American Dream Home
Home ownership is not only the crown atop The American Dream, private property ownership is the very cornerstone of American liberty, upon which our free enterprise system and indeed our republican form of government have stood for almost 250 years.
Protection of private property is essential for the preservation of individual freedom. When individuals do not possess secure property rights, dependency on government for the essentials of life become inevitable.
America’s Founding Fathers believed that private property ownership existed long before government in ancient common law.
“Home ownership has long been accepted as a core component of the American dream, as it confers several economic benefits on homeowners, including the ability to accumulate wealth by accessing credit and building equity,” according to Forbes magazine.
“Home ownership is proving to be a cornerstone of financial security,” says the Mullin Group of Berkshire Hathaway. “Two major personal wealth goals, home ownership and net worth, work hand-in-hand. If you’re looking for financial security, home ownership should be a top priority."
Mark Fleming, Chief Economist for First American says, “Buying a home is not just a financial decision. It’s also a lifestyle decision.”
In fact, Gregory Schmidt with the New York Times reports that “Nearly three-quarters of Americans say owning a home is a higher measure of achievement than having a successful career, raising a family or earning a college degree,” according to a new Bankrate survey.
TLK Luxury Custom Homes believe in America greatness and they believe in the American Dream. Let the Kneedlers help you take a step into the American Dream by building your Dream Home on a little piece of America.
2023 Color Wars
Once upon a time, there was but one agreed Color of the Year amongst the decorating Kingdoms of the earth. This special color appeared everywhere, on everything and peace reigned throughout the land. The elders still speak of the age of avocado refrigerators and the all-powerful, Great Accent Wall of Punjab.
As time went on, the designers became dissatisfied with the old ways and no longer wished to paint the entire Kingdom burnt orange or baby blue. Powerful factions began to break away and choose their own Color of the Year and that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the color wars began.
These designers enlisted armies of paint manufactures to create the most fabulous color of all, every year thereafter throughout the Kingdom.
That brings us to the year 2023, where a myriad of paint creators juxtaposition for fame and fortune by giving you just the one color of which you have always dreamed to use in your custom luxury home.
Even wood stain manufacturers now have a Color of the Year and for 2023, Minwax has chosen a rich, warm stain called Aged Barrel. Minwax says Aged Barrel's traditional roots provide a grounded feeling in any room.
Let TLK Luxury Custom Homes be your champion in the explosion of wonderful colors coming on the scene this year.
Luxury Is Looking Up
One of the hottest trends in luxury homes right now is incorporating dramatic ceilings into the design. Ceilings that “make a statement” lift your custom home to a whole new level of luxury.
For the first time, designers now consider ceiling to be the fifth wall of your room that can actually add value to your luxury custom home. Mike Woodley of Woodley Architectural Group says, “Good design sells better and quicker, and the ceiling is an important part of good design.
There are so many styles available to dress the ceilings of each room of your home, but the first element to address is height. Eight foot ceilings no longer satisfy the luxury custom home buyer, but just another 12 inches brings you tons of options. By the way, Realtor.com® found that raising ceiling height to 10 or 11 feet from the standard 8-to-9-foot range, resulted in an average 50% jump in listing prices per square foot.
Tall ceilings aren’t really that “new,” you say. Well, we’re talking about a whole lot more than just a spacious entryway or great room with a plain white ceiling. We’re talking glamour, with a generous helping of ouuus and ahhhs..
Once you leave square feet in the past and open your mind to thoughts of cubit feet, your luxury ceiling design options become legion! Think texture. Think color. Think depth. Think shape. Think looking up into the starry night skies!
Even elaborate ceiling tiles have taken on a vastly upmarket look, from intricate metal and wood designs to ornate plaster effects. These are not you grandmother’s ceiling tiles. These tiled ceilings are to die for, as they say.
Imagine styles like tray ceilings, then dare to entertain the idea of coffered ceilings and barrel vaulted ceilings. Coffered ceilings are sunken panels of various shapes and sizes elaborately constructed into a grid pattern that is not only impressive, but helps to absorb sound in the room.
Vaulted Cathedral ceilings have two equal sloping sides that meet in the middle high point of the room, while conversely, vaulted barrel ceilings feature a grand, semi-circular arch resembling a barrel or circle, cut in half.
TLK Luxury Customs Homes could even vary the ceiling designs from room to room to set different moods though out your home.
