3 Tips to Discover Your Personal Decorating Style

1. Use an Online Designer Service

Online designers can take your room and give you ideas on how to decorate it, all without you leaving the comfort of your apartment home. If you choose one such as Havenly, you can get a choice of three different styles. Once you decide which one you like best, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of interior design looks you most connect with.

2. Create a Mood Board

Whenever you’re browsing through magazines, clip images of things that you especially like. They don’t have to be pictures of furniture; they can be landscape images, fashion pictures or even food images. Tack the images up on a bulletin board to create a mood board. A mood board gives you an overall view of what kinds of images you like to see, as well as what colors you’re drawn to. This is a great idea to figure out what kind of “scene” you’d enjoy in your apartment home.

3. Visit Showrooms

Furniture showrooms almost always have mock room setups so customers can get a sense of how different pieces work together. Visit some of these showrooms in your area. Browse around and spend some time in each mock setup. Which ones make you feel most at home? Those are the ones with decorating styles that will best match your personal style!

These three tips will make decorating your Flagstaff apartment much more straightforward. To get a personal tour of available Flagstaff, AZ apartments, please contact us or drop by in person.

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Natural light opens up a space and makes it feel more expansive — maybe even more cheerful. Check out these nifty ways to enhance natural light in your Flagstaff apartment. 

Ways to Enhance Natural Light in Your Apartment

1. Utilize lighter interior paint colors

Dark paint colors almost absorb light, but lighter paint colors tend to reflect it. Remember this when you are picking paint colors for the walls or even if you are picking certain paint colors for your furnishings. 

2. Make use of reflective surfaces throughout the apartment 

Reflective surfaces help encourage natural light flow throughout an apartment no matter where that surface may be. A few examples of utilizing reflective surfaces to help with natural light would include: 

• Using a glossy paint to coat a dining table. 
• Installing a shiny piece of artwork in the bedroom.
• Implementing a slick-surfaced backsplash in the bathroom.

Glossy surfaces can be found in home decor items from large to small, and the more you have, the more light distribution you will see around the apartment. 

3. Ditch the heavy window treatments 

If you are partial to heavy shades and drapes, you are dispelling any chance of natural light getting into your apartment. Get rid of these window treatments and opt for lighter weight materials that give you privacy but still allow in light. For example, white curtain panels allow light through but still conceal the view. 

4. Use mirrors to your advantage 

If you have a mirror situated adjacent to a window, the light from that window doesn't just come into the room; it also gets reflected out further by the mirror. Therefore, strategically placing mirrors in certain points of the apartment can drastically amp up the level of natural light you have in any given place. 

Natural light is good for design, makes an apartment feel more open and inviting, and can even enhance your mood. Check out our floor plans at Butterfield to find the living quarters that will give you the most natural light. 

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How to Plant a Balcony Succulent Garden

What Is a Succulent?

Succulents are very small plants that are related to cacti. They grow close to the ground and store water in their thick leaves. Because succulents are so hardy, they make excellent potted plants. Even if you never thought you had a green thumb, you’ll probably do very well with succulents. 

There are many different kinds of succulents. When you visit the plant nursery, choose a wide variety. This will ensure that you can create a very interesting balcony succulent garden when you get back to your apartment home. Pick up some small pots to hold your new succulents. If you have some favorite antique teacups, you can even use those! You could also plant all your succulents in one large container, such as a pretty window box.

Soil and Drainage Needs

Succulents need to have good drainage to thrive. Poke some holes in the bottom of your succulent containers to let water flow through. The soil should be a mixture of sand, pebbles, gravel, and perlite. You can purchase these separately and blend them together at home. 

How to Plant Succulents

Succulents should be planted very shallow in the pots. Don’t worry about digging deep for the roots. The succulent will acclimate over time. Water your balcony succulent garden very infrequently. You’ll be able to tell when they need water; the leaves will become thinner and less “puffy.”

Having a balcony succulent garden will make your Flagstaff apartment feel even more like Arizona. For more ideas about Southwestern décor or to view available floor plans, please contact us.

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Everyone loves decorating for the holidays, but not everyone wants to change everything in their home or apartment just for a month or two. There are a lot of ways that you can actually decorate for the holidays without making a lot of changes. These are just a few that you can try this holiday season in your apartment home!

Decor Tips for the Holidays

Use Scents to Add Holiday Spirit

You can change the entire feel of your home with some scented candles. If you go get some candles that have scents that remind you of the holidays, just having one or two in your home and lit can change the whole atmosphere. 

