has a pantry, no matter what size the kitchen is. It’s what you use to store many of the foods that you use on a regular basis. In fact, like many of us, you probably take your pantry for granted. However, the origin of the pantry is actually quite interesting.

Renewal Design-Build

The space used for food storage (the “pantry” as we know it today) was first used during Medieval times in England as a place to store meat, beer and other provisions. In the 17^th and 18^th centuries, colonialists in New England used small rooms off of the kitchen for food storage, known as the buttery. It wasn’t until the 1800s that the term pantry came about, which was derived from the Latin word, “panis”, meaning bread. It was during this time that the pantry became a space located between the kitchen and dining room that stored china and silver.

During the 1920s and 1930s the pantry was merged into the kitchen itself. However, during the advent of the refrigerator in the 1950s, the use of pantries dwindled. In the 1960s pantries made their appearance as floor to ceiling cabinets, which is what many of us recognize pantries to be now. Surprisingly enough, the use of the pantry is becoming more important in American homes these days. In fact, they’re beginning to go back to the pantries of yesteryear, with many pantries taking up space adjacent to the kitchen in the form of walk-in pantries. This allows for better use of space, storage and accessibility.

If you’re thinking about Atlanta home renovations, then consider a walk-in pantry for your kitchen. Be sure to visit Renewal Design-Build for any Atlanta home renovations that you need.