Value of the Most Popular Home Improvement Projects

Besides roof replacement, landscaping, pest control, and electrical work, the most popular home improvement projects are usually focused on bathrooms and kitchens. While the most popular justification for spending money on the improvements is to improve the resale value of the home, which actually offers a questionable return in most cases, the best approach for an interior designer is usually to focus instead on client comfort, rather than increased home value.

Thanks to a piece at HGTV.com, we have evidence for this that is hard to argue against. For example, the largest return on investment can be found by performing a minor bathroom remodel. Yet, according the them, the average return at resale is just 102% on the homeowner’s investment.

Home Improvement ROI

Whether major or minor, remodeling just about any room from the original to an updated version can be quite costly. As a result, return on investment (ROI) for a remodel quickly becomes something of a mixed bag. Obviously, the nicer the original version of the space the less likely it is that making changes will affect the resale value of the home. On the other hand, remodeling a real “fixer-upper” can have a huge impact on value.

The clever interior designer will discuss these points with their client in an open and honest manner before proceeding with any changes. While you certainly do not want to discourage a potential client from hiring you for their remodeling project, working with integrity will benefit you in the long run.

The following is a list of some of the most popular home improvements across the country and, while every market will be different and values may fluctuate, the average ROIs shown here should be taken into consideration if your client mentions resale value as justification. Working from lowest ROI to highest, we have:

• Update to a living room or bonus room – At just a 66% ROI, updating the décor of a living room is the least realistic way to improve the resale value of a home. Changing a “bonus room” is not too much better at something below 73% return. This is likely because needs and tastes can differ greatly from one homeowner to another, making cosmetic changes largely irrelevant to long-term home value.
• Add a family room – Considering the expense, the 83% ROI of adding a family room must be taken into consideration. (With an average cost of over $54,000 and a return of about $45,500, this is a serious question.) On the other hand, adding a space that is well used and loved by the clients has real value in the present. This should be the most important reason for adding a family room to an existing home.
• Replacing windows – With a nearly 90% return on investment, putting in new windows has some appeal. Perhaps more important though is the fact that new windows can save on energy costs for the current homeowner. Be advised, however, that for really hot climates (e.g., Phoenix and Las Vegas), replacement windows make little difference and will return only about 62% on investment.
• Basement remodels – Hugely popular almost everywhere, a basement remodel offers about 90% ROI. Again, due to the expense of remodeling such a space (about $51,000 national average), the focus should be as much on satisfying the immediate needs and comfort of the client as it is on adding value to the home.
• Adding outside space – Much like windows and basement, the value of making changes to the exterior of a home with a new deck, patio or porch will not exceed the investment (about 90% ROI). Other changes to the exterior, even something as simple as a new coat of paint, on the other hand, will offer an average of 95% ROI.
• Kitchen remodels – One of the top two most popular remodeling projects across all markets, changes to the most popular room in the majority of homes, the kitchen – offers a pretty decent ROI. While a major change to the kitchen can return about 91% of the cash invested, a minor remodel offers a nearly 99% ROI. Such a project would be largely cosmetic, with changes to paint, wallcoverings, flooring, and countertops. Swapping out the appliances at the same time would constitute a major remodel.
• Remodeling bathrooms – Perhaps the most popular remodeling project of all, making changes to bathrooms offers a strong return on investment, depending on the size of that investment. Again, a minor remodel is more likely to boost value with an average 102% ROI, while a complete overhaul of a bathroom offers something in the neighborhood of a 93% return.

While it’s not a complete fiction that home improvement projects and home remodeling can increase the value of a home, boosting the value above the cost of the project is not guaranteed. The key for the sharp designer is understanding your market, and knowing which of these popular home improvement projects you can count on to help you boost your client’s ROI and close the sale.

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Spring Design Trends for Outdoor Living

Spring has sprung and, though it may not seem like it in certain parts of the country, it’s time for all designers to begin thinking of what their clients might enjoy when outdoors. Beyond landscaping changes, this year is seeing some interesting spring design trends for the deck, patio, and backyards.

The latest trends in landscaping reflect the desire to bring the indoors outside; to create comfortable outdoor environments that are as functional as they are beautiful. There’s also a shift toward sustainable landscapes that reflect a renewed sense of mindfulness for the Earth and its ecosystems.

It’s important to remember that the backyard is a very private space for most homeowners, yet one which they also enjoy sharing with others. This can make the design of outdoor spaces particularly challenging as they must meet the needs of the client comfort, while also making something of a statement to their guests.

