Top Design For Your Home

April 29, 2007

If your home is in desperate need of some “Top Design,” don’t fret. These websites offer excellent ideas, from cool products and buy to easy do-it-yourself craft projects to the skinny on local design events and the random recipe to cook in that finally-lovely kitchen.

Apartment Therapy: Chicago
Prepare to get addicted to this daily blog focused on “helping people to make their apartments better places to live.” The Chicago portal keeps you up-to-date on local design-related events, scavenges sites like Craigslist and posts the best furniture, linen and accessory finds, and compiles Top Ten lists on everything from bedside clocks to design magazines. Its annual smallest, coolest apartment contest proves that tiny spaces don’t have to stink.

design*sponge
This site is a favorite among editors of design mags ranging from Metropolis to Domino to The Oprah Magazine, and it’s easy to see why. Sneak peeks take you into the most creatively decorated homes you can imagine (prepare to drool), and plenty of product spotlights offer a tiny bit of hope that your home can become as beautiful.

shelterrific
The site “where people who love their homes click” makes for great daily reading in the vein of Apartment Therapy. Written by contributors who have worked at Budget Living magazine, the site houses advice on decorating dilemmas, showcases neat products and highlights other great blogs and sites. But it cuts all that design stuff with other fun topics, with recipe (along with cool aprons to cook them in) and craft project posts.

Martha Stewart: Home & Decorating
If you dream of the day when you can whip up cupcakes like Martha in your oh-so-perfect home, a stop at her site is a smart first step. Bypass the cupcakes section and focus on your interior, where you’ll learn how to dress a window, hang wallpaper and paint your ceiling. Photo galleries, message boards and videos make for an interactive experience.

HGTV: Design
Considering HGTV brings you everything from “Design on a Dime” to “Room by Room,” it’s only natural that its website would offer helpful design advice. You’ll find plenty of color advice, tips on small spaces and decorative paint techniques, enhanced by a ton of illustrative photos (check out the photo-heavy 25 decorating mistakes section for an easy way to learn what not to do).

Inhabitat
A green-focused blog devoted to the future of design, this is the place to go to learn about the next big thing—in regards to technology, practices and materials. You’ll find everything from the practical (a post on recycled billboard birdhouses will make you want to buy one of the hip creations) to the simply interested (a post on a Finnish-designed inhabitable cardboard room).

Style Chicago
Another site that keeps it close to home, Style Chicago is light on the design advice—you’ll find a small Design Trends & Tips section—and heavy on the where to buy. It feels pretty advertising-driven, but that doesn’t mean it’s not helpful: You’ll find listings of antique fairs, floor and sample sales and listings of events like a talk about the roots of Mission-style furniture. Join the free VIP list to get the skinny on private sales and events.

PLiNTH & CHiNTZ
If you’re a) considering a career in interior design b) part-way through studying for said career or c) neck-deep in the professional world of ID, check out this spunky site determined to “demystify the industry.” Expect a collection of student and professional “close-ups,” advice on landing your dream job, business etiquette tips and product spotlights.

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Eco-Chic Interior Design

An interior designer from Cherry Hill, NJ finds a way to bring the art of recycling to the Internet.
Written by Michael L. Brachman, Ph.D.

Eco-Chic Interior Designer from Cherry Hill, NJ launches UsedFurnitureFindex.com, a web site to sell and buy home furnishings, once loved.

Philadelphia, PA – Apr 19, 2007 — /prbuzz/ — UsedFurnitureFindex.com is an ecologically conscientious web site designed to make it easy for buyers and sellers of used furniture to find each other and help do it Green by recycling home furnishings. It is essentially a set of online classified ads but with pictures and a unique super-fast search engine designed specifically for furniture. The web site launched in June of 2006 and is a delight to all.

While there is nothing exactly like it out there, many ask how the web site differs from Ebay and Craigslist. Unlike Ebay, UsedFurnitureFindex.com takes no commission. The business model is very honest and straightforward. For sellers, it costs just $5.00 for a single listing and is free for buyers to find. The buyer and seller work out the delivery details just like a classified ad. The fantastic feature of zooming into each photo posted solves another problem of having to drive all over town, just to look at a piece of furniture saving precious time and gas.

