A Team Approach To Home Design

If you’ve ever been to Charlotte’s HomeArama, you know the event showcases some of the Southeast’s most luxurious, beautifully decorated homes. If you attended last year’s showcase at the Sanctuary, you’ve also seen the work of Charlotte’s leading design team, Carolina Design Group.

Builders seek out this design team of Jim Phelps, Rob Foster and Trisha Chambers, for their success in creating innovative plans and designs that enhance their clients’ lifestyles.

Last year the team designed three homes in HomeArama, which all sold, fully furnished, before the show opened. Two of the Carolina Design Group homes also won Gold and Silver awards, including the NAHB’s Best of American Living, a national award recognizing the group as of the best design teams in the country. This year, four builders – Dienst Custom Homes, E.S. Johnson, Tim Whelan, and Lifestyle Homes – have selected the team to design their homes, and hopefully, repeat their accomplishments.

Jim Phelps explains what makes the team click. “It’s collaboration,” he says. “The three of us work together as a team, with the builder and homeowner at the center of that team. We are known for listening to people to learn how they live, then adapting the home design to their lifestyle. Builders appreciate our creativity and skill in listening to and interpreting what their clients want.”

The staff’s designers are constantly working with the owners on such specifics as incorporating existing furnishings into the home design. “Each home is created specifically for the homeowner,” Jim says.

Carolina Design Group has created many beautiful homes that blend Old World style with modern amenities, but designer Rob Foster says the design team is just as comfortable creating an ultra-modern home with contemporary interior design. For this year’s HomeArama, which will be held in the golf community of Springfield, in Fort Mill, S.C., the group is designing four homes.

“These look like ‘Southern Living’ homes,” says Rob. “They are French Colonial, which is not a dark French style. This is more like something you’d see in Key West or New Orleans, with massive cantilevered porches and huge brackets as architectural elements. It’s a more laid-back feel.”

Trisha Chambers explains how the homes’ casual exterior feeling will extend to the inside. “We are doing some neat things with the flow,” she says. “This is based on the way people live today. We all work hard, and when people come home, they want it to feel like a resort. These homes feature well-appointed outdoor living spaces, open floor plans with massive furniture pieces tucked into either side of a fireplace.”

“These are dream homes,” says Jim of the 2007 HomeArama. “We really are fortunate to be involved. It’s doesn’t get any better than this.”

Visit Carolina Design Group at the Lake Norman office, 10620 Bailey Road, Suite L. The new South Charlotte office is located at 8133 Ardrey Kell Road, Building I, Suite 203 or call them at 704-895-7805. Find them online at www.carolinadesigngroup.com.