Comfortable House

Adding shutters is among the most effective and simple ways homeowners can elevate curb appeal, create an inviting façade and provide colorful accents. With today’s highest-quality shutters, uncommon architectural detail and customized designs offer even greater enhancements.

More homeowners are choosing to create exceptional looks with distinctive shutters, such as those from Atlantic Premium Shutters™. Handcrafted to an individual window’s specifications, these shutters provide beautifully-balanced symmetry, perfectly matching the scale of windows and walls to create a picturesque scene.

Available in 40 colors and numerous styles, Atlantic Premium Shutters make a dramatic visual statement, adding an elegant touch to exteriors that feature brick, stucco, stone veneer, premium vinyl or fiber cement. From homes in historic neighborhoods to pristine estates near the water’s edge, shutters like these add vibrancy to a variety of architectural styles ranging from Neocolonial, to Tudor or Spanish. Discerning homeowners can also choose to have colors customized for their shutters.

Offering much more than typical immobile shutters, those from Atlantic are historically-accurate and architecturally-correct, mounted with handsome matte-black finished stainless-steel hardware that delivers simple elegance and functionality. The hardware adds striking dimension by setting the shutters off from the home, also allowing a hint of the home’s exterior cladding to be visible between the shutter and window to provide a noticeable fine touch.

“Many of today’s new home designs point toward a return to a bygone era – one in which certain homes evoked an architecturally significant ambience,” said Jonathan Wierengo, Director of Marketing for The Tapco Group™, maker of Atlantic Premium Shutters. “In cities like Charlotte and New Orleans, as well as regions such as the Northeast or Atlantic Coast, functional shutters are part of the local motif. It’s important to respect that design continuity, while offering upgrades in the newest technologies.”

Combining traditional character with modern design, Atlantic’s shutters provide enhanced durability. Unlike wooden shutters, these composite shutters require no maintenance or worrying about warping, rotting or painting. Atlantic’s Architectural Collection shutters are crafted from marine-grade fiberglass, structural-grade PVC and composite wood, offering a limited lifetime structural warranty and a 15-year finish warranty. The Classic Collection of composite wood shutters offers a 10-year limited warranty for structure and finish.

All Atlantic Premium Shutters deliver uncompromising detail with crisp lines and smooth surfaces. The Architectural Collection’s Raised-Panel and Louvered-Colonial designs capture attention with their deep dimension and interesting shadows. In addition, these styles can be personalized with options like custom rail locations or arch tops. The option of rabbeted edges with beading is also available, to provide a perfectly-matching fit when shutters are closed. The Architectural Collection’s Bahama Shutters showcase tastefully simple style, allowing cool breezes and soft diffused light to pass through. Popular in coastal and desert areas, these shutters are crafted of pultruded fiberglass and are mounted with aluminum hardware.

Atlantic’s Combination-style shutters allow homeowners to express their full creativity, by mixing and matching Raised-Panel and Louvered-Colonial design elements for a one-of-a-kind appearance. Options include vertical mullions, faux tilt rods or extra panels. The possibilities with Atlantic’s colors and styles are virtually endless. In fact, cut-out shapes such as a heart, cactus or anchor can be custom-ordered.

Atlantic’s Classic Collection features the popular Board and Batten, and Faux Louver designs. Classic Collection options include z-bars, an extra batten and arch tops to add personalized touches for the stylish Board and Batten look.

From neutral colors like Driftwood and Chelsea Gray, to bold shades like Cascade and Roycraft Copper Red, Atlantic’s available spectrum features a full array of expressive colors. The 40-color palette includes Tricone Black and Evergreen at the dark end, while rich shades like Plum Creek, Stratford Blue and Garnet are offered. Light colors include the softness of Sand and Classical White. For a one of a kind appearance, custom colors are also available.

Both Architectural and Classic Collection shutters are offered in hurricane storm-rated options that add a level of protection for coastal homeowners. Atlantic Premium Shutters are products of The Tapco Group. For more information, visit www.atlanticpremiumshutters.com or call 1-866-288-2726.

Maybe you think you have to do some major renovating — or even move, to get that home office, workshop or laundry room you’ve always wanted. But with the Full Access Folding Door Hardware Kit from Johnson Hardware, that dream room can be found right in your own closet.

This unique, easy-to-install kit allows you to fold closet doors back completely out of the opening, freeing up every inch of usable closet space. Suddenly, a spare room appears.

