Are you thinking about investing in a new home and not sure where to start? While it is an ultimate dream to build or buy a new home, the search process can be overwhelming and complicated with more than 400 new home builders and hundreds of communities for sale. Here are some of the best builders in the Northern Virginia area:

Toll Brother’s Inc.: They are one of the top and well-known names in luxury homebuilders with 40 years of experience in developing communities in picturesque settings where luxury meets convenience. When you choose Toll Brothers, you choose luxury and quality. They have won the America’s Best Builder, National Builder of the Year and National Housing Quality awards. In addition, they have been chosen as the First Place Winner for Innovative Product Design in the Big Builder Apex Awards.

As a designer, I worry how well my clients understand the choices they are making and whether they will be happy with them once completed.  Of the many decisions we make in a remodeling project, some of the hardest for people to imagine are size, shape, space, lighting and paint colors.  Out of that set, selecting paint causes the most acute stress.  Maybe that’s because it comes at the very end of the project when expectations are running high and everyone just wants the project finished.

Clients often tell me they want to do “real color,” but are terrified about making the decision.  We work with their furnishings, artwork, preferred palettes, family members’ preferences, room orientation, and available light to determine how to get the effect they want to live with.  Then we paint – and wait.  Eager to see how their new space is going to look, they return, often with friends.  This is where Paint Traumatic Stress Syndrome typically sets in.

Earlier this month, the retailer Party City invited I Am Modern (along with other top publications throughout the US) to Hilton Head, South Carolina for a weekend of parties. Partnering with celebrity event and home stylist Tara Riceberg (who, by the way, is also Paula Abdul’s cousin), Party City decorated several area homes and hosted seven parties in three days to highlight the latest trends in event planning and decorating.

We will highlight each party throughout the coming weeks to give you the low-down on all the hottest trends.

Tackling the Dreaded Spring Cleaning

The spring is upon us!  Halleluiah!  Let the sun shine, cherry blossoms bloom and your energy soar!  Welcome back spring.  We missed you!

Now I’m sure you’ve been busy at work since January 1^st conquering your resolutions, right?  You’ve shed those 10 pounds, found the love of your life and removed any sign of clutter?  Really?  Good for you!  If not, join the club.  Millions of us have forgotten what our resolutions even were, (I think mine was to eat less sugar, oops.)  But it’s never too late to get started.  The spring is indeed a time of rebirth and revitalization and what could be better motivation than a little sunshine, warm weather and those two magical words, Spring Cleaning?

The best way to approach spring cleaning in my opinion is head on and with an organized plan of attack.  So let’s get started.

Anicia Bragg-Burton, founder of A Bragg Design, shares tips for decorating posh spaces for the holidays.

Designer Christmas trees are a relatively new phenomena, with many people using their decorations to demonstrate a certain level of status and sophistication over the holidays. However, it is not always easy to figure out how to decorate Christmas trees for luxury homes.
You have to balance exceptional design and holiday spirit to convey an atmosphere that is both elegant and welcoming for your family and guests. Whether you plan to put your tree in a foyer, window or large formal room, the first element to consider is size. Match your Christmas tree to the height of the ceilings and width of the room, so that it is bold and eye catching, but not overwhelming.
 
Also consider color coordination. You do not necessarily have to match your holiday choices with your regular color scheme, but you should try to match most of your decorations. From window trimmings and trinkets to centerpieces and fabrics, you want your tree to truly enhance the space.
Mimic your favorite designer's style for inspiration, by choosing colors and decorations that they might use. Everything from ornaments to wrapping paper and accessories from the designer’s label can be coordinated. You might not have thought that your Christmas tree could resemble Versace, Chanel or Betsy Johnson, but you can take cues from the basic elements that these designers use in their collections and apply them to your own holiday design.

A key to protecting the investment you’ve made in your home is by following a regular maintenance schedule. By performing preventative maintenance on an on-going basis, you‚ll avoid many of the big ticket repair items that can lower the value of your home. Here are helpful checklists for monthly and fall maintenance.

MONTHLY
Test your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detector.
Check the filters on your heating and cooling systems.  Be sure to clean and change according to the manufacturer‚s schedule.
If you have a humidifier or an electronic air filter, check these as well.  
Check faucets for drips.  Check plumbing for leaks.

Working with your Establishing Decor

It seems like every year when the holidays roll around, my kids are thrilled to pull out all the stops and turn our house into Santa’s Workshop. But what about all that work I’ve put into getting our house to look just-so? How am I supposed to fit in all those decorations with the decor we sport the other eleven months of the year? It can be a real challenge to decorate for the holidays so that everything comes together in a festive way without clashing with the remaining decor.

When Virginia Woolf said that a woman needs a room of her own, she wasn’t kidding. Whether you’re running your own business, telecommuting, or being the CEO of your family, every Mom needs a command center. And even though the corner office that you deserve may not fit into your house, kitchen designers and cabinet manufacturers are ready to help you create the space you need to run your home, your family, and your life. Your kitchen wears many hats, just like you do! Moms are caregivers, financial providers, cooks, chauffeurs… the list goes on and on. And these days, kitchens are for cooking, entertaining, homework, storage and home offices. Like you, your kitchen wears many hats. So how do you make everything fit in?

Today’s Master Bath is all about luxury, comfort and functionality. Homeowners are looking for custom, personalized spaces which allow them to decompress from their busy lives.

Spa-inspired spaces complete with clean lines, sleek chrome accents and soothing colors schemes are popular as homeowners re-create the ‘spa experience’ in their own homes. Luxury amenities such as steam showers, multiple shower heads and soaking tubs are often on master bath wish lists. Subtle touches such as using large tiles on floors and walls can reduce visual clutter by minimizing the number of grout lines in a space. Wall mounted, floating vanity cabinets can be used to create a cleaner, more open feel, adding to the spa atmosphere.

Have you been thinking about "going green" at home? Perhaps you've been inspired by a friend or colleague who has made the decision. The whole idea can sound overwhelming. Here are a few easy tips to get started. Start by seeing the idea not so much as sacrificing, but making a lifestyle decision that you approach a bit at a time. Saving green is another reason to "go green".