Backyard Design Trends for Spring 2017

With these things in mind, we offer a peek at what you may see enthusiasts of backyard living adopting this year:

Bespoke outdoor living – A fully customized yet livable space outdoors offers multiple opportunities for creativity and innovation from the designer. As more homeowners take entertaining outside the home, many year ‘round, landscapes have become extensions of interior spaces, including the furniture and appliances.

Themed spaces, fire pits, brick ovens and grills, sitting areas with multiple levels, dining areas, fireplaces and fire pits, romantic bedroom areas, yoga gardens, sports areas, and even full kitchens are taking backyard entertaining to a level well beyond simple patios and decks, turning the contemporary backyard into a retreat from the everyday world.

Softer, more calming colors – With nature as inspiration, soothing pink and blue hues will be seen in backyards across the country this spring. In everything from plant life to furniture, from heritage rose bushes, Catherine Woodbury daylilies, Angelique tulips, blue lace delphinium, French hydrangea to sofas, settees, and throw pillows, the colors and shades of outdoor living will reflect a sense of caring for the planet.

High-tech moves outside – As a natural extension of taking indoor living outdoors, today’s most popular technologies will certainly follow, backyard Wi-Fi and TV installations leading the way. Further, creative and functional lighting, with dramatic and boldly colored lights, twinkling accent lighting in walkways, and low wattage LED lighting solutions will be important to the conscious homeowner who chooses to spend more time outdoors.

Water features – The techniques used to manage storm water will no longer be hidden from view. Rain barrels, rain gardens and stone retaining walls add stunning dimension to lush landscapes while serving an important purpose of collecting, cleaning or stopping the water. In fact, water and other non-plant features, including sculptures or pottery, are becoming focal points in landscapes.

“Naturescaping” reaches full bloom – Growing in developing environmentally conscious landscapes will reach a zenith this year, with ever more homeowners focus on their personal environments. Selecting and growing native plants to attract birds, insects, and wildlife, as well as landscapes that require minimal effort to maintain, will become increasingly important to the outdoor living enthusiast.

For many interior designers, the job this year will move outdoors, as a larger number of homeowners take their entertaining, and their lives, into their backyards. Have you seen other movements toward changes in the design trends for outdoor living in your area? Please them in the comments section below.

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Timeless Interior Decorating Advice

Interior design clients who wind up dissatisfied with the changes they ask you to make for them tend to have certain things in common: poor decision making, too much focus on the details, beauty over functionality – or functionality over beauty – just to name a few. Since the client rarely accepts blame for their dissatisfaction, it’s important for every designer to keep these common problems and timeless interior decorating advice in mind when bidding on a job.

While different clients will have different needs, and some will prove more challenging than others, there are a variety of design and decorating challenges that present themselves on a regular basis. The sharp designer is aware of these and has answers to the most common of them.

5 Typical Interior Design Challenges

• Big Picture Focus – Keeping your client focused on Big Picture, whole-home solutions, rather than details like this or that rug in that or this space, will help them understand and appreciate the vision for their project that you share with them. Maintaining balance within a particular space is important for long-term comfort, while “making a statement” can detract from that balanced look and feel. When your client seems to become lost in the minutiae, ask them to step back and keep the larger vision in mind.
• Style Choices – In real estate, the most important characteristic is “location, location, location.” For an interior designer, it’s “style, style, style”. Determining the character of a space, along with a style that will either enhance or diminish it based on the client’s wishes, will enable you to proceed with confidence and conviction that you’re providing what the client needs. Their lack of confidence will lead your client to make timid choices, so reinforce their style choices and move boldly forward.
• Artwork Must be Loved – Never let your clients choose a piece of art simply because it fills some empty wall space or because the main colors match their furniture. Art should be uplifting, provoke thought, take the viewer to new places or create a reason to pause and enjoy. Art is personal, so help your clients find pieces that reflect their passions, spirit or outlook on life.
• Paint and Wallcoverings Require Patience – Often, the process of choosing paint and wallcoverings requires more time than the application of either. Here, patience truly is a virtue, for the client and the designer. Since colors and textures can vary greatly when moving from store to home, the best choice is to perform in-home testing whenever possible. Ideally, your clients will be living with these choices for a very long time so, it makes sense to be patient with them when they make these choices.
• Balancing Price and Value – While high-end furniture may enhance the look and feel of a space, it is not always the best value for your client. Sure, “something cheap is eventually expensive” but, every client must work within a budget, which means that you must do likewise. The smart designer leads her client to make choices that offer the most “bang for the buck”; choices that enhance the vison and style you agreed to achieve when you began.