Unlike Craigslist, UsedFurnitureFindex.com has a unique and super-fast search engine designed specifically for home furnishings. Users can search by keyword, condition, dimension, distance, quality level, price and more. The most powerful aspect of this search engine is its ability to search by dimension which allows users to find exactly the right size meeting the requirements of wherever it is going to be lovingly placed. Sellers can include up to four pictures. Buyers can zoom in and examine the furniture up close, almost like being there. Navigation is simple, easy and effective

When compared to classified ads, UsedFurnitureFindex.com offers a number of compelling advantages to sellers. Sellers can avoid the hassle normally associated with classified ads; dealing with the phone calls, having strangers wander through their house and the high cost of black & white three-line want ads. The web site is both regional and national. Built upon ZIP code, users can search locally or across the country.

Buyers include:

• First-time homeowners
• Young professionals
• Second home owners
• Newly separated or divorced people
• College students arriving at school or going off on their own
• Interior designers and their clients
• Businesses
•Charities

Sellers include:

• Empty nesters
• Estate liquidators
• Storage facilities
• Furniture stores
• College students leaving their furniture behind
• Manufacturers
• Spring cleaners
• Redecorators

New features are constantly being added to UsedFurnitureFindex.com; the latest being My Findex. Here users can add items to a watch list, create a wish list, manage their listings and their account information. Also included on the web site is the Home Improvement and Services Directory, listed by ZIP code. Users can find home-related services locally or regionally.

Denise H. Cooperman, the inventor of UsedFurnitureFindex.com, has been in the home furnishings industry for over 25 years and during those years, each client has questioned what to do with belongings no longer needed. Most do not want to list in the paper or even attempt using eBay. UsedFurnitureFindex.com answers all these needs. Denise herself practices the art of “reinventing” which is giving a piece of old furniture, once loved, a brand new life with a refurbishing or new function. Her catchphrase is “Do it Green, but let’s make it Aqua” to show that recycling can be both eco-chic and magnificent. So go to UsedFurnitureFindex.com and find that special piece that was once loved, give it a new home and keep our world green.

For more information contact:

Denise H. Cooperman
URL: http://www.UsedFurnitureFindex.com
Email: dcooperman@furniturefindex.comThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Ph: 1-609-314-9668
Fax: 1-856-489-6281

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Christopher Lowell Brings His Seven Layers of Design to DirectBuy

March 26, 2007
Interior Design News

(PRLEAP.COM) MERRILLVILLE, Ind., March 26, 2007 — DirectBuy, the leading members-only showroom and home design center that offers merchandise at manufacturer-direct prices, and Christopher Lowell Enterprises announced that renowned interior designer, author and Emmy Award winning television host Christopher Lowell will design a line of full kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms especially for DirectBuy members. These exclusive designs will add another level of service to DirectBuy’s members across North America.

Lowell will create a total of twelve room settings using his Seven Layers of Design that will be showcased at more than 130 DirectBuy locations throughout the United States and Canada. He created The Seven Layers of Design to keep homeowners on budget and from feeling overwhelmed. It has since become a proven, world-renowned approach to home decor.

“I share DirectBuy’s passion for helping people improve their homes without emptying their bank accounts,” said Christopher Lowell. “DirectBuy’s philosophy of offering such a wide range of home furnishings, home improvement items and appliances at such low prices gave me so many options to work with. With the flexibility to design twelve different rooms with DirectBuy’s unmatched array of merchandise, I was able to create design solutions that will appeal to almost any homeowner.”

Since the Fall 1996 launch of “Interior Motives with Christopher Lowell,” Lowell’s engaging personality and attractive, cost-effective decorating solutions have made him one of the country’s most prominent designers. Lowell is the Emmy Award winning host of “It’s Christopher Lowell!” and “The Christopher Lowell Show.” He is also the author of The Seven Layers of Design; Fearless, Fabulous Decorating, If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It!; Dream Decor on a Budget; and other interior decorating books.

