TK Kneedler

Lockdown Living Unlocked

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Unlock Lockdown Living

The consequences of self-quarantine and social isolation are causing many people to reexamine their housing choices. The Quarantine forced millions of people to work from home, but was their home really conducive for doing business? Did it work for home schooling their kids?

TLK Luxury Custom Homes can build you a house that sets you free from the shackles of quarantined living with custom offices, home schooling space, kitchens designed to cook ahead and store lots of meals,  larger areas to entertain your friends and space out back for your visitors to park their cars.

TLK Custom Homes - Custom Home Office

Apartment living and town homes may once have been great for busy young professionals who run out to work everyday, then meet their friends at clubs and restaurants. However, when your world suddenly locks down around you, your social life disappears and you find yourself alone in front of your computer all day. Social distancing turns into nightmare.

TLK Custom Homes - House Guests

Even middle-aged Americans who were planning on downsizing or eventually moving to active retirement communities have decided to hold on to their comfortable, roomy houses. The social benefits of these communities fly out the window when your Governor or Mayor suddenly forbids gatherings and management simply cancels everything and locks you down.

TLK Custom Homes - Home Game Room

The recent epidemic has made many people want to build a big house closer to their grown children. TLK Custom Homes can build you that home: the house you never dared dream of for less money than buying a tract home; the home customized to give you everything you'll need to enjoy Lockdown Living together with your loved ones!

If you're interested in looking at the Luxury Multi-Generational Home option, click here.

 


 

Interior Courtyards: Perfectly Private Retreat

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Luxury Kitchen TK Kneedler

For centuries, powerful leaders built their castles and palaces with impenetrable walls surrounding luxurious interior courtyards. Their living quarters were constructed just inside, and against the palace walls as further protection from the hoards outside. No matter what riot or pillaging was going on outside of the walls, the courtyard afforded the owners privacy, safety, and relative tranquility.

TLK LUxury Custom Homes - Interior Courtyard
Today, custom home builders are once again recreating an oasis in their luxury homes with inner courtyards. When house plans leave an open space surrounded by four or even three walls of a home, they create a perfectly private retreat far from the maddening crowds.


Joining the indoors and outdoors with massive glass doors is another big trend in luxury homes. When opened, these moving walls of glass allow a seamless transition between inside and outside. After decades of delineating the interior and exterior aspects of your home, now you can enjoy the “transterior” benefits of a timeless luxury courtyard. With a talented architect, designer and builder, the possibilities are endless.

 

Luxury Outdoor Kichens

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Luxury Outdoor Kitchen TK Kneedler

One of the hottest additions to Luxury Custom Homes for 2019 are Luxury Outdoor Kitchens.

In Texas, the days are getting longer and moderate temperatures are just around the corner. Soon the call of the outdoors will have Texans with outdoor kitchens transitioning seamlessly from afternoon sun-fun into evening dining and entertaining without moving the party inside.

Creating gourmet kitchen retreats can be designed to expand a home’s total living space. They be built with the same style and effeciency that you get in all TLK Luxury Custom Kitchens indoors.

We'll begin with a high-performance built-in gas-fired grilling station and cooking range. Then, we'll add an outdoor built-in refrigerators, custom countertops and cabinets, as well as beautiful dining spaces to enjoy for your friends and family to enjoy.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes would like to elevate the art of outdoor living in your mind and in your back yard.

 


 

Grandmillennial Style

Grandmillennial Style

House Beautiful recently carried an article by Emma Bazilian announcing the rise of the "Grandmillennial" style. Grandmillennial is the new favorite of the young, Instagram-posting, décor aficionado with a passion for floral chintzes and antique wallpaper. Some people are affectionately calling this new decorating trend "Grandma Chic!"

The core decades that Millennials are drawing from seem to begin in the 1920s and range all the way through the 1960s.