Bring the Outdoors Inside

Around this time of year, there are so many options outdoors that you can use to really bring in the holidays. This can be as simple as bringing in some firewood to place next to the fireplace. You do not have to even light the fireplace, but it would make it feel even more like the holidays if you were to do so. 

Use Decorative Pillows

If you do not want to put up a lot of decorations, you can easily change the look of a room with some decorative pillows. You can do this with your couch or even the bedrooms to add a bit of holiday flair. All it takes is one or two pillows to change up the look of the room, so you don't need to cover up the space with pillows unless you want to!

Decorate Your Kitchen and Dining Room Table

There are some simple things you can do in the kitchen and with your dining room table. You can add in a few towels that are holiday-themed and even add in some placemats or a nice tablecloth to tie in everything for the holiday look. 

With these tips, it is easy to change the entire look of your home. If you are looking for a place to call home this holiday season, be sure to check out our Flagstaff apartments.

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Fall Arts & Crafts Projects 

Leaf Garland

If you’re looking for a fun way to utilize your fabric scraps, this leaf garland could offer your apartment the perfect DIY accessory as fall settles in. If you have old T-shirts, blankets, and towels lying around, dye them, so they reflect fall-inspired shades and cut them into the shapes of leaves. You can also easily find leftover material at any fabric store that is too small for big projects, but perfect for this type of DIY design.

Painted Acorns

Trying to find the perfect centerpiece for your dining room table? Painted acorns quickly transition boring clear glass bowls into brightly colored creations that scream autumn. Head to the thrift store to find unique containers that come in autumn-inspired shapes to maximize the impact of this craft.

Bedazzled Gourds

If bland browns and earthy tones aren’t really your thing, you can still incorporate this season’s most notable decorative pieces while adding a stylish flair that people without big personalities simply wouldn’t dare. Bedazzled gourds put bling into everyday garden veggies. You can create intricate patterns, or just go nuts with the glitter and glue. There is no wrong way to make a pumpkin look pretty.

Mason Jar Fall Luminary

As daylight starts to become more scarce, fall welcomes the soft light that comes from Mason jar luminaries. This simple idea can be used for any occasion, and the end result makes for a beautiful gift, too.

Falling into the right apartment is no easy task, but when you tour Butterfield Apartment Homes, we’re sure you’ll feel right at home. Stop by to take a tour of our community today!

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We walk through the rooms of a storm soaked apartment in Houston, Texas, as Mary, a twenty-plus-year resident of Nob Hill Apartments, points out the items she hopes she can keep, but we can clearly see are lost. The safety masks covering our mouths and noses do nothing to block the rank smell of stagnant flood water and growing mold. The air in the apartment is warm and humid, the air outside buzzing with mosquitos preying on the exposed skin of anyone walking through the community working to salvage what they can from the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Even with the flood waters receded, we feel the sense of loss that weighs heavy as a storm cloud over the apartment community we’ve come to serve.

We try to prepare Mary for the worst—the disheartening fact that most of her worldly possessions must be declared casualties of the hurricane’s destructive force. But Mary’s determination outweighs our own, and pushes us in a new direction. Where we strive to prepare her for despair, she insists upon building us up with hope. And as we tell her we will help her as best we can, she leaves us with these words: “When I was a child, my teacher told me that the good deeds you do are added as stars to your crown in heaven. Your crowns are going to be full of all the stars in the heavens.”

***

Our group of volunteers left Arizona in the early hours of September 6 to make our way to Houston. Our team was made up of multifamily housing team members from Bella Investment Group in Flagstaff, AZ, who had committed to partner with Apartment Life, an organization that places CARES Teams within apartment communities to “look for ways to love their neighbors as themselves.” We have often seen the outpouring of love CARES Teams deliver to the residents of our Bella communities—now was our chance to take the CARES mission upon ourselves and make a difference in the lives of those impacted by Hurricane Harvey.

After spending Wednesday evening assembling and loading U-Haul trucks with Resident Recovery Kits, we headed into the community on Thursday to see where we could help. As we approached Nob Hill Apartments, a 1300+ unit apartment community situated on Brays Bayou in the Meyerland suburb, we saw streets lined with debris and abandoned furniture, clothing, toys, even cars—all casualties of the surging flood waters. Nob Hill is where we met Mary, along with dozens of other residents who were packing up what they could to leave the community many of them called home. We expected the despair in the faces of the people of the community to match the destruction we saw in the streets. But where we expected despair, we saw hope.