Applicable for remodeling or new construction, Johnson’s Full Access Folding Door Hardware enables folding doors to fold back 180 degrees and lie flat against the adjoining walls. You get the full access of a swinging door with the space-savings of folding doors. It’s a fast way to get more space out of your closets.

Home organization experts suggest that you store out-of-season clothes under your bed in special rolling drawers. Use clothes organizers in your other closets and then free up the remaining closets to create the room space you’ve needed.

The room created here shows how easy it is to make closet space work more efficiently. With a few shelves and Johnson’s Full Access Folding Door Hardware, you’re in business.

You’ll also find this Full Access Folding Door Hardware Kit a practical solution for converting closets into laundry areas, wet bars, toy rooms or even hideaway workbenches. It can also be used on utility rooms, pantries, wardrobes, anywhere you need more room at the doorway.

Installation’s a snap, too. The patented jamb hinges require no mortising. They simply attach with screws as do the control arm and panel-connecting hinges.

A screwdriver and tape measure are the only tools you’ll need for installation. An experienced handyman can mount the hardware and install the doors in about 10 minutes.

Johnson’s Full Access Folding Door Hardware Kit comes with a lifetime guarantee. Each kit contains control arm assembly, hinges and all the necessary mounting hardware. The kit can also be used with standard mortise-type butt hinges to match other interior doors.

For ideas on how to convert the hidden room in your closets, write to: Full Closet Access Ideas, L. E. Johnson Products, Inc., 2100 Sterling Avenue, Elkhart, Indiana 46516 or call 800-837-5664 or visit our web site at http://www.johnsonhardware.com

With more homeowners searching for ways to be environmentally-responsible, pocket doors are sustainability’s secret weapon. They consume no usable floor space and can be completely hidden away in the wall. In addition to maximizing floor space, they provide enhanced privacy and beautiful entries. Pocket doors allow builders and architects to design more energy-efficient, right-sized homes that deliver cost-savings and outstanding space utilization.

Homes with smaller footprints feature optimized living areas that consume fewer building materials and generate lower energy bills. With their smarter functionality, pocket doors are an effective, easy way to reduce a home’s carbon footprint.

With Johnson Hardware’s pocket door systems, homeowners can easily create improved door designs. It all starts with the pocket door’s space-saving utility. Where a traditional swinging door can require 8 – 10 sq. ft. of usable floor space, a pocket door takes none. Envision the additional usable floor space generated by replacing a dozen swinging doors with space-saving pocket doors. It could save 120 sq. ft. of floor space – that’s less to build, and less to heat and cool. Taking into account a value calculation of $150/sq. ft., the space-savings would equate to $18,000.

Having this additional usable floor space means families gain a place to put a needed bookshelf or lamp, favorite piece of artwork, vibrant flowering plant, or other desired furniture or furnishings. In terms of simple comfort, a pocket door makes a room seem roomier.

Pocket doors can also maximize open floor plans with their virtually limitless design potential. With Johnson Hardware’s heavy-duty pocket door frame, a homeowner could use doors that weigh up to 300 lbs. and have a maximum interior entry opening of 90 sq. ft. A doorway this size, using converging pocket doors, offers great traffic flow and versatility. One large room can seemingly be created out of two when the converging pocket doors are open. When not in use, rooms can be sectioned off to save on heating and cooling costs.

Pocket doors are also recognized for their universal design factor and benefits for aging in place. They are easier to access by those who use a wheelchair or a walker to assist with mobility. While a swinging door can be difficult to maneuver around, a pocket door that glides easily into the inside of the wall offers no obstacle. With wheelchairs requiring a larger doorway, these doors can be pushed and pulled easily, riding smoothly on Johnson Hardware’s jump-proof tracks and ball-bearing rollers. Johnson systems are designed to last a lifetime, using commercial-grade, three-wheel or four-wheel hangers. As residents age in place, the pocket doors will remain easy to operate with Johnson’s quality-tested and guaranteed components.

From high-density urban neighborhoods to new environmentally-conscious single-family homes and multi-family communities, building for optimal space needs is driving sustainable living. Pocket doors give homeowners the solution for the most usable space. In new construction, the Johnson pocket door frame is a fast installation for homebuilders. For existing homes, making a change to more efficient pocket doors is also an easy project. A remodeler or experienced do-it-yourselfer can install a Johnson pocket door frame in minutes, with just a few tools.

To learn more about Johnson Hardware and to see a full range of sustainable interior entry solutions, visit www.johnsonhardware.com or call 800-837-5664.