TLK’s savvy ceiling designers can coordinate each room's “fifth wall” with the room’s other details to create a completely balanced, sophisticated look.
The right “fifth wall” treatment can whisper Country French in your kitchen, while a richly stained coffered ceiling brings a feeling of the British Aristocracy to your library or billiards room. From intimate conversation spaces through a gorgeous barreled ceiling hall, into an elegant dining room, the statement ceiling makes it all happen.
Luxury ceilings help set the stage to the drama that unfolds in your new custom home
Don’t kid yourself, there will always be drama… but with TLK Luxury Custom Homes, it’s drama in a good way!
Light Up The Night
Landscape lighting is one of the most dramatic improvements you can make to your home’s curb appeal. In fact, professional outdoor lighting design is an investment that will even increase the resale value of your home. We call it, spotlighting your home's value with landscape lighting.
Luxury architectural and landscape lighting should be a dramatic journey that moves guests through one area of your outdoor living space into another. TLK Luxury Custom Homes will use subtle lighting along paths, pool edges, and doorways, creating definition, insuring safety, and tying everything together. In areas where more light is needed, for instance for cooking or dining, the TLK team will increase the number of lighting fixtures to direct the light exactly where it's needed.
TLK Luxury Custom Homes can design landscape lighting systems that really impress! Then, because every element is professionally installed and connected to a central power source, you’ll have control everything from one spot in your home.
Lisa and TK Kneedler will work with you to determine which elements of your home you want to feature and what you might want to hide or disguise with lighting. For instance, you might want to show off exquisite landscape elements like a water feature with a wash of light. On the other hand, you might want to direct attention away from a storage area for pool equipment.
Landscape lighting can also “set the mood” for a moonlight swim or a romantic al fresco dinner. Warm lighting usually looks more elegant and can be more relaxing in comfortable outdoor living spaces.
Low level lighting may be best to direct the eye along the path. while artificial “moon lighting” transforms larger, sweeping areas into an enchanting glen with an almost mystical quality.
On the other hand, cool, bright lighting is best to dramatically accentuate some of the more grand elements of your architecture.
Although one of the most effective design elements of your custom luxury home, architectural lighting sounds a little daunting and therefore, is often ignored completely. Be bold and allow TK Kneedler to show you the perfect balance of utility and elegance.
You don’t need to know the difference between lumen and wattage or be able to calculate how much each light is needed to cover the area you want to accent. Simply, let TLK Luxury Custom Homes do all of that for you.
Finally, custom-designed landscape lighting not only surrounds your home in luminous luxury, but it also protects your property after dark. TLK Luxury Custom Homes believes that their clients are really looking for security and serenity. With Lisa’s keen design sense and TK’s law enforcement experience, their team is uniquely qualified to give you both.
Introducing The Butler’s Pantry
Open concept living has become all the rage over the past few years, but as wonderful as these modern innovations are, did we really think this through?
When the whole family is over and the den is filled with cousins, kids, toys and football, it’s wonderful to remain a part of the fun from inside your busy kitchen. Bravo! Excellent idea.
What happens when more formal entertaining is required? Do you really want your pots and pans shoved in the face of your company’s CEO all during dinner? Will the committee chairman be impressed with your exotic display of dirty dishes?.
What if we created a custom Butler’s Pantry between your fabulous, open-plan kitchen and your elegantly laid, formal dining room. We can’t claim to have invented the Butler’s Pantry, but we do believe it could support your informal daily lifestyle, while preserving the elegance of special occasions.
Butler’s Pantries were popular in the magnificent houses at the turn of the19th century when the likes of “Lord and Lady Grantham” entertained with lavish dinners and soirées. Kitchens back then were steamy, noisy places filled with cooks, cleaners and servers that no guest was ever allowed to see. The Butler was the ring master of this circus and kept things flowing beautifully from oven to table. Everything he needed to make this magic happen was kept in the Butler’s Pantry. The crystal, the silver cutlery, fine china and exquisite table linens were kept there, under the watchful eye of the family’s butler. Some very expensive, opened bottles of wine were also kept in the Butler’s Pantry.
Today’s Butler’s Pantries re-imagine these transitional spaces. Modern homeowners demand designs that have it all. Think functionality meets trendy style, with timeless beauty.
This clutter-free and organized Butler’s Pantry will save you time and alleviate “pre-event” stress because everything you need is in one place and is instantly available at your fingertips. If you’re handing over the cooking to a caterer, the chef may actually kiss you for providing him with a Butler’s Pantry!