“We are very excited about working with Christopher Lowell. For the last decade, he has delivered outstanding creativity and expertise to give the public attractive and affordable design solutions,” said Bart Fesperman, vice president of sales & marketing for DirectBuy. “DirectBuy constantly strives to provide its members with outstanding value, selection and service through a simplified shopping experience. We can now bring Christopher Lowell directly to our members to help them create and enjoy the home of their dreams.”

In addition to the new Christopher Lowell Collection, DirectBuy members receive on-site interior design consultation at select locations; delivery and installation services; access to an easy-to-use computerized shopping assistant — the DirectBuy Virtual Showroom; an automatic subscription to DirectBuy’s “Direction” catalog, which has limited-time offers and price reductions; and access to showroom product specialists who assist members through their shopping experience.

Members of DirectBuy have access to thousands of items from more than 700 top manufacturers at showrooms in the United States and 500 top manufacturers at showrooms in Canada. Since DirectBuy offers an extraordinary selection of brand-name merchandise with no traditional retail markup, members can purchase merchandise directly from manufacturers and their authorized suppliers, including specialty and custom products.

About DirectBuy

For more than 35 years, DirectBuy has been showing thousands of consumers unparalleled ways to save as they shop for virtually everything for in and around their homes — from furniture, carpet and flooring, and custom window treatments, to kitchen and bath cabinets and fixtures, appliances and much, much more.

DirectBuy enables members to purchase most every product offering from more than 700 top manufacturers at showrooms in the United States and 500 top manufacturers at showrooms in Canada at over 130 locations across North America. To request a “Free Insider’s Guide to Buying Direct” and a Visitor’s Pass to learn more about the superior value and benefits of a DirectBuy membership, call 800-DIRECTBUY or visit www.directbuy.com

About Christopher Lowell Enterprises

Christopher Lowell Enterprises, LLC serves as the parent company for two specialized divisions: Christopher Lowell Productions Co. and Christopher Lowell, Inc., the design, licensing and marketing arm of his consumer product division. The latter launched in Fall 2000 with the debut of a designer paint line and more recently extended into office furniture and accessories. In keeping with his concept of “stress-free, pre-coordinated solutions for the home,” each product is a licensed collection and is complementary in style, scale and color to one another, all fitting into Lowell’s four lifestyle categories: Town, Country, City and Shore.

Christopher Lowell Collection licensee partners to date include, among others:
— 3 Day Blinds – In 2002 a new partnership was formed with America’s
largest retailer and manufacturer of custom window coverings. Under
the aegis of the Christopher Lowell Collection, options include solid
ash blinds, honeycomb shades, mini-blinds, and sheer vertical blinds.

— Catalina Lighting – The largest manufacturer of consumer lighting in
the country, Catalina Lighting launched its
Christopher Lowell Lighting Collection in October 2002, featuring a
variety of table and floor lamps.

— Office Depot – One of the world’s largest sellers of office products
and an industry leader, Office Depot introduced the Christopher Lowell
Collection in November 2003. Office Depot now offers a
theme-coordinated office furniture and accessories system: from desks,
credenzas and chairs to lamps and clocks.

— Jo-Ann Stores – The nation’s largest fabric and craft retailer
launched The Christopher Lowell Collection in May 2006. This industry
first home design solution offers pre-coordinated elegant and
timeless fabrics, textured trim options, educational tools, in store
classes and more all under one roof.

Contact Information
Sara Shragal
DirectBuy
Email DirectBuy
219-736-1000

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Phi Design Arrangements Prove Calming, Inviting

Partners Rearrange Furniture, Accessories In Clients’ Homes
By Mary Beth Breckenridge
April 6, 2007

For centuries, a mathematical concept called phi has fascinated artists, architects and mathematicians and more recently, readers of “The Da Vinci Code.”

It’s a ratio, an aesthetically pleasing proportion of one length to another. It’s the basis of much of the artwork of Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, the pattern of many parts of the human body and the reason Athens’ famous Parthenon has endured as an architectural icon.