Grandmillennial Wallpaper

Designer, Meghan Hopp describes Grandmillennial Style as "stepping away from the sort of Modern, Minimalist, white-wall, clean-line design and hearkening back to more traditional kinds of shapes and styles. A lot of color, a lot of pattern mixing, it's really a much richer aesthetic." Hopp, a Grandmillennial herself, is fond of matching classic floral prints over several pieces, hanging vintage wallpaper everywhere and loves the combination of old and new."

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Grandmillennial Dining Room

Millennials are becoming more comfortable displaying their own individual style and rejecting the high-pressure move for everyone to be minimalist. Ms. Hopp calls it returning to authenticity, coming back to what they really like without feeling the need to always be "young and fresh and, you know, of the moment." Millennials are saying, "No. This is what I actually, really like and I'm not going to wait until I'm 85 years old to live my truth!"

"I think color and pattern have started to make a comeback," Hopp continues. "We're really in this age of sort of like Maximalist design and I think it's going to go even further in 2020. We started off with Millennial Pink and now we're going the whole hog; we're all in!"

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Grandmillennial Bedroom

Designer, Lilse McKenna says that Grandmillennial Style is “Classically informed". The look is so vastly different from the social media accounts that are clearly just so trend-based. Those of us who are drawn to this style are trend-averse at our cores."
 


 

Colors of the Year 2019

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - 2019 Paint Colors of the Year

Every year the major paint manufacturers announce their Colors of The Year and every year, those colors are fabulous!

BEHR’s paint color of the year is this beautiful blue called Blueprint. BEHR's Larayne Boaz suggest that you "reimage and dream a new mood or feeling in your home with Peaceful Blue S470-3, Blueprint S470-5, and Deep Breath S460-7." Larayne adds that "These livable blues are soothing and provide a sense of coziness. They are all very versatile and easy to imagine in any room."

TLK Custom Luxury Homes - Behr Paint Color of the Year 2019

This beautiful, neutral gray pictured below, called Metropolitan was Benjamin Moore's Color of The Year for 2019. How could we use this color in your home? Oh, let me count the ways!

Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore's Director of Strategic Design Intelligence says this of the color,“Comforting, composed and effortlessly sophisticated, Metropolitan AF-690 exudes beauty and balance. It’s a color in the neutral spectrum that references a contemplative state of mind and design. Not arresting nor aggressive, this understated yet glamorous gray creates a soothing, impactful common ground.”

TLK Custom Luxury Homes - Benjamin Moore Color of the Year 2019

PPG Paints announced that a delicious green called Night Watch to be their Color of The Year for 2019. Night Watch is a dark, neutral, jade with a malachite undertones.

Dee Schlotter, PPG senior color marketing manager, says,“Night Watch is about bringing the healing power from the outdoors into your home through color. The dark green hue pulls our memories of natural environments to the surface to recreate the calming, invigorating euphoria we feel when in nature."

TLK Custom Luxury Homes -PPG Color of the Year 2019

When Pantone announced Living Coral to be it's 2019 Color of The Year 2019, it spawned a frenzy of of coral love all over the globe. This bright and cheerful color, with its warm, playful presence is not only available as interior paint, you can also get it in everything from fabric to nail color!

Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute, explains  ”Living Coral emits the desired, familiar, and energizing aspects of color found in nature. In its glorious, yet unfortunately more elusive, display beneath the sea, this vivifying and effervescent color mesmerizes the eye and mind. Lying at the center of our naturally vivid and chromatic ecosystem, PANTONE Living Coral is evocative of how coral reefs provide shelter to a diverse kaleidoscope of color."

TLK Custom Luxury Homes - Pantone Living Coral

Like everything you add to your home, what's really important is how it makes you feel when you see it or touch it. Everything about your luxury home should extravagantly express both your unique style and lifestyle. Paint accents are just one of the many ways TLK Custom Homes does that for your luxury home.
 


 

Before you Move to Your New House

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - TK Kneedler

Since January is National Get Organized Month, it’s the perfect time for some tough talk about exactly what you’ll be moving to your new house. These words may be a little frightening, but not everything you have stuffed in your garage, attic or closets should go with you to your brand new home.