Are there other common design problems that, based on your experience, you would add to this list of timeless interior decorating advice?

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Interior Design for Disaster Clients

Are you a couples’ therapist, counselor, or coach? No, you’re an interior designer who is just trying to help them create a beautiful, livable space. If you’ve worked with many couples, you know that a consultation with the pair of them often feels like a therapy session, with you being the psychologist. Here’s a little help when you have to perform interior design for disaster clients, as we call them.

When Wants Exceed Budget

“We want the best, but our budget is low.”

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Champagne taste on a beer budget.” While there is nothing wrong with wanting the best, two of the most common issues with couples is that they often have a different understanding of what the best is, as well as how much they can afford to spend.

The Solution:

Playing the referee in such a situation can be tough so, the first thing to do is guide them gently toward a list of priorities they can agree on. Next, stick to those priorities as tenaciously as possible, in your interest as well as theirs. Then, set aside a part of the budget for some extra expenses. If you do get trapped into a fight when your clients argue over whether they should go for a more expensive version of the couch or not, don’t forget to remind them about their initial priorities and, remember your set-aside in the budget which you can offer to use to cover this upgrade.

A wise piece of advice here is not to take anybody’s side, but help your customers find the balance with a minimum of your time taken.

Accommodating Conflicting Tastes

“I want the same style everywhere.”

Men and women often have different aesthetic tastes. Women lean more toward decorative solutions, while men tend to be more minimalist. When these style visons clash in the same home, the designer’s life becomes difficult, at best.

The Solution:

This type of couple not only makes your job harder, but it also creates tension between your clients, which can lead to more conflict and increased determination to “have it their way.” If you come up with the controversial requirements, try taking the least controversial parts of both of them and organizing them into an accommodating design.

If you can’t find a compromise solution, try to give each member a certain area of control: let one define the color scheme and the other go for furniture selection. You can even go so far as to award each of them a section of the house; a “his space” and “her space.” Remember, talking about their aims and priorities in design will always help to guide you – and them.

Limiting Change Requests

“We’ve decided to go a different direction.”

It’s often difficult for a homeowner to visualize the changes they ask you to make for them. Seeing the reality can lead to them changing their minds. Plus, if they have differences, and those differences are discussed outside your presence, you’re going to get plenty of change requests.

The Solution:

Again, setting priorities before you begin work will help you here. Also, before you start the project, agree on the number of amendment sessions to be included within the scope of your changes (this is a good practice for any client). This agreement will at least protect you financially. Another good practice is to discuss reasons for any change requests that are introduced.

Explain to your clients that this way it will be easier for any participant of the process to share the same vision. By reminding them of the thought process upon which the previous solution was accepted, you will be able to protect those parts of the design that you find most important, as well as to call upon logic instead of emotion.

Clients Who Don’t Communicate

“He (or she) wouldn’t understand so don’t tell him (or her) we talked about this, OK?”

One of the more dangerous (to you) places to be caught is between clients who don’t communicate with each other. If one of them is not ready for an open discussion of the choices being made, they will try to approach you separately as a way to “get their way.” The interior designer who accepts this role does so at their peril.

The Solution:

The best thing you can do here is to make the specs and goals of the project as transparent as possible. Using professional design software to track changes and progress helps you easily collect product information from any webpage into professional specification list with simple clicks.

Working with couples can be challenging in the extreme, requiring you to employ your skills as a communicator and amateur therapist. If you set priorities for them at the beginning, stay on top of every aspect of the project, and keep the lines of communication open, you are far more likely to smooth the path and meet the challenges of interior design for disaster clients.