Your custom, luxury Butler’s Pantry can serve as a staging area for meal preparation that gobbles up copious amounts of counter space and cabinetry. It can serve as your drinks station with room for wine bottles and tea pitchers.
Did we mention all of the additional storage that a well-designed Butler’s Pantry has to offer? There are some kitchen appliances that are never used except for formal-ish dinners, so just stick them in the Butler’s Pantry cabinets.
Why not add an additional micro-wave oven, or small refrigerator to your Butler’s Pantry? You could even add warming drawers and ice makers to your Butler's Pantry, and the addition of a second sink is practically a “must have” in your luxury custom Butler’s Pantry.
TLK Custom Luxury Homes can help you design a dream Butler’s Pantry. We will help you coordinate cabinetry and counter tops to compliment the style of the rest of your house. We can add elements that echo the character of your home and help you choose lighting and fixtures that make your Butler’s Pantry look stylishly modern or lavishly extravagant, and all points in between.
When your neighbor brags about their recent trip to Europe, just say, “that’s nice dear, but have you seen my Butler’s Pantry!”
Custom Made in the Shade
Taking their rightful place in the top luxury home trends of 2022 are extravagant covered exterior living spaces.
Since "enjoying the great outdoors" here in Texas demands shading your spaces from the relentless sunshine, luxury home designers have outdone themselves with new shade options for 2022.
After two years of staying inside due to COVID-19, people are craving connection with nature more than ever. Gazing out your window in the morning with that first cup of coffee in the morning, you imagine an outdoor oasis. Julius Caesar felt the same way, so he copied his "front porch" from the Greek portico. Precursor of all porches, the portico originated in ancient Greece as a formal framing device that defined an entryway and created an appearance of authority.
We, much like powerful Middle Kingdom Egyptians, have a longing to domesticate the natural world. Although, gardens were expensive to build and required a high level of maintenance, gardens were very popular in the Pharaonic period and were built within wealthy households and royal palaces.
Typical gardens in ancient Egypt shared these essential components: an enclosure wall, a water pond, ornate water well or canal, trees, flowers, vegetables and large shaded areas.
Aside from the mere beauty of modern porches and covered patio / deck areas, they are designed specifically to provide the shade we need to survive the solar onslaught.
Not only do shaded areas protect you from the sun, they also help insulate you from exorbitant summertime electric bills. Porches and covered patios block the sun from shining directly through your windows and heating up your home’s interior.
Let's face it, while shading your home and your guests is definitely the smart move, what we're really after is THE WOW FACTOR.
The luxury, covered outdoor living space designs that TLK has on offer are not your grandmother's back porch or your dad's plastic sheet over a few metal poles, but gorgeous, modern miracles that will fulfill your wildest dreams.
TK and Lisa Kneedler know how to surround your new custom luxury home with all the "wow" you can handle!
Luxurious Master Suites
Graduating from “master bedroom” to “master suite” has become one of the most popular home remodeling projects in history. Popular especially with people who have worked hard to build a good life and a great future for themselves.
There are a few unmistakable things that say, "We've arrived." You know like purchasing a Lamborghini, going on a six-month European tour, buying a beach house or adding a luxurious Master Suite to your home.
Think 5-star, mountain top, Aspen retreat or Presidential Suite of a grand hotel instead of simply a big bedroom.
Is adding a drop-dead gorgeous Master Suite to you home or building one into your custom home plan really worth it? When homeowners in a recent study were asked if they were happy with their Master Suite addition project, 100% of the respondents said YES! They all gave the project 10 out of 10 in the "Joy" factor.
What makes luxury Master Suites so popular? Walking into your perfect Master Suite is like driving your carriage into your very own castle and pulling up the draw bridge to make the world go away. The answer really is creating the perfect oasis for you with everything that you want in it just the way you want it. The key is to work with a luxury custom home builder who understands that and will guide you painlessly through the process.
TLK Luxury Custom Homes will help you decide how big your oasis needs to be to give you the Wow Factor you deserve. For instance, owner, TK Kneedler has learned by experience that your new addition should occupy from 350 to 600 square feet to give you a truly luxury custom Master Suite. He knows that you'll be happier if the space is designed to give you divided private spaces than if it is not. There are so many details that TK and his designer wife, Lisa can offer you that you may never even have imagined.
