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.

Many midcentury ranches have plain exteriors. We like to call them blank canvasses, ready for renovation! If you’re ready to make your mark on your classic Atlanta ranch and spruce up its curb appeal, consider:

• A small front porch or stoop – a structure at the front door is always a welcoming feature
• For additional outdoor living space, consider a full-size porch
• A gable can break up your ranches’ classic horizontal lines
• Replacing the front door is an inexpensive way to add curb appeal to any home
• Remove old shutters for a more modern feel
• Add trim, or paint the existing trim

Here’s an example of a home in Buckhead that needed a facelift.

AFTER: By replacing the door, adding a gable, and removing the shutters, this ranch home now exhibits charming curb appeal.

This historic 1890s farmhouse recently won a 2012 Decatur Design Award for Historic Preservation. The awards are sponsored by the City of Decatur’s Historic Preservation Commission.

This home had a myriad of exterior problems, from cracked and pitted stairs to walkways with broken and uneven pavers. We freshened up the outside by preserving as much of it as possible. We restored the concrete stairs and salvaged most of the pavers. The walkways were even created in a way to preserve the surrounding trees, so that if the roots shift in the future, the pavers can be reset. See more photos here.

before

after

Is your home’s exterior seriously lacking in inspiration? When thinking about curb appeal, you may find that you can maximize on your home’s strengths with little work, or that your home may need a major facelift. Ask yourself:

1. What’s your first impression of the home?

2. Is the house clean? Well groomed? Welcoming?

3. What are the best exterior features of the house? Of the lot? How can you enhance them?

4. What are the worst features? What can you do to minimize them or improve them?

Bigger Projects
If you decide your home needs a more comprehensive make over, consider:

• A new driveway or walkway – stamped concrete
• Covered entry
• Adding a front porch
• Repairing or replacing siding
• Stone veneer (more…)

If you’re thinking of renovating or building a deck or porch, one of the most important things to consider is flooring. And, there are a multitude of options to choose from:

Pressure Treated Wood is typically low-cost and can be re-finished. However, watch out for splintering, warping, and splitting. This wood does require regular maintenance.

Cedar has a natural look and feel some homeowners love. It’s also resistant to rot, bugs and can be refinished like pressure treated wood; however, it does cost more and requires the same amount of maintenance.

Composite decks are made with 50% sawdust and 50% plastic. Many homeowners enjoy their low-maintenance and “green” qualities. But, they’re prone to fading, staining and tend to get hot.

PVC/Vinyl decking has many of the same positive characteristics as composite – it’s low-maintenance and “green” – and it’s also stain and scratch resistant. Some homeowners may not like its plastic look and feel, as well as the higher cost.

The next time you’re considering stone for a patio, a walkway, or even a driveway, consider concrete. A much less expensive option, stamping and staining concrete can look like stone but without the high price tag.

Can you tell that these aren’t stone? For more designs and ideas, go to ConcreteNetwork.com.