The best time to begin preparing to move is the moment you finally decide you want to build a new house. Because good change can also be stressful, getting mentally prepared should be at the very top of your to do list.

When you move into your dream home, you’ll actually be starting a whole new life even if you’re just moving from Fort Worth to Rockwall County. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to start your new adventure with a clean slate?

Organizing and de-cluttering is a daunting prospect, so just try getting your mind around a 15 to 25% "reduction-of-things" figure. All of us have sentimental attachments to our “stuff” or we wouldn’t still have it. The sooner you can internalize the concept that everything isn’t making the move, the easier it will be for you to begin the sorting prospect.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - TK Kneedler - Declutter with yard sale

Here are a few tips that might help ease the pain of separation anxiety:

1. Get the entire family involved. If everyone is tossing a quarter of their possessions, it will be easier on everybody.

2. Divide your stuff into four categories: Trash, Donate, Sell, Take to the New House.

3. Let everyone make their own decisions on what 15% of their stuff has to go. Don’t just throw away their treasures.

4. As soon as you’ve all decided what needs to go, get rid of it quickly, much like ripping off a band aid.

5. If you’re having trouble with the process, don’t be embarrassed to call in a professional organizer. Their services are very reasonable, but the value of their help is priceless.

If you need a recommendation of a great organizer near you, call us. We’re only too happy to make the introductions.
 


 

Mixing Magnificent Metals

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Mixing Metals Interior Decorating - TK Kneedler, Rockwall, TX

Although mixing your metaphors is a definite no-no, mixing gorgeous metals when decorating your luxury custom home is very much in vogue. This inclination has been growing over the last couple of years and we predict that metal mania will continue trending well into 2018 and beyond.

Mixing metals can add character and an intriguing contrast to a room. For instance, mixing warm metals like rose gold or copper with cool metals like silver create a particularly sophisticated look. Brass and chrome used together with black lacquer is another chic combo popping up right now. Blending different finishes like matte gold and metallic gold is another sleek way to go.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - mixing metals in bathroom - Rockwall TX

Adding a few mixed metal pieces to your current interior design is a great way to see if this design trend works for you. Try adding a brass lamp, a nickel vase and a copper tray as accents to see how the combination grabs you before you buy large pieces that could become an expensive regret. Metallic fabric is another great way to test the waters on your mixed metals adventure.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes Rockwall TX - TK Kneedler - brass black and gold fabric

You might find that you like brass and chrome together, silver and polished nickel, or antique brass and oil-rubbed bronze. As luxury home builder, TK Kneedler always says, "Free your imagination!"

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Kitchen - mixed metal kitchen

Like everything you add to your home, what's really important is how it makes you feel when you see it or touch it. Everything about your luxury home should extravagantly express both your unique style and lifestyle.
 


 

Wine Storage Meets Open Concept

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Luxury Kitchen TK Kneedler

With the trendy move toward open concept layouts in luxury custom homes, one issue consistently pops up: Where do we hide all our stuff. Creative and decorative storage is the answer to that problem and has the added benefit of impressing your guests!

Luxury custom home builder, TL Kneedler suggests you turn the problem into a feature. One classic example of that is finding creative ways to display your everyday wine bottles as well as your treasured vino collection.

The more edgy the storage idea, the more clever you will seem to your friends. Why not hand your wine on your wall like a rare painting? Better yet, why not utilize the space under a staircase or in a hall to carve out a refrigerated mini-wine room?

TLK Custom Homes - under the stairs wine seller - TK Kneedler
Glass showcase cellars are an even more bold and beautiful way to proudly share your wine collection. Combining glass walls with metal racking and LED lighting with clear, frosted or etched glass comes off as the height of sophistication. TLK Luxury Custom Homes can build these features into your new home or re-create them in your existing home.
 