The partners in a Stow, Ohio-based interior redesign company have caught the phi bug, too. In the last year, they’ve rebuilt their business around the concept and are redecorating clients’ homes based on what is sometimes called the golden ratio or golden section.

Their business, Phi Design, specializes in interior redesign, which means partners Elizabeth Feeney and John Hively rearrange the furniture and accessories their clients already own. The twist is that they’re marketing their use of math — specifically, phi — in figuring out exactly where those items should go.

Phi, they say, yields interiors that are more calming and inviting than any arrangement they could devise themselves.

“We like to say we take beauty from the eye of the beholder to every eye beholding,” said Hively, a retired certified public accountant who is the mathematician to Feeney’s designer.

Phi is a highly specific proportion, one our brains are wired to prefer, said Timothy Norfolk, a mathematics professor at the University of Akron, Ohio, with whom Feeney and Hively consulted. “There’s something biologically pleasing about these patterns,” he said.

Phi shows up frequently in nature as well as in art and architecture. It’s the ratio of the length of your forearm to your hand, for example. It’s the ratio of the ever-increasing widths of the segments of a spiral seashell. It’s the ratio of the width of the Parthenon to its height.

Think the proportions of Michelangelo’s “David” are pretty close to perfection? Thank phi.

It’s also a concept that interior designers study in their basic course work, said Pamela Evans, coordinator of the interior design program at Kent State University. A good interior designer — one who’s trained in design, not just a decorator — will incorporate phi into the proportions of a room, she said.

Hively and Feeney use the ratio to calculate the best placement for furniture, pictures and other objects in the rooms they redecorate. They’ll measure a distance — say, the length of a wall — and then determine what they call the “phi cut,” the dividing point where the two sections are in perfect proportion. That’s where they’ll position an armoire, a chair or some other item.

Feeney, a former designer at Akron’s Marvin Interiors, has been involved in interior redesign for three years. (She and Hively previously worked together in Phi Design’s predecessor business, Room Renaissance.) Before she came across the concept of phi, she was continually applying her redesign skills to the combined living and dining area in her own condo in Stow, she said.

Even with all that rearranging, though, she said she never could get the feeling of the space quite right.

It wasn’t until she and Hively applied phi that the room finally came together. “I haven’t moved this furniture for months,” she said.

The two started their redesign with a round pedestal table that had belonged to Feeney’s aunt, a piece that was important enough to her that she wanted to build the room around it. They measured the distance from one wall to the fireplace hearth, then placed the table at the phi cut between those two points. An armchair went at the phi cut between the round table and the wall. They measured the length of the room; one end of the sofa was positioned at the phi cut of that distance.

And on they went, using phi to position the most important pieces in the room. Then they relied on Feeney’s artistic sense to accessorize, although in some cases, they even used phi for that. A vignette they created on the fireplace mantel out of an old frame and some treasured heirlooms is perfectly proportioned according to phi.

The ratio is unforgiving, Feeney said, because there’s only one right dividing point for any given measurement. But in placing a piece, she and Hively often have a number of measurements to choose from, she noted.

If a chair doesn’t work at the phi cut of one wall, for example, they might try an adjoining wall. Or perhaps they’ll measure the space between two architectural features rather than the entire wall. Often they’ll search their clients’ homes for items from other rooms they can incorporate, but only if they’ll work in the proportions of phi.

Some items, such as pianos, can’t be moved to comply. In those cases, Hively and Feeney will put something next to the item in the proper phi position to make the whole composition correct.

One of the reasons phi works, Feeney said, is it results in arrangements with a pleasing kind of asymmetry.

When we look at something, our eye is drawn to what’s wrong, she said. So when we look at a symmetrical arrangement, we notice any mistakes that exist.

If what’s “wrong” with an arrangement is its asymmetry, however, that’s what we notice. Because the arrangement is supposed to be that way, our brains like what they see.

