When working with a builder, you’re working with a professional home designer that understands the many possibilities of modern home building. Today’s home builders have the advantage of working with decades of accumulated knowledge, techniques, and an ever-growing list of new materials and eco-friendly and energy-efficient building approaches. There are classic amenities that never go out of style and have a timeless appeal that was popular in the mid 20th century and are still favorites today. We thought we’d take a look at some common popular features of Padilla Homes and how we do it differently. 

Every Feature is an Opportunity to Be Inspired 

When building a home, every feature of your home is an opportunity to discover new beauty, emerging styles, and to take a risk to do something original and breathtaking. Part of our passion for custom home building is the fact that there are always new ideas and design possibilities that we never cease to explore at our client’s behest. If you’re thinking about working with a custom home builder, consider the open possibilities you have for every feature of your home. So let’s look at two features that open up a world of beauty for your new home. 

Kitchen Countertops: Custom Design and Elegance 

Granite has had a special place in homes and kitchens since the early 20th century. During this early period, however, granite was reserved for the very wealthy and luxury homes early. Today, granite is a relatively accessible material. The means of retrieving and cutting it have benefited from advancements in technology and machinery. As a common countertop material, granite started surging in popularity in the 1970s. What makes granite one of the most sought-after materials for kitchens? 

• Its unique origins and qualities. No slab of granite is identical. They are like glowing fingerprints to your home, as the design, strain, and color variations of a cut of granite will be completely unique to your kitchen. Whether they are rich earth tones or a starker gray with streaks of silver, or an elegant white, the design is individually mysterious. 
• Incomparable resistance. Whether it is resistance to heat, sharp objects, or stains, granite repels it all. It is not easily scratched or damaged and can withstand heat and changes in temperature without any damage. 

Designing a Foyer That Blows Your Guests Away 

The impact of first impressions is no exaggeration. As you enter a home, an establishment, a theater, restaurant, or a doctor’s office, the entryway will speak to you in subtle and not no subtle ways. The same goes for your custom home. Because you have control over the layout and arrangement of your home, you can consider the kind of entrance you want for your dream home. 

What is a foyer?

Just like many other French-inspired words, “foyer” kind of rolls of the tongue. The word comes from the French that means “hearth” or “home.” The word specifically refers to a gathering place or place of unity. It is commonly defined to mean the entrance hall or ‘gathering area.’ Famous foyers include the classic hall of mirrors at Versailles or classic French theaters like  Palais Garnier Opera. 

What makes a foyer unique? 

Many of our Padilla Homes floor plans feature foyers that ensure a grand first impression to anyone that comes in. There are different ways to approach the foyer:

A hallway that opens up to the rest of the house: A foyer can be an entryway that leads to the rest of the home. This means that some foyers are more enclosed areas that hold off before they spill into the main room of the home. 

An immediately enticing open area that showcases the home’s beauty: Today, most foyers are designed as part of the open space that will spill over into the home’s open floor plan. 

When thinking about the kind of foyer you want in your custom home consider:

• Storage: Because it is the entryway, a foyer serves the specific purpose of being a storage area for things like coats, shoes, umbrellas, or other on-the-go needs. 
• Function: Do you want your foyer to be more of an entryway or serve as a kind of gathering place to greet guests? 
• Sight: What do you want your entrance to lead into? Do you want the entryway to show a great staircase, a fireplace, a giant family room, or an elegant kitchen?
• Floor: What kind of floor do you want for your foyer? 

Modern foyers tend to open up to the center of the house and form an essential part of the central layout. For people looking for ways to begin thinking about their custom home design, considering the entryway is a great passage to envisioning the rest of the home. 

Get Custom Designs and Features Every Step of the Way 

With more than three decades of building luxury homes in the El Paso area, Padilla Homes is ready to help you think about the many inspiring possibilities for your new custom home. 

Want to see your design in 3-D before you decide? At Padilla Homes, we use the latest technology to showcase floor plans in three dimensions so you can see full details. Call us today. 

As a custom home builder, we build a wide array of homes throughout the city. Many of them differ in style, size, and design. Because we have been building for many years now, however, we also have a great Rolodex of beautiful floor plans from which our clients can draw from if they need some inspiration. Many of our homes and established floor plans will have certain features that are common throughout our homes due to their beauty, elegance, and quality. There are too many great features to focus on in one blog post, so we thought we’d talk about one or two home design features you might find in some of our homes. 

Lightweight Concrete Roof Tiles — Beauty and Performance 

If you’ve seen photos of our featured homes, you know that our roofs are not your typical flimsy shingle roof. We go the extra mile. We go all the way. We know that roofs are one of the main protectors of your home and tile roofing is likely to last a lot longer and be a lot more resistant than any shingle roof. We don’t just use any tiles, but we focus on lightweight concrete roof tiles. What sets these tiles apart? Well, there are several things. One of them is the materials used in the concrete mixtures, which will include a special combination of shale, slate, and clay. These products are then hardened using a process with a kiln they dry out and become very porous and then mixed in with the concrete.

This makes them very structurally sound and very durable despite their lighter weight. These types of tiles are highly resistant to the elements and can withstand any harsh weather including high heat, wind, and sun, as is common in El Paso. In fact, these lightweight concrete tiles will actually help in keeping your house cooler in the summer months.  In addition to their performance and high functionality, these tiles exude a classic elegance that looks both classic and luxurious at the same time. It accentuates a variety of architectural designs and really allows for some gorgeous color combinations. 