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

When to Ignore Feedback

We all have egos. We all enjoy praise and resist, even resent disapproval. None of us are perfect and, when you deal with clients in a creative field like interior design, criticism will be an unavoidable part of your life. After all, we’re not dealing with a black and white world of simple metrics and schedules; but a space where personal tastes, style, and aesthetics predominate.Such a world is rife with feedback, both positive and negative. Understanding the nature and value of each, to you and your clients, will go a long way toward helping you provide better services to your clients, while not feeling abused by their criticism.Sticks and StonesFirst, an ego bruise has never killed anyone. Mistakes happen and, if you make one, the best thing you can do is take responsibility for it, learn from it, and move on. Unwarranted criticism is similar – consider the source and, if you do not respect the person’s opinion, it has no value. Again, move on.When criticism may be warranted but is vague or off-point, it’s easy to get frustrated. Often when hearing something like that, you’ll know intuitively that the critique is valid, but you also realize you don’t have enough information to correct it.When this happens, it’s up to you to get what you need so, ask follow-up questions to get to the root of the problem. The person offering the criticism will appreciate that you're trying to understand their needs more fully and, ultimately, you will benefit from a better understanding of where you may have fallen short or underdelivered.Ignore Dubious Sources of CriticismWhen you take professional feedback personally, you do yourself a disservice. You also negate the input of the person offering advice – advice that may be helpful.Of course, the source of the feedback matters. Past clients, professional associates, even friends and family may have valid judgments to offer that will help you in your professional life. Take what they have to say to heart and make the changes needed to improve your service, relationships, and your business.For your peace of mind, you must learn to ignore negative criticism that is unwarranted, or that comes from a source with the goal of causing you pain. Yes, there are people out there who only want to belittle others but, again, if you do not respect their opinion, you should be able to ignore them with ease.One more thought: Do not accept praise from such a source either. Believe me, if their negative critique of you has no value, neither does their positive opinion. Eventually, they will show their true colors again and, if you believe they may have changed, they will only hurt you when they revert to their negativity.Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

How to Sell More High-End Upholstered Furniture

While upholstered furniture sales will likely generate the biggest tickets and highest revenues for your interior design business, they may not come easily. Simply presenting your offerings as “The Best” will often create a question in your client’s mind – “The best, as compared to what?” Do you have an answer for this?

Home fashion has become a rapidly shifting target, with statements ranging from traditional to transitional to contemporary. This takes place not just from client to client and from home to home, but even from room to room within the same home! Staying current with these shifting home fashion trends is a challenge that all of us must face. With the right approach, these shifting design trends can be dealt with effectively.

Descriptive Language is the Key to Luxury Furniture Sales

Capturing the imagination of your clients – and reinforcing their choices and tastes – is the key to growing your luxury furniture sales. Using descriptive language to distinguish your offerings will go a long way toward helping your clients realize that you have their best interests at heart:

1. “Subtle, labor intensive decorative details include hand-sewn welting, double top-stitched seams, and pleating.”
2. “Our bespoke furniture includes 8-way hand-tied and handset coil springs, as well as sustainable materials and components.”
3. “Tailored from traditional materials to create a sumptuous yet modern (or contemporary) mood that speaks volumes.”

While it goes without saying that you can rarely make an overt appeal, it is also often necessary, and effective, to subtly appeal to your client’s ego; their sense of self-importance and discernment. This can often be done by engaging them in conversations that include more sensuous language, such as stylish presentations, opulence, custom tailoring, sumptuousness, gratification, curvaceous upholstery, lavish covers, artisanship, craftsmanship, bench-built, and hand-crafted.

Understanding your client’s needs, and speaking to those needs in terms that elicit an emotional response, will allow you to close more high-end upholstered furniture sales – and satisfy your client completely and repeatedly.

Know Your Value and Charge Accordingly

The question of what to charge is often difficult for emerging entrepreneurs and independent contractors. Oddly, it can be just as difficult to know your value even if you have an established design business. You see, as an independent business person, it’s very easy to lead a somewhat insulated life, with little interaction among other designers. This can lead to confusion about your value and can make you wonder what clients might be willing to pay for your design services.

When we wonder about the value and price of the services we offer, we will all do well to remember this little nugget of wisdom, often attributed to Warren Buffett:

“Price is what you pay… Value is what you receive!”

First, let’s define our terms, shall we?

• Price – The amount of money needed to purchase something.
• Value – The amount of money that is a fair equivalent in exchange for goods or services.

So, stated as simply as possible, it’s the difference between what you charge and the worth of what you deliver that determines the value of anything you sell, whether goods or services.

How Valuable Are Your Design Services?

Here’s an example of the mindset that will help you discover just how valuable your services are: There was once a young man who taught piano lessons. He was just 20 years old, but he charged as much as a 40-year-old piano teacher. When asked why he explained, “I don’t charge for teaching piano, I charge for the 15 years it took me to learn how”.

This was a young man who understood the value of what he had to offer – the value to his clients, not to anyone else – for their opinion did not matter.

