New things & trends

I have been researching what are the new 2008 home decor color trends, and here are roughly the main groups/themes of colors for 2008:

Photo Courtesy of ColourLover

>>Green/eco-friendly looking colors: As the trend of living green arises, needs for greener materials rise as well. Similarly faux finishes that look like those lifestyle trends become popular as well. The finishes will look hand-made and un-processed (i.e. no dying nor bleaching). Texture is key, especially nature-like textures. In color terms, you are looking at earth tone, as well as colors that are in the blue & green color group as they represent sky/ocean and greeneries.

>>Pantone suggests: “Wellspring: Inspired by the water that literally supports and sustains life.”

• Blue Iris 18-3943
• Kiwi16-0235

Photo Courtesy of North Sullivan

>>Cultural influences: As globalization is on the rise, we are more aware of other cultures as well. From my personal observations, zen-style & spa-style lifestyles are continue

I get a lot of questions about tools, especially from homeowners who are afraid of their wall, so they rather live with really white walls than walls with big beautiful art & photographs. Or homeowners who can’t visualize their spaces. I want to introduce cool tools, which is a wonderful site that the site owner, Kevin Kelly, really believes that

“Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on [cool tools] are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We only post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.”

The site has a great deal of tools, which you can browse under their categories, ranging from continue

Should I add this to my staging arsenal? Do you think buyers will be able to visualize themselves living there now? hee hee

Found on SappyMooseTree. You can find other fun stuff like Angel Bacons, Snow Ball Ornaments, and even apparel & paper goods. It’s very quirky and fun stuff, and the artist is actually still pursuing her undergrad education! I always love to support budding entrepreneurs!

Sushi is a great love of mine, another one is color. A fantastic thing about sushi is that it is a feast to your eyes. The fattiness of the sushi adds depths & shades to the fish itself. Look at how vibrant that ikura is! (center grid, fish roes) MMM yum!

Here are a few ways you can infuse the sushi palette into your daily life:

The Avocado Roll

Fatty Tuna

Spam Sushi

Soy Sauce

Temari Sushi

Colors & Graphics via [COLOURlovers]

Apparently turning lights out in San Francisco for even 1 hour could save as much as 15% of the energy consumed on an average Saturday night (!!). LightsOutSF has asked all the residents in San Francisco to turn off lights for 1 hour 8-9pm this Saturday night to help raise awareness of the issue and encourage everyone to use CFL (compact fluorescent light bulbs). I also love their energy saving tips, they are very easy to do and can create an impact on diminishing our energy use.

**This blog is posted in conjunction of Blog Action Day

Even though stagers may not has a dramatic impact as an architect & a real estate developer who can influence the making of a house directly, there are still a few ways that we can contribute to make it a greener & better world by advising the clients to do some of these things in a selling process:

1. Paint the home with eco-friendly paint:
   I am a big fan of Benjamin Moore’s Aura line. Great colors, long-lasting, coats dry within the hour (saves time & labor costs), and eco-friendly. Not to mention very minimal odor which is great for both the people who apply the paint, and people who live in the environment. Price is also great, even beats the always cheap Kelly Moore (which I don’t personal like since the paint feels watered down).
2. 
   Decrease the volume of trash in landfill:
   one man’s (or woman’s) trash is another’s treasure. Freecycle is solely based on this idea and to decrease the size of our landfills. You can post what you need or what you no longer need on FreeCycle message boards and within a hour (or a day at most) you will get your wish fulfilled!
3. continue
   

Good news came in the form of postcard today! Now single-family residents in San Mateo County can all enjoy the program of recycling old batteries and cell phones! I still have cell phones that I used in college and that’s a long long time ago! I pulled the following info from the South Bayside Waste Management Authority (www.rethinkwaste.org) and it’s shocking how a town of roughly 30,000 people along during the pilot program, can recycled over 1,600 pounds of batteries & cell phones!!! Craziness. It makes me ponder how much difference we can all make by doing something so simple like recycling.

“In the first three months of the curbside battery and cell phone pilot program, San Carlos residents recycled over 1,600 pounds of batteries and cell phones. According to a recent survey, 39% said they used to dispose of their household batteries in the trash. Now that the state universal waste law has gone into effect, they know this is no longer legal. The survey also showed that of the residents who have used this convenient new service, 85% were “extremely satisfied.” They are especially thankful they don’t have to drive to a store, city hall or recycling center anymore!

Some residents asked what happens to the batteries and cell phones. Allied Waste drivers take the plastic zip-type bags off the top of the mixed paper bin and place them in a special container in their truck. The heavy metals or toxic components of batteries such as cadmium, nickel, zinc, mercury, manganese, lead and lithium are separated and recycled. Cell phones are reused or recycled.”

Useful websites: www.rethinkwaste.org & www.alliedwastesanmateocounty.com