 

The Case of Gray versus White Kitchens

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - Luxury Kitchen TK Kneedler

Painting your luxury home kitchen white, although without a doubt a timeless choice, is no longer your only option for maximum flexibility. Gray is now running nose to nose in the race for most desirable kitchen color palate.

Custom luxury home builder, TK Kneedler says that soft gray paint paired with devastatingly opulent stained wood is a major new go-to popular selection with his luxury home clients. TK also says that combining gray cabinets with rich wood cabinets is also a very trendy look.

Neutral color palates are definitely not old-school or boring when personalized with your own particular style. Your luxury kitchen home should extravagantly express your own unique lifestyle as much as any other room in your home. If you want lavenders, purples and mauves paired with rich red-browns in your kitchen, you are right on trend! Throw in warm metal accents like copper or bronze, and you just struck gold!

TLK Luxury Custom Homes Luxury Kitchens Rockwall Heath

Playing with light and shadow will create a dramatic, yet open feel. Dark cabinets matched with sparkling light backsplashes and countertops do just that. Don't, whatever you do, forget to hang gorgeous pendant lights somewhere in your new custom luxury kitchen. That would be like arriving at the charity ball without your earrings! What's the best style for your new kitchen? You're style, of course.
 


 

Walk In Closets in Every Bedroom

TLK Custom Luxury Homes Rockwall, Texas - Custom Luxury Closets

One of the most sizzling hot buttons for luxury home buyers right now are walk-in closets in every bedroom. The big closet in the guest room may be spacious, yet utilitarian, but the master bedroom must be amazing!

Today's luxury home buyer wants more than just hangers, shelves and drawers in their closet. She wants glamour. He wants glass doors, polished metal, polished wood in his luxury closet. You guessed it, his and hers closets are especially on trend in luxury custom homes.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes Rockwall, Texas - Men's Luxury Closets

Luxury home buyers want pizazz! They want floor to ceiling mirrors, an elegant vanity, and a giant island in the middle of the room. Islands are as trendy in luxury closets as they are in custom kitchens. It's practically island mania!

Islands filled with drawers and even attached plush seating are particularly popular. Top your luxury closet island off with a slab of polished marble and you've got the perfect surface for folding the clothes you're packing for an unexpected weekend get away. Of course, your new closet's island will also have a built in charging station for all your electronics.

Buyers want their luxury closet to mimic their favorite clothes shopping experience, complete with an elegant dressing area. Today's luxury home buyer wants little mini-condos for their shoes and LED back lighting or maybe a few crystal chandeliers. She may be inspired by a quirky little shop she saw in New York. He may want a gun safe or a refrigerator in his closet.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes Rockwall, Texas - Eclectic Boutique Closet

So will custom builders be building a boutique inside the new home or creating some sort of fantasy-land mega-closet? Yes and yes.

Why build a luxury home anyway if you can't have it customized to make your closet dreams come true and WOW your envious friends who come to visit?
 


 

Luxury Homes. Sumptuous Lifestyle.

TLK Custom Homes - TK Kneedler

When you hear someone mention luxury homes, you probably think of a custom home with spacious rooms and high-end finishes. Actually, luxury means so much more than that; it's about how something makes you feel when you see it or touch it. In this case, that something is your home. More precisely, a luxury home should extravagantly express your own unique lifestyle.

Lisa Gild, an associate partner with Partners Trust, believes that the term luxury home is completely subjective. "Luxury is the quality of the build, the location of a home, the magnitude of a property, but it is also very personal," she says. "Some define 'luxury' as a smart home fully wired with every high-tech gadget, and others would interpret 'luxury' as an architecturally significant Mid-Century Modern home."

Your idea of a luxury home is all that matters to builder, TK Kneedler of TLK Custom Homes. He believes that every family deserves to have their dream home.

If you're interested in having your custom luxury dream home built, call builder, TK Kneedler direct on 972-345-3368 to learn how easily your dream can become reality.

