interior design ideas

ENERGY STAR® Architect – Home Plan Designer

Most Americans planning to build or buy a home are concerned with energy efficiency – and rightly so. In response to this need, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of Energy joined together to develop the ENERGY STAR® program, which works with over 12,000 public and private sector organizations that ensure energy efficient products and practices to help reduce energy bills, improve comfort, and help protect the environment.

Recognizing an energy efficient home starts with a good home design, ENERGY STAR recently formed a new partnership with Architects and Home Plan Designers who are qualified to design homes to earn the ENERGY STAR label. Bonin Architects became an ENERGY STAR Architect / Home Plan Designer partner in December.

All ENERGY STAR homes include energy-efficient details and specifications for features such as tight construction and duct systems, properly-installed insulation, high performance windows, efficient heating and cooling equipment, and ENERGY STAR qualified lighting and appliances to reduce energy costs by 20 to 30 percent.

After the home is built, an independent ENERGY STAR Rater calculates and tests the energy efficiency of the home and submits the results to ENERGY STAR for approval, and you enjoy the savings!

Hollywood Regency Furniture from Worlds Away

We came across this line a while back and thought it was really nice. If you are into the Hollywood Regency look, you might like it.

Here are some products samples. Please forgive the quality of the pictures. They are pretty awful. We can assure you that they look much better in person though.

You can see the rest at Worlds Away's web site. They don't sell to the public-- so if you need help with pricing, drop us a line...

-----------------------

Isn't this console table wonderful? Finished in a polished nickel, it is so sophisticated-looking.

We like this bench set for extra seating...

This is our favorite mirror. It's so glamorous...

We get tons of inquiry on this chest...

This end table is so adorable. The top is in brown glass...

This console is adorable. We've seen it used as a china buffet or a console in a living room. Either way it looks great...

Love this mirror too. It is finished in a polished-white, although you can hardly see it. It's so pretty in person.

A nice change from the typical boring planter...

Five Things We Can't Live Without

Running an e-commerce business requires that we are on the computer CONSTANTLY, ALL THE TIME. We find there are a few things that don't cost much, even free, that help keep our work environment more fun and relaxing.

We thought we share them with you.

1) Free Music. Have you heard of Pandora? If you haven't you must try it. It's a free Internet radio service where you can enter an artist or a song that you like; then Pandora will create a whole station full of similiar music for you. This way you get new music, all the time. The service is free but you have to click on the site every hour or so. You can also pay something like $36/year to get longer session to 5 hours and no ad. Awesome site.

2) Free workout. In order to prevent that "muffin top" from sitting so much in front of the computer, we usually take 30 minutes or so to do excercise in our office. Self.com has some amazing free exercise videos you can do at home with just a pair of dumbbell. Excercisetv.tv is good too for free work out videos.

3) Nice scented candles. Our favorite is from Votivo. It has several elegant fragances and the candles last a long time....

4) Fresh flowers....Now you might think this is an indulgence but it's amazing what fresh flowers can do to your mood. We just buy them from Fresh & Easy for $10-15 or plug them from the gardens...depending on the season...

5) Free entertainment: Our favorites- NY Times, LA Times, The New Yorker, Newser and ok, we're a bit embarassed to admit it, TMZ. The first four keep us informed and in touch with the world; the last one is just mindless entertainment...