interior design ideas: April 2009

Home Design Room Layout: Sketches Work Great!

Sketches on tracing paper in the preliminary design phase come in handy to see alternate room layouts and spatial relationships. Clients love the artistry involved and the human element to their design. The client was unsure about whether to have the wood stove centered on the gable endwall or in the corner. The sketches were quick and extremely...

Current Home Design Trends

Trends in home design are moving away from specific rooms and space to materials and energy efficiency. This delightful (and beneficial) competition between neighbors, communities, and states to become more energy conscious and less dependent on fossil fuels has resulted in thousands of people reducing their carbon footprint.Here are some of the current trends in home design:1. Reduce, reuse, recycle: More and more homeowners...

So Pretty-New Products from Jardins En Fleur

We got an email from Jardins En Fleur about their new pieces today. OMG they are so pretty! You probably know from our previous post that this is one of our favorite new vendors. The prices are getting more reasonable. The chairs shown are about $350-400/each. The console table is about $1500.If you like the softer, prettier style of home...

Fresh Bedding from Mystic Valley Trading

We haven't purchased any bedding for our store for a while, mainly because they are a bit cumbersome to sell. But we just received our Mystic Valley Trading catalog today and they have some really pretty stuff! What's more, they put everything into one convenient package so we don't have to list each piece individually.Here are some bedding...

Modern Fabrics from Duralee

Duralee just came out with a collection of modern fabrics that we thought are really pretty.Here is a sample of it. To see each sample, check out the Duralee's Simply Modern Collection.There are five additional books...To get pricing and availability, please visit our fabric sto...

Bargain Buys from Arteriors Home

We decided that every Friday should be the designated "bargain day", what do you think? On this day, we will post all manufacturer bargains that we feel are tremendous buys. Again, these are brand-new, top-of-the-the line overstock from the manufacturers (no need to worry whether people had sex on that couch you got from Craigslist!).Here...

Amazing Bargains on Modern Furniture-Nuevo Living

We are on a bargain hunting mode lately. Who isn't with this economy!So we've been browsing through all the manufacturers bargains that have been sent our way. You see, manufacturers need to make room for new inventory, new styles, whatever, then they send us the lists of items that have been marked down like crazy.Here are some bargains...

Keeping a Green Home, Remotely

As seen in a recent online issue of The New York Times, soon you will be able to monitor the energy efficiency of your home on your cell phone, wherever you are. The soon-to-be-released tool, called TREE (Tendril Residential Energy Ecosystem), will allow homeowners to turn appliances, heating, and cooling systems on and off from work, the...

Z Gallerie Filed Chapter 11

Z Gallerie filed chapter 11 today, citing difficult economic environment.More information can be found here:Z Gallerie N...

Lakefront Home Plans - NH

Here are green home plans for clients building a vacation home on their lakefront property located in rural New Hampshire. The property has an existing cottage, which will be torn down.The new energy efficient home will be just shy of 2500 square feet, with 1530 square feet on the first floor and 950 square feet on the second floor. With...

Five Reasons to Use Solar Energy in Green Homes

Here are five good reasons to utilize a solar energy system in your new home: 1) Solar energy is clean and sustainable, which helps to protect the environment and does not contribute to global warming, acid rain, or smog2) Solar energy reduces our dependency on power companies 3) Systems can be configured to meet virtually any power demand...

Small Green Home Design

I met Pat and Andy at a Log and Timber Frame Home Show, and shortly after, they asked me to design their vacation / retirement home on their property in northern Maine. While they like timber frame homes, they thought it might be too much for this modest project.Their project goals were: Small footprint to minimize carbon footprintEnergy...