For example, carving out a cozy reading nook away from your magnificent king-sized bed will give you the perfect way to finish the latest David Baldacci novel long after your husband has turned his light off and gone to sleep. You certainly want an enclosed water closet to ensure you the privacy you need when "the need" arises. Little things like that explain why people love their Master Suite additions!
What are your Master Suite options?
Well, to begin with, she's definitely going to want a spa-like Master Bathroom and he's going to want a roomy, kick-ass glass shower. You will probably want to think about His and Hers walk-in closets and perhaps a dressing room. Ask yourself this: should the purpose-built vanity be in her dressing area or in the main bathroom itself?
Do you want to head off to the kitchen to get your midnight snacks or do you want a hidden mini fridge and microwave in your Master Suite? Espresso machine for your morning coffee?
Do you want a vaulted ceiling, a tray or coffered ceiling in the main bedroom area? Do you want a ceiling fan or a chandelier?
Do you want an overall sleek modern look or a more elegant and luxurious look? The beauty and style of the space is just as essential to your comfort as cozy bedding is.
Do you want to add a fireplace to your master suite? Skylight? Heated flooring? Private access to the patio? French doors?
TK and Lisa Kneedler will help you with lighting and fixture options and don't forget the view. What do you want to see when you gaze out of your new Master Suite windows?
TK will also discuss any special needs that you and your family have or that might present themselves in the future. For example, the height of the homeowner plays a big part in design of the shower and tub.
Large, luxurious large master suites on the ground floor check all the boxes for both safety and accessibility now and into the future.
Whatever you want; whatever you need.... TLK Luxury Custom Homes are the go to experts in Master Suites.
Property Frenzy 2021
Pantone Contrasts 2020 & 2021
For over 20 years, Pantone’s Color of the Year has influenced product development and purchasing decisions in multiple industries, including fashion, home furnishings, and industrial design, as well as product packaging and graphic design.
To arrive at the selection each year, Pantone’s color experts at Pantone Color Institute comb the world looking for new color influences. This can include the entertainment industry and films in production, traveling art collections and new artists, fashion, all areas of design, popular travel destinations, as well as new lifestyles and socio-economic conditions.
Pantone could never have predicted the Covid-obsession that would overcome America in 2020. However, when they choose Classic Blue for the 2020 color of the year, they were prophetically spot on.
Suddenly, we were living in a world where we didn't feel quite as secure as in years past.
Leatrice Eiseman, the executive director of the company’s Color Institute, believes that “Blue, from an emotional, psychological standpoint, has always represented a certain amount of calm and dependability. It’s a color that you can rely on.”
"There are many different blues in the Pantone system, but Classic Blue really gave us that feeling of confidence and stability,” Eiseman says.
Once in her yearly speech to the nation, Queen Elizabeth II referred to 1992 as Great Britain's "Annus Horribilis." Without fear of contradiction, 2020 could be called America's Annus Horribilis.
As time dragged on, 2021 was looking pretty darned gray as well, but now we're coming back. We're back at work and we're back at play. Weddings and birthday parties are being booked and our masked days are disappearing.
To recognize this emergence into the light, Pantone chose two colors of the year for 2021...
gray and yellow and called them Ultimate Gray and Illuminating.
Illuminating is a bright and cheerful yellow sparkling with vivacity, a warming yellow shade imbued with solar power. Ultimate Gray is emblematic of solid and dependable elements which are everlasting and provide a firm foundation.
Luxury Laundry Rooms
The Laundry Room is one of those areas where luxury custom homes really shine!
Once you've enjoyed all the amenities that a rock-star laundry room has to offer, a mere utility room will just never suffice again.
What's so special about a laundry room, asked no woman ever.
In your fairy-tale laundry area there would be lots of natural light, ample counter and table space upon which you could fold towels and pants, long bars perfect for hanging countless numbers of shirts and dresses, easy to reach cabinets to hide away soap and softener bottles, and tons of floor space around which to maneuver giant rolling clothes baskets!
TLK Luxury Custom Homes can create a magical space for transforming tarnished garments into catwalk-ready masterpieces.
We begin with the basics, of course, like the perfect washer and dryer that suits your taste and personality, then push out all the stops until your laundry room is a thing of beauty.
For example, if you like the front loading option. Your dream front loading washer and dryer set should offer efficient cleaning and drying, plenty of cycle options to meet your laundry needs, and enough capacity to handle large or bulky loads. The LG WM4000HWA and its matching dryer do all that and more.