Feeney first heard of phi from a friend at her church. She didn’t think much about it, though, until the woman sent her the address of a Web site that delved into the concept.

What she learned intrigued her. “It was beyond me,” she said, “but I knew it had a place in design.”

She and Hively talked to Norfolk, the math professor, as well as to architects, designers and other mathematicians. They spent seven or eight months researching phi before creating Phi Design, a business they introduced at the recent Akron Home & Flower Show.

Feeney has become so adept at using phi that Hively said she can find a correct position for an item almost instinctively. He’ll measure, and invariably she’ll be within an inch or two of the right spot, he said.

Source

States Regulate Interior Designers

Western States Regulate “Interior Designers”, Where’s the Public Interest?
By Warner Todd Huston
March 23, 2007

The State legislature of Nevada wants to be sure your home’s Feng Shui is smooth. New Mexico’s officials want to be sure that your “space” is well arranged. They are all about home decor. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if they have the Home Improvement channel constantly playing in all state offices so that legislators can keep up on the latest tips. They must be experts, fanatically concerned with interior decorating, after all.

Why, you ask?

Well, because they have wasted the time of the legislature and the money of the State’s treasury to make sure that there is a legal, licensed difference between an “Interior Decorator” and just those lowly, unskilled “decorators”. Worse, there is now the iron boot heel of government standing behind the supposed “professional” status of an “Interior Designer” because if you hire someone who claims to be just a “designer” and he does work of an “Interior Designer”– whatever that is supposed to be — well, the black helicopters swoop down upon you, they unleash the hell hounds to run you to ground, and you’ll end up in the deepest pit the State of Nevada can find for up to a year, not to mention fining you $1,000.

That’s right, folks. The State of Nevada wasted its time defining what interior design “means” and has developed a license and fee schedule to control it all.

Things like these are why government at all stages has reached absurdist levels in the USA today. Our Founders waged a Revolution over a tax of a few cents on tea. We, on the other hand, are sitting still while government regulates how we can move our furniture around in our homes, or who we hire to paint a wall.

What are we… MICE or Europeans?

I get this story from George Will’s March 20th column, “Government regulation goes step too far in Nevada”. Will makes some great points with it, too.

Will pegs some of this to the “Interior Design” interests in the western states.

Being able to control the number of one’s competitors, and to dispense the pleasure of status, is nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you have a legislature willing to enact ”titling laws.” They regulate – meaning restrict – the use of job descriptions. Such laws often are precursors of occupational licensing, which usually means a mandatory credentialing process to control entry into a profession with a particular title.

Will understands rightly that this licensing thing is just a racket set up by certain trade groups who are trying to control their own industry, preventing competition. And some nanny-state politicians who love a “cause”, not to mention the benefits of a trade union or guild that is beholden to them, are happy to comply.

Will spends most of his column on the issue of the quashing of competition among decorating businesses but does briefly bring up another point.

Government licenses professions to protect the public and ensure quality. It licenses engineers and doctors because if their testable skills are deficient, bridges collapse and patients die. The skills of interior designers are neither similarly measurable nor comparably disastrous when deficient.

To me, that is the far more pertinent issue. Where is the Public’s compelling interest in how “professional” someone is in painting a wall, or moving an ottoman? Where is the pressing public good affected by regulations on “Interior Designers”?

Indemnity insurance is another thing, of course, and that is a compelling interest of the law. But why is it any business of the government if someone can color coordinate your carpet with your drapes? The fact that state governments even assume such power is indicative of the overweening, nanny state into which we have slid.

And every state has idiotic laws like these, not just the western states. In the dead of night, these politicians with pockets full of IOUs from one industry or another pass these kinds of boondoggle laws meant solely to scratch the backs of pals and serving no legitimate interests of the State. And, as each year passes on we are more enslaved to government than ever before through overarching regulation.

Thomas Jefferson said that the blood of tyrants and patriots should water the tree of liberty every so often. We have long since passed the time when our Founders would have found government intolerable.