 


 

Exclusive Community of Heath, Texas

TLK Custom Homes - Heath TX - Rush Creek Yach Club - TK Kneedler

TLK Luxury Custom Homes is focused on the greater Rockwall County area where the lakeside communities have risen to prominence in the past few years. Heath is one of these premier residential communities that hug the shores of Lake Ray Hubbard. The community of Heath is both peaceful and opulent with a population of about 7,400 people. “For all of Heath’s natural beauty, character and recreational amenities, it is the people that make Heath such a special place.” Brian Berry, City of Heath Mayor

One of the main attractions of Heath is the commitment that the city has made to "preserve a special way of life where rolling hills and the sparkling lake provide a serene backdrop for beautiful neighborhoods and distinctive homes". This pastoral setting gives a feeling of peace and relaxation whilst providing easy access to all the cultural, recreational and business areas of the Metroplex. Heath is truly the best of both worlds.

TLK Custom Homes - Representing-Amy-Parks-elementary-Heath-Texas - TK Kneedler

This year, the City of Heath is developing a new Parks Master Plan and is encouraging the growing Monarch butterfly population in Heath by initiating specially designed gardens in open spaces dubbed Monarch Way Stations. In October 2017, the bike segment of the U.S. Open Triathlon traveled through the City of Heath. That's just the kind of place Heath is.

In addition to a strong community feel and great schools, Heath has a cornucopia of shopping and restaurants just blocks away in Rockwall. All this contributed to TLK Custom Homes time and property investment in the City of Heath. The easy access to the rest of the Metroplex via I30 and Highway 80 was the icing on the cake.

TLK Custom Homes - terry-park-heath-texas- TK Kneedler

Luxury custom home builder, TK Kneedler would love to show you around his current and available projects in the Providence Neighborhood of Heath, off FM 549. Contact him at 972-345-3368.
 


 

TK Kneedler, Luxury Custom Home Builder

Rockwall County custom home builder, TK Kneedler is the product of three generations in the building business having grown up in a family of home builders. His father built homes, his uncle puts heating and cooling systems in them and his grandfather owned a framing business.

Consequently, TK Kneedler is very much a hands-on home builder. As TLK Luxury Custom Homes' owner, business manager and project manager, TK invests his own personal commitment and organization to his client’s projects. TK works together with his wife, Lisa, of 26 years to collaborate and design the home of your dreams. Lisa has a passion for getting to know the clients and then taking her keen eye for design to help create their vision. TK has the construction knowledge and skills to make those visions a reality. They're almost like Rockwall County's very own "Chip and Joanna!"

When you choose TLK Luxury Custom Homes as your builder, you work directly with the Kneedler's from start to finish. When you work with TK Kneedler, you'll soon learn three things:

TLK will never make a commitment he cannot keep and he will always honor the commitments he makes.

TLK will never lose sight of his personal responsibility to understand and fulfill your requirements.

TLK will always be respectful of you and transparent with you and he will always tell you the cold, honest truth.
 


 

DFW Housing Market Even Hotter in 2018

tlk Luxury Custom Homes - TK Kneedler - market

What will the DFW housing market look like in 2018? Well, Realtor.com predicts that only Las Vegas will have a stronger home market than the greater Dallas market will have this year. With its 6 percent expected increase in home sales, there just aren’t enough existing homes on the market to cover that need.

2017 Chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors, Vicki Fullerton explains one of the reasons for DFW's blazing hot market housing. She says, “The diverse job opportunities and high quality of life in Texas continue to drive in-state and out-of-state migration.” Fullerton also reports that Dallas-Fort Worth had the most new out-of-state residents and that even southern and central Texans are flocking to the DFW area.

TLK Luxury Custom Homes - 2018 DFW market

Jennifer Cloud, Rockwall real estate attorney says of the DFW homes market, “I'm here to tell ya, our inventory shortage in the DFW area is the real deal. If you can find a lot and a builder who has time to build, that may just be your best option for now. Either way, stop waiting.”

Now’s the time to build your custom home. If you’re ready, TLK Custom Homes is ready to build it for you, on your lot or ours.