Now, as you try to set a value for the services you offer, there are some very basic things you need to consider. These are commonly referred to a covering “your nut,” and are the basic expenses you’ll incur as you move forward in business.

• What have you invested in becoming an interior designer – the time, the effort, the dedication, and paying for your training; both in the past and any ongoing training you need?
• What kinds of business expenses do you have to cover – from office to insurance and equipment to support personnel?
• What kinds of personal expenses do you have to cover – from mortgage to utilities and groceries to family support?

Once you’ve covered the basics, it’s time to build in some profit. For help with this, it would be wise to consult with someone who will be honest with you and help you understand the true value you provide to your clients. This can be a friend, an “ideal client”, a fellow designer, or one of the resources with whom you work. Just keep in mind, it’s always helpful to have that outside view when brainstorming what you’d like to charge for your services.

Doing this should be a priority for you. Not only will it put your mind at ease, but it will also greatly help change your sense of self and help you to know the value of your design services.

The Financial Side of Your Design Business - Part 2

Now that you’ve managed to put your personal money demons to rest, it’s time to work on the beliefs that are limiting the financial side of your design business success. What does this mean? It means successful entrepreneurs do not allow fear to hold them back simply because it means stepping out of their comfort zone.

Or because they fear success. For some, having grown up in an environment that implanted and reinforced the belief that they had little value, they continue to believe that they do not DESERVE to be successful. That is just another limiting belief that was implanted by others – and – you need to drop that right now! You do deserve success, and you're about to learn how you can earn it!

We’ll take it as a given that you don’t do what you do just for the money. (No one in the interior design business is quite THAT delusional!) But, just because your goal is to help others live and work in beautiful spaces doesn’t mean that you are not entitled to be successful.

Does any of the following sound like you?

• You hate telling potential clients what your rates are.
• You avoid having an honest conversation with someone about money.
• You keep LOWERING your rates, thinking that will bring you more clients.

How’s all that working for you? Still struggling to pay the mortgage, despite working 60 hours a week? Still wishing you could afford to take a vacation occasionally? Still struggling to understand why what you do is WORTH more than you're asking for?

4 Steps to Financial Health

Here is a strategic approach to helping you overcome your money fears and help you get paid what you're worth; using a very simple 4-part exercise that could transform your income potential, and set you on the path to FINALLY creating the wealth you’ve always dreamed of.

1. Courage – First, let’s address courage by having you complete this sentence, “I have the courage to _____.” It might be the courage to raise your rates as one example.
2. Boundaries – Second, address boundaries by completing this sentence, “The boundary I will put into place is _____.” Using the example from courage, that you will raise your rates, then the boundary you will put into place might be something like, “The boundary I will put into place is to tell all potential new clients my new rates.”
3. Action – Next, we want to move you into action, so the next is your activity. Complete this next sentence “The action I will take is _____ by _____ (date).” Our example here could be, “The action I will take is to put my new rates on my website by next Thursday.”
4. Gift – Finally, complete the sentence “The gift in this is _____.” And, using our example, this might be, “The gift in this is by feeling empowered,” or, “I make a difference in the lives of others who need me,” or… well, something positive, as you can see.

There is real power in this last step, which is to look at the gift you give yourself by taking these empowering steps toward financial freedom. This simple exercise can help you claim your money power, which, particularly for entrepreneurs, is the first step in creating wealth!

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

The Financial Side of Your Design Business - Part 1

As much as you may hate it, caring for the financial side of your design business is critical to your short- and long-term success; both professional and personal. No matter how much you may WISH you could focus exclusively on working with clients, cash flow projections, budgets, and the development your business model will determine whether you make it, or fold. Without these things, you will NOT have the freedom you dream of! But there's more:

• What is your relationship to money?
• How does that hold you back?
• How do you earn more without compromising your values and principles?
• How can you earn more – and still have a life?
• Imagine healing old bad habits and old beliefs; imagine working less and earning more; both of which will lead to the success of you’ve been dreaming of.

In short, you can either learn it or outsource it but, figuring out your finances is integral to the success of your business. Once you Accept this as a fact of your business life, much of the stress and anxiety you're feeling about money and your financial future will disappear. Then, you can either take some classes or hire someone to help you set up a strategy that gives you control of your finances and ensures your long-term freedom.