One of the first young men we spoke to assured us that he had not been hit “too bad” by Harvey’s destructive power. “For me, it wasn’t as bad as for other folks,” he told us as we walked through one section of Nob Hill. “Other people got it much worse.” I learned later that for him, “not too bad” meant he “only” lost his car and about half of the possessions in his apartment. He counted himself lucky, despite his losses, and assured us that now that he knew we were there, he would help us find people who needed more help than he did. And he was true to his word. He eagerly came to us with the names and addresses of neighbors who could “really use your help,” and seemed overjoyed to be what he considered a “small part” of our work. The misery we expected seemed to have receded with the flood waters, and in its place love, humanity, and hope had blossomed.

For the CARES team in Houston, the Relief Kits and resources they handed out seemed like only a “drop in the bucket” of the recovery that needed to be done in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. An office team member, who had been pulled from a different property to assist at Nob Hill, described her efforts of pointing residents toward resources and gathering contact information from those who needed to move as “a drop in the bucket” compared to what she felt the people around her needed and the losses she knew they had endured. Even as we gave resources, monies, and hugs to those we met, we began to say that we knew it was only “a drop in the bucket” for those who had lost so much so quickly.

Yet the enduring power of hope outshined our perspective. The more people we met, the more we got the sense that in creating for themselves a sense of normalcy even among lost possessions, abandoned homes, and more, the residents of this community were finding something beyond the despair we saw on the news. Make no mistake—there remains much to be done to restore what has been lost in these communities devastated by the storms. But even beyond the knowledge of loss is the hope of helping hands. We saw donations from across the country pooled together to fan the flames of this hope. We witnessed police cars lining the streets from around the country to lend aid and relief to first responders who had not yet even had the chance to assess and accept their personal losses. We saw barbecue fundraisers and Red Cross vans delivering lunches and dinners on a daily basis where they were needed most. We saw neighbor reaching out to neighbor to lighten each other’s loads. And we saw tears of sorrow become tears of joy as people heard how far folks had come to help.

“To help me?” one woman said to me, stepping back in shock from a tight hug when I told her we had flown in from Arizona. “Y’all came all this way just to help me?”

“We know it’s just a drop in the bucket,” I found myself saying, but she cut me off.

“A drop in the bucket?” she gasped, clasping my hands in her own. “Child, it’s the whole ocean!”

I left Houston with news of the impending impact of Hurricane Irma ringing in the background on every television set we passed from our hotel lobby to the airport terminal. In the shadows of yet another destructive storm, it’s hard to ignore that there remains so much need along the Gulf Coast as residents there work to rebuild. Hurricane Harvey’s impact will be felt in this area for months, if not years, to come.

But even in the shadows of these destructive storms crashing upon our shores and cities, we see the silver linings illuminated by the selfless acts of people who keep their heads held high, their spirits lifted, and the hopes of their communities blazing against the dark times ahead. We can all be a part of bringing hope to these communities. Apartment Life continues to raise funds for relief efforts for both Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma. The Red Cross continues to step up their efforts to prepare and provide relief. Countless other organizations are out there, waiting for each of us to step up and impact lives by being beacons of hope in the midst of despair.

Please join us in supporting the ongoing relief efforts, and make your own "drop in the bucket" contribution to those impacted by this year's hurricane storms:

Donations for Apartment Life Harvey Relief Kits: https://tiny.cc/alharvey

Donations for Apartment Life Irma Relief Kits: https://tiny.cc/alirma

The post Beacons of Hope in the Midst of Despair: A Local Hurricane Harvey Relief Story appeared first on Butterfield Apartments Blog.

Remember how she cherished those clumsy cards and little things you made when you were young? Well, nothing’s changed the best gifts are the one’s you’ve made from the heart. If it’s been awhile since you’ve made one, here are a few ideas from your friendly management team at Butterfield Apartments.

Awesome DIY Mother’s Day Gifts

Mother’s Day Cakes – Now who, in the whole panoply of history, didn’t appreciate getting a cake? Here’s a whole bevy of delicious baked goods  you can make for your mother. After all, she baked plenty for you!

Kid’s Garden Stepping Stones – Now this is one the grandkids will love too.Easy-to-make stones that can double for hop-scotch, she’ll love the laughter of her second generation.

Handmade Lotion Bars – Now you can really get creative with these lotion bars . So wonderful you’ll want to make a whole bunch of them to hand out for other holidays too.

Gifts For the Incompetent Artist –  If you just don’t have a creative bone in your body,  Buzzfeed  has you covered with a whole bunch of gifts you can make even if you don’t have an artistic thought in your brain.

Ask Us At Butterfield!

Whatever you do, don’t give up. There’s a DIY gift that you can make for your Mom that will put a smile on her face and a spring in her step. Just stop by the office at Butterfield Apartments in Flagstaff and ask!

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