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Karastan Teams Up with Thom Filicia

MARCH 22, 2007 — Karastan, part of Dalton, Ga.-based Mohawk Industries, is taking its “Decorating From the Floor Up” (DFFU) in-store consumer event and putting it on the road with help from interior designer and TV personality Thom Filicia. Karastan has signed on Filicia and is creating an added component for its DFFU program, which brings decorating experts to participating retailers to conduct interactive seminars focusing on flooring solutions. “We are enormously enthusiastic to team with Thom Filicia and add a whole new dimension to Decorating From The Floor Up,” said David Duncan, vice president of marketing for Karastan. “Thom’s boundless talent as an interior designer plus his magnetic personality make him irresistibly appealing to a broad range of consumers. Our plan is to amplify the concept of DFFU and continue to offer our retailers and their clientele a service that no other floorcovering manufacturer can match.” The initial plan calls for visits in 2007 to several major markets, such as Boston and Chicago. Rather than appearing in-store, however, Filicia will headline events staged in local venues where several hundred consumers can attend. A Karastan gallery will be incorporated, as will an incentive to drive consumers into an authorized brand retailer following the event. A significant advertising campaign, including a mix of newspaper, spot TV and radio, and even regional buys of national magazines, will support this venture. And, to give it even greater traction, there are plans to offer a personal “meet-and-greet” with Filicia to individuals who make a contribution of $100 or more to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. The charity, which funds education and research for breast cancer, has a longstanding partnership with Mohawk Industries.

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CONDUCIVE TO CALM

Ancient feng shui principles bring harmony to home
By ALMA E. HILL
03/15/07

Balance.

For Melissa Van Rossum, a writer and stay-at-home mother with two young children, having a balanced home is essential for a peaceful, nourishing environment.

By balance she means using color and a mixture of textures and natural materials to make a home harmonious and calming.

To make sure she achieved the right balance in her new Brookhaven home, Van Rossum hired Tish Mills, an interior designer who specializes in feng shui, an ancient Chinese art that involves arranging furnishings and other elements in a home or business to create a harmonious environment by stimulating the flow of positive energy.

“I’ve been familiar with feng shui for some time,” Van Rossum says. “With every home — I’ve had three prior to this one — I would use the principles of feng shui for balance.”

Since Van Rossum works from home but doesn’t like to sit at a desk, it was important that her furniture be plush and comfortable.

“I’m very picky about where I’ll write. I’m somebody who has to move around,” Van Rossum explains. “I can’t write at a desk. I have to write on the couch or in a big chair. If my environment isn’t comfortable, then I’m distracted.”

Mills created harmony in the library and salon/family room, the rooms Van Rossum typically writes in, by mixing soft brown tones with splashes of red and by balancing natural elements such as crystal, jade and metal in key areas around the rooms.

“The overall goal for the house was a space that’s very peaceful, very balanced and very beautiful, but comfortable for her family and the way they like to live,” Mills says. “It’s interesting and soothing to the mind because everything feels so comfortable.”

HOW TO CREATE A HARMONIOUS ROOM

Balance elements such as wood, stone and metal. Don’t overdo it.

Place items that serve a purpose or are interesting to look at. Don’t buy stuff just for the purpose of filling space.

Eliminate clutter. “I tell people all the time to edit, edit, edit,” Mills says.

Don’t overaccessorize. “I’d rather have one great item than 10 things sitting out just to have them,” she says.

Be mindful of furniture arrangement. For example, sitting at a desk with your back to the door creates bad energy. Consider changing the arrangement or placing a mirror at the desk that provides a clear view of the doorway.

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Cristina @ Kohl’s

Blending Latino cultures
Cristina Saralegui kicks off collection
By VIKKI ORTIZ
March 10, 2007

In between the demands of her popular Latin talk-show, monthly magazine and daily radio program, Cristina Saralegui makes time for her other passion: decorating her home.

Saralegui, who has 100 million viewers worldwide and is considered Univision’s Oprah, loves the process of filling rooms with eclectic furniture and decor. She has furnished her 10,000 square-foot Miami dwelling with influences from her hometown of Havana, colonial Spanish times and the Mediterranean.