Wrought Iron Entry Door — A Classic Element for Enhanced Beauty 

Nothing says elegance like custom wrought iron works that exude beauty and style. Wrought iron itself adds a real unique touch to any structure. It has a rich history of enhancing buildings, whether it be cathedrals and churches, government buildings in Victorian Europe, or classic homes that used wrought iron gates for protection and aesthetic purposes. If you visit Europe today, there are plenty of homes and buildings that continue to have the wrought iron that was placed there during the Gothic, Victorian, or Elizabethan eras. These wrought iron designs tend to present a charm that also accentuates whatever architectural design surrounds it, whether your home is more of a Spanish revival or a Mediterrenean-inspired design, the wrought iron seems to bring out it’s qualities in great beauty. Most of our featured homes, such as the Carravagio and Park Hills use illustrious wrought iron railings on the front doors to welcome your visitors and guests with an air of grandeur and luxury. At the same time, many of these homes have great balcony spaces that are lined with decorative wrought iron to match the front doors and other parts of the home. This creates a wonderful cohesion and thematic appeal. 

Open Concept Layout — Shared Spaces and Lots of Light 

Another great feature of most of our designs is the open concept layout. This, of course, is used in a majority of modern homes today and when properly utilized and spaced out, can create an amazing feeling of open space and free-flowing energy throughout the whole house. An open concept means that the living room, dining room, and sometimes the kitchen, are bleeding into each other, sharing a common space and this seems to make the space far more inviting and welcoming. It allows light to bleed in throughout the home and the various rooms. 

Live Amongst Structural Beauty and Functionality 

Our homes are not only focused on the aesthetic. Everything we do, of course, is also with the highest quality materials that are likely to provide a long life and the best performance. A Padilla custom home or new construction home goes the extra mile into another level of imagination and custom quality building. We have been working with El Paso homeowners for more than thirty years, always improving and searching for new designs and ways to create timeless beauty and elegance for our clients. A home is not just a home, it’s where your life thrives. Let’s build beauty together. Call Padilla Homes today. 

Life isn’t easy. We all figure this out quite early on as responsibilities and consequences become real in our lives. When we are young, we envision our lives a certain way and imagine the wonders of living out our dreams. As home builders, we are happy to be part of the moment where people get to live out a long-awaited moment: finding the perfect home. The moment when they find a home that fits their lifestyle and family and provides all the comforts they worked hard for. Padilla Homes has been building beautiful luxury homes for two decades now. We have seen the amazing transformation that has taken place in our industry. Technology, new and improved materials, better building methods and techniques, efficient construction practices have all made our job more exciting and dynamic.

Today’s home builders are embracing a new age of the building, as technology makes it easier to improve on everyday amenities and take them to an entirely new level. As homebuilders during this exciting time, we have embraced using technology to improve home performance in a variety of ways. Adding smart technology to your home is not just about making it high-tech, but it’s about including details that will enhance the way your home performs for you on the day-to-day. 

The Meaning of Space — Open Layouts and Luxury For Optimal Performance 

Today—though many might not be aware of it— most homes use famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s open floor concept. In this style of building spaces in the house interconnect instead of being separated by walls or long hallways. Pre World War II homes seemed to be designed with separations in between rooms. The kitchen was often an enclosed area separated by walls and connected to a living room through a doorway. Frank Lloyd Wright changed all of that with his idea of having our living spaces emulate nature as much as possible. His concept of outside inside architecture lives on today because most people love the idea of having their living spaces be less restraining and suggest wide open air, freedom, and inherent beauty. His idea was that architecture could learn from nature about how to design beautiful and functional spaces. The open layout concept seems to be, even decades later, the preferred way of building a home, whether you are talking about a 1,500 square foot home or a 3,000 plus. Since then, of course, architects have found other ways to bring nature into our homes and provide a living experience, rather than just a living space. Some of the ways in which to achieve this include:

• Open kitchen and dining area
• Large windows (sometimes floor to ceiling) 
• Skylights  
• Natural materials 

The Meaning of Luxury — How Padilla Homes is Redefining the Term 

There are a dozen home builders out there that slap on the label of luxury to their homes. Yet, luxury can be somewhat of an elastic term, as it is sometimes used to describe a home that looks elegant. For us, luxury is not just an aesthetic appeal, it is a functional appeal; for, a luxury build means that it is enhancing your daily living space not simply making it sparkle. 

When you take a look at some of our featured homes, you’ll see some amazing features and amenities that take your home to the next level. For example, you have some of our custom plans like Carravagio, at Ocotillo Estates and the Naples at Franklin Hills. Some of the most exciting features we offer in some of our featured luxury homes include:

• Cut granite countertops 
• Upgraded hardware 
• Beautiful and top-of-the-line fixtures 
• Cantera stone
• Solid wood cabinetry 
• Glass showers 
• Open concept layout
• Walk-in pantries 
• Large picturesque windows 

Live Out Your Wildest Dreams in a Padilla Home 

Padilla Homes has a sophisticated and intimate process of custom home building. You sit down with us, we review layouts, we go over your ideas, and we even use state-of-the-art 3-D models and technology to ensure that what we build is precisely what you envision. With all of our capabilities and experienced in-house designer, we’ll achieve that perfect home. For us, luxury is more than just a meaningless title. It represents an attention to detail, a dedication to the little things in life, and an understanding of timeless beauty, elegance, and performance. Call us today and find out more about how we can build the perfect home for you.