If you have a few pet peeves about front loading washers, you might considerable a newcomer to the appliance arena. Samsung manufactures some of the best top load washers and dryers on the market. High efficiency, top load Samsung washers have adaptable settings that speak to the brand’s history in high-tech designs with the cutting-edge features like self-cleaning, steam, deep or shallow fill features and even a built in water faucet in the washer.
The WA54M8750 model even comes with built-in WiFi to connect your washer to your mobile device. This allows you to monitor how much time is remaining in a cycle, get alerted when a cycle finishes, and even schedule your cycles to start at designated times. Whether you're downstairs or out of the house, you'll always know the status of your laundry.
Plus these machines have a chic design with glass lids and doors and they even come in the color of champagne.
Speaking of luxury clothes washing, Samsung has re-imagined clothing care with the AirDresser, an innovative new appliance that refreshes and sanitizes your clothes without washing them.
Since over washing your garments can wear them out prematurely, Samsung devised a way to bring your neighborhood dry cleaners right into your luxury laundry room.
So what is the formula for a "happily ever after", Cinderella luxury laundry room? Take the good bones of fine design and solid cabinetry, then add a few of these luxury appliances, a built in ironing facility, at least one stylish utility sink and maybe even a laundry shoot from upstairs.... and all that's missing from your luxury laundry room might be a beautiful wine rack with your favorite selections and a few crystal stems.
TK Kneedler always says, "Free your imagination!" If you can imagine it, TLK Luxury Custom Homes can create it.
Magical, Mystery Mudroom
Why magical? Not only is a mudroom like a mote that protects your beautiful castle from muddy shoes, wet coats and stinky socks, it magically puts you in a more philosophical mood about all those things.
Mystical because it’s a mystery to us that every custom home doesn’t have a mudroom built into its design!
Well designed mudrooms make economical use of vertical space, providing plenty of hooks or pegs for hanging up coats, scarves, hats and backpacks. We can also design our mudrooms with actual lockers for children’s school books, backpacks, coats and shoes. Ample shelves and cabinets are a must in the mudroom for additional storage as is at least one bench to sit on while removing messy footwear.
A mudroom provides the perfect place to handle the clutter of shoes, outerwear, book bags, briefcases and is an alternative to the coat closet. The mudroom has user friendly storage for the family, bestowing a sense of livability and tidiness to a home.
Our most popular designs are Combo Mud Rooms. One option combines all the features of a great drop-off zone with an easily accessible laundry room. Another option is combining your Mud room with a pet-friendly zone. Imagine an area where Fido can eat his meals, access his water bowl 24-7 and even has a custom cubby hole with his favorite pillow where he can take a nap. Easy-to-clean floors and stylish utility sinks are standard in all of our Mud room designs, but if you really want the best in pet luxury, we can build in a custom, tiled facility for Fido and Fifi’s baths!
Heaven right here on Earth just might be the sense of peace and calm you get from having a mudroom dedicated entirely to handling the accumulated “stuff” of our daily lives, far away from our public living spaces.
Multi-Generational Luxury Custom Homes
Pew Research reports that in 2014, a record 60.6 million Americans lived in homes having two or more adult generations or grandparents and grandchildren. That’s a 30% increase from the prior seven years, however multi-generational living is simply returning to the norm.
Back in the early 1900s, more than half of all senior citizens lived with their children or with their children and grandchildren. Between 1950 and 1980, there was actually an abnormal drop in multi-generational living as television promoted the go-it-alone, “John Wayne.” lifestyle.
Down through history, wealthier families always lived together in large, multi-generational dwellings. With Millennials staying or moving home and seniors living decades longer than any other time since Biblical Genesis, we home builders are taking notice. If living with extended family is good enough for Southfork Ranch and Downton Abbey, why now give it some thought.
One builder advertises his multi-generational home plans as “two homes for the price of one.” We like to think of it as a completely autonomous apartment inside of the main house or a home within a home.
Financial savings aren’t the only benefits of multi-generational living. Caregiving becomes easier, child care becomes automatic, and children form tighter bonds with older family members. In fact, recent studies also suggest that children growing up in multi-generational households have higher performance in school than those who do not. Other research reveals that seniors who spend more time with grandchildren live longer.
We’d love to show you the many, many options of multi-generational home design. Call TK Kneedler at 972-345-3368 for the details.