And although Saralegui has no formal training in interior design, she immerses herself in history books that explain cultures, eras and styles as part of her decorating process.

“The research part kills me – I love it,” Saralegui said in a recent interview.

This month, Saralegui’s home décor ideas become available to Milwaukee-area home decorators – and those around the country – with the launch of the Casa Cristina Collection at Kohl’s Department Stores. The collection features bedsheet sets, bath towels and table linens, and ranging in price from $7.99 to $269.99.

She shared some of her thoughts on decorating and on introducing a home collection under her namesake with the Journal Sentinel.

• On defining her signature style: Saralegui doesn’t like to confine herself to one style, but rather enjoys pulling influences from all Spanish-speaking countries. When picking panelists for her program, “The Cristina Show” – she flies in panelists from Spain, Chile or anywhere in Latin America. She likes to use the same approach when picking influences for her home décor.

“What we have basically done with the show is what we have translated in what we’re doing with home products. The show concentrates on the common denominator of the 23 countries where Hispanics are from,” she says.

• On how to decorate a home on a limited budget: “The most important thing is quality,” says Saralegui, who noted that in her culture, people buy furniture built to last for generations. When a family member goes to buy a piece of furniture, the mom, the grandma go along to ensure it’s good quality.

Saralegui says she lived by that rule when she furnished her home decades ago, and was proud when her daughter got married and took her bed to her first home.

• On the time you should allow yourself to decorate: “You do like a bird. You nest,” she says. “It’s an ongoing process of self-realization. It’s a way to see how you’re maturing as a human being.

“As you grow, your house grows with you. . . . it’s really important that you don’t think of it as a project or as a job. You think of it as something that you love and you enjoy.”

• On design elements she has used in her own home: Saralegui has one room in her house she calls her “Florida Room,” which is enclosed in glass and features an enclosed garden for which the temperature is regulated. The rest of the house is also tropical with a lot of greens and orchids.

Her living room furniture is beige – the type of pieces that worked “when my kids were little they could go in with tennis shoes.” She likes woods and nubbiness in materials. And one wall is covered with masks, which she collects from various countries.

Saralegui collects antique crosses, which her fans have given her through the years. But she also likes to mix all the various eclectic pieces together.

Her husband is into meditation, so she bought him an antique altar and Buddha statue.

• On the role of color and patterns in her designs: Saralegui prefers colors related to terra cottas, mosaics, oaks and wines. She also likes different stripe patterns. She discourages people from reverting to stereotypes when considering a Hispanic influence in their home. “We are not only about chili peppers and flamingos,” she said.

• On why she chose to partner with Kohl’s for her home collection: Saralegui, who also has her own line of furniture, mattresses and lighting, wanted to work with a company that would allow strong input in the designs that would be carrying her name.

“They’re growing very fast,” she says. “This will give us a way to expand our brand.”

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HGTV Social Network

Scripps Networks Selects Neighborhood America to Build Interactive Online Community as Part of Leading Home & Garden Web Site HGTV.Com
February 20, 2007

PRESS RELEASE

NAPLES, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Scripps Networks has selected Neighborhood America to enable the creation of a new online community for HGTV.com, the #1 online content destination in the Nielsen//NetRatings’ Home & Garden category and companion Web site to popular cable network HGTV. [1] Neighborhood America is the leading enterprise social network solutions provider for organizations seeking to engage and interact with the public.

HGTV.com’s new interactive online community initiative Rate My Room is designed to create community around the common interest of interior design. Rate My Room will provide individuals with the ability to interact with like-minded design enthusiasts and share ideas and design concepts through the publishing of images that showcase their homes.

“Scripps Networks is committed to providing our audiences unique ways to get information and ideas as well as to interact and share common interests,” said Jim Sexton, senior vice president, Scripps Networks Interactive. “We’re excited to launch Rate My Room, which uses cutting-edge technology to enable good old-fashioned conversations and connections, thus benefiting both the user and the brand.”

