ACM Design Architecture & Interiors / Articles posted by Amy Conner-Murphy
Trash can full of waded up paper drafts of house designs and floor plans

The Creative Process

All of our projects are custom. Not a single one is a duplicate. For clients beginning the journey of designing a custom home, we prepare them to complete three milestone tasks as part of the preparation work for the preliminary design. First, we ask our clients to complete our online ACM Design New Home Questionnaire. The questions are crafted from our decades of...

Housing and Building Construction Insights for Western North Carolina from ACM Design | architecture & interiors

Fall 2024 Market Update

The real estate and housing market remains very competitive in the greater Asheville area. The combination of desirability of Western North Carolina, higher interest rates, and dramatic increases in home values over the last four years has created a complex market for both buyers and sellers. For buyers, when they sell their existing home, they have seen increased equity in...

Trust your design style and don't give in to FOMO or YOLO!

Designing for Your Own Likes without FOMO

Some may say that we live in a culture-of-the-moment. There are so many home design shows, influencers, book and magazine publishers, and the normal banter at gatherings with friends where it may seem that we are always chasing new trends, and being bombarded with what’s in and what’s out. It can be confusing. And worse, it can create an unneeded...

Amy Conner-Murphy, AIA. Architect and Interior Designer discussed exterior paint color trends with The Wall Street Journal, January 2024

“Exterior Paint Colors Homeowners Want” in the Wall Street Journal

Amy Conner-Murphy speaks with the Wall Street Journal about exterior paint colors. The paper recently examined the latest in home design and how exterior colors are moving toward nature-inspired colors. The article explores the overall trend of how Americans are moving away from bright-white, farmhouse style exteriors and dark-black to the "nature-inspired hues [of]—olives, bronzes, taupes and dreamy creams."...

2023 BAU Trade Fair in Munich

Visiting the BAU International Trade Fair

I am back from a recent trip to Europe where one of the purposes of the trip was to visit the BAU International Trade Fair. Known simply as the BAU, the annual gathering is the largest trade show in Europe that focuses on architecture, construction, materials, and building systems. I have attended a similar US-based show in the past, but...

Are you Planning to
Design and Build a Mountain Home?

If you’ve ever driven the Blue Ridge Parkway and dreamt of living in the Smoky Mountains or the Southern Appalachians, we’ve compiled a series of complimentary guides rich with information about designing a mountain home. Informed by our decades of experience as mountain home architects, we share expert advice about topics like building on steep slopes, terrain-specific building costs, and materials suited for withstanding the mountain weather. Our passion for creating personalized and heartfelt homes is apparent in all of our work and it is our pleasure to share our expertise with you in these free and informative guides.