Your relationship to money

What would be possible for you if you could let go of old money paradigms that have been holding you back? Those old paradigms are just limiting beliefs about money that you’ve developed and held from your past, often since childhood. But today is a new day, and it is possible to create the wealth you’ve always dreamed of.

Being an entrepreneur, you tend to run solo, relying on your energy and intuition to get everything done. However, your thoughts and feelings about money and wealth may be limiting your ability to care for the financial needs of your business. Overcoming this requires a new belief system that enables you to step into your personal integrity surrounding your business, your relationship to money, and your desire to help others.

Being in integrity means being on a track of taking consistent action, based on your values and the goals you’ve set for yourself and your business. Here are three empowering steps to move you out of old actions or habits that have held you back, so you can more easily start transforming your design business.

• The first step to your personal integrity is to write down two negative core feelings you have around money. Don’t say you don’t have any! That’s just taking you out because this isn’t a fun exercise and is uncomfortable.

Examples might be guilt, shame, fear – or the lack of any shame, guilt or fear of money. If you grew up in a household with little money to spare, and we’re repeatedly told “We can’t afford it,” it’s relatively easy to understand how you may be placing too much value on money, and acquiring it at the expense of other, more important, values.

On the other hand, if money was not an issue in your early life, you may be inclined to devalue the effort and energy required to acquire and build wealth. Either way, to at least some extent, your relationship to money was implanted by the beliefs and feelings that others have held about money and wealth in the past. As an entrepreneur, it’s time to overcome those limiting beliefs and create a new paradigm around money and your relationship to it.

• The next step is to write down at least two actions you take that re-creates these feelings in you. These feelings might be triggered by something other than money, but it leads to HOW you feel about it.

One example might be that you spend money even when you feel you don’t have it to spend. You know; you go shopping and find the perfect pair of shoes. You don’t need them, and you certainly can’t afford them. But, you imagine it will make you feel better if you get them. So, you go ahead and buy them, then when you get home you feel guilty, so you hide them. Your partner won’t notice, and he manages the money, so you're home free, right? Except for that ongoing guilt thing, yeah, you're just fine!

• The third step is to come up with at least two PRACTICAL and SPECIFIC actions you’ll take to break these old feelings surrounding money. For example, those feelings of secrecy or guilt when you bought those shoes.

A few of the actions you can implement might be telling someone you trust, or a few people, what is going on, rather than hiding it. Another might be to track your daily spending habits. That really can help you feel in control, rather than afraid all the time. Finally, you can develop a budget – and commit to living and spending within it. You’ll be surprised at the sense of freedom you can experience when you take actions like these to alter your relationship to money.

Of course, once you’ve done this preliminary work, you must ACT to protect the financial side of your design business. But, if you do, you could very well break some old, negative, disempowering habits that have kept you from your new possibility paradigm.

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.

Nautical Home Design Trends for 2017

Even as shades of blue and vintage furniture become ever more dominant interior design trends, so too are nautical themes renewing their presence in homes across the country. From nautical decor to accents in the colors of sky, sea, and sand we’re seeing a freshening of the mood that can be created by living at, or near, a seaside resort.

Whether you and your client are eager to go “All-in” with a seafaring theme, or would rather hint at a maritime feel, a stunning array of furniture, wallcoverings, accents, and wall hangings are available to help you navigate your client’s needs.

The Seafaring Spirit is Alive and Well

Open and airy, breezy and comfy; those are the feelings that homeowners seek when they ask you for a nautical design theme. Here, a “sea of blues” wash over the inhabitants of this home in Martha’s Vineyard. From CountryLiving.com.

Not to be outdone, even the landlocked have access to a beach themed décor, with cushioned furniture in soothing white, cool blue, and relaxed gray-beige tones. From House-Interior.net.

If Living at the Beach is Impossible, Bring the Beach Home

A meal by the shore is still possible, even when dining in. From HouseBeautiful.com.

This beach-style bedroom will take you there, regardless of location. From Houzz.com.

Nautical Accents Make a Subtle Statement

Sometimes, the simplest accents are the best. Nautica throws from House-Interior.net.

Steamer trunks are a beautiful nautical accent that will not overwhelm a space. From HouseBeautiful.com.

Simple yet Elegant Nautical Furniture is Available

The Cape Porpoise Poster Bed in Crème Brulee finish from Somerset Bay furniture brings home the feel of Nantucket, regardless of where home is located. From SomersetBayHome.com.

Looking for more new design trends, tips, and ideas? Get in touch with TD Fall today.