“Social networking has begun to make its presence felt in the enterprise market,” said Kim Kobza, CEO of Neighborhood America. “Yet, to be truly effective, traditional consumer-driven social networks must meet the needs of today’s organizations, including brand protection, structure, analysis and administrative oversight. Our relationship with Scripps Networks will provide a social network through which they can maintain their leadership in innovative programming. The resulting two-way interaction and communication will allow Scripps Networks to engage with their audience across multiple platforms in meaningful ways.”

[1] Nielsen//NetRatings December 2006

Scripps Networks Interactive

The dynamic Web sites created and supported by Scripps Networks Interactive attracted an average of more than 13.5 million unique visitors per month in 2006. The Scripps Networks Interactive Web sites – www.HGTV.com, www.FoodNetwork.com, www.DIYnetwork.com, www.FineLiving.com and www.GACTV.com – along with broadband channels including – www.HGTVPro.com, www.HGTVKitchenDesign.com, www.HGTVBathDesign.com and www.DIYnetwork.com/woodworking – are not only extensions of Scripps Networks leading lifestyle brands, providing users programming information and additional instructional content, but also exciting destinations for original content, engaging video and powerful interactive tools.

About Neighborhood America

Neighborhood America provides government, business and media with a simple solution to the universal problem of engaging and building social networks that can be controlled, managed and easily scaled. Neighborhood America uniquely delivers results-driven ‘Software as a Service’ solutions that enable organizations to capture, moderate, analyze and fully leverage user-generated content collected through all devices. Customers such as ABC, CBS, the Department of Defense and The Weather Channel have turned to Neighborhood America to achieve audience interaction goals, building communities that support brands and create value. For more information, visit www.neighborhoodamerica.com.

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Go With Your Animal Instincts

Cover your floors guilt-free with wild, stylish synthetic rugs
by NANCY BRACHEY
February 14, 2007

You’d like the look of fauna on the floor, but wouldn’t dream of putting down the actual skin of a dead zebra, leopard or tiger.

Enter wool and synthetic rugs, inspired by nature’s design for a guilt-free walk on the wild side.

Designers have long drawn motifs from flora — flowers, leaves, seed pods, mosses and trees — for rugs, fabric and accessories. But wild animals have become a rich source of design, so much that some home furnishings companies call this the Year of the Zebra.

There are the spots of leopard the stripes of tiger and zebra, all inspiration for area to room-sized rugs.

Allison Julius, spokeswoman for Jonathan Adler, a national home furnishings company, (www.jonathanadler.com) says the company’s woven zebra rug (5 by 7 feet, $875), has been very successful since its introduction about a year and a half ago. The dramatic design is now one of Adler’s top sellers among rugs.

“It is 100 percent woven wool and no animals are harmed in the making,” she said. The company promotes it as “a zebra rug even a zebra would own.”

Another company that has found animal patterns and motifs a rich source of design is the Web store www.hollywoodloverugs.com. Vince Trankina, one of the owners, says animal prints have long been popular in home decor because of the natural beauty of their colors and patterns. This emerged first as faux fur in clothing and animal prints in fabrics for home decorating.

“The rug area has now been growing steadily in popularity,” he says. “People may desire animal prints, but they don’t want a real animal. (The company sells some rugs of such materials as cowhide that is the by-product of the meat industry. But no animals are killed to make a rug for this company, he says.)

“And this (past) year, there has been a big demand for anything zebra,” he says.

Why it isn’t tiger or leopard, says Trankina, is due to a combination of factors.

“Some of these things are cyclical. Five years ago, it was the leopard.

“The zebra is now being promoted in the (home decor) magazines,” which he believes is a large part of the reason. The company’s olefin animal-print rugs range in price from $69 for a 4 by 6 foot area rug to $169, for the 8 by ll.

Trankina also points out that the designs are inspired by the natural look of zebras, leopards and tigers, not dead ringers for them.

“They are not designed to replicate an animal hide, but to simulate and give the feeling of the pattern. It’s a way to bring nature’s designs into the home. There’s just something about these natural patterns that is very attractive.”

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