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Volunteer your talents: How design can make a positive impact
Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesWe have all heard that volunteering is good for your soul. It helps us create a connection that is outside of ourselves. Volunteering is all about sharing our gifts. If our gift is being a designer, why not share it with others who may not realize that what we do isn't just for those who have big pocketbooks? Our talents go way beyond picking paint colors and accessories. Our knowledge of interior materials as well as space planning and furniture can make a big impact on the lives of others.
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Consider the cost of maintaining a lean team
Lloyd Princeton Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesIn times of uncertainty or negative growth, it makes sense to keep staffing to a minimum and draw on freelance or outsourced help when and if needed. When business begins to pick up, however, often the smarter strategy is to add staff in order to keep up with increased demand.
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Homes sales, aging propel remodeling industry
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesRising home prices and sales of existing homes have boosted recent remodeling activity, while major life-stage events for the nation's two largest demographic cohorts will continue to drive demand in the next decade. Those are the findings of two recent analyses by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University (JCHS).
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Impressions on designing for senior living
Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesThis is the time of year when conferences are the norm. Every month there is another advertisement in a design journal for a conference that has a unique take on a specific market. Do you remember the first design conference you ever attended? I started thinking about that when I decided to attend a new one for the first time.
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Wealthiest Americans spending more on home improvement
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesSpending on home improvement has been hovering at record levels for the past two years and is expected to remain strong throughout 2017. Affluent Americans, whose wealth has increased considerably in recent years, account for a substantial portion of the market. Recent reports of consumer spending in 2016 indicate that, on average, affluent households spent more on home improvement last year than in previous years. Larger expenditures have become more concentrated among the wealthiest households.
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Who needs a mentor? You do
Leslie LaskinReese Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesI need a mentor. So do you. You may be at the very beginning of your career or even still in school, a time when mentors are a common topic. For those of us who have been doing what we do for a while, mentoring may not seem like such an obvious need. It is. Consider these three reasons to seek out your own mentor.
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Consumer optimism putting pressure on housing supply
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsHousing activity picked up in January as more buyers seeking single-family homes entered the market. Increased consumer confidence in the nation's overall economic growth, employment stability and potential for improved household income in the coming year, along with concerns about rising interest rates and home prices, spurred potential buyers to act now while conditions are more favorable.
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Tomorrow’s kitchen: Smarter, smaller and oh so cool
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesTabletop cooking, backsplash display panels and a garage for your appliances are just a few of the advances in kitchen design looming on the horizon. In comparison, that Jetsons kitchen you've been waiting for may seem more like one for the Flintstones.
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Boomers may elude predictions of their homebuying power
Michael J. Berens Construction & Building MaterialsOnce again, baby boomers are bucking conventional wisdom. The scenario oft-repeated within the housing industry is that boomers are sitting on a lot of home equity and will at some point sell their current family-oriented homes and buy housing that will better support an older active lifestyle, thus creating a lot of churn and demand in the market.
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Turning around homelessness with design
Michael J. Berens Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesOn any given day, more than a half-million people — children, women and men, including many veterans — in the United States experience homelessness. That number has been decreasing in recent years, but with rents and home prices rising, many low-income individuals and families could find themselves without the means to pay for housing.
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