Bethlehem, PA (PRWEB) April 04, 2014

Having worked for two decades in New York City, Westchester County and Connecticut as an interior decorator and antiques specialist, Lucia Vanin-Agrusa is out to help todays home buyer in the greater Lehigh Valley, and Bucks County areas to find the home, and neighborhood of their dreams.

While home staging is vitally important to sell a home as quickly and as close to the asking price as possible, on the flip side, are home buyers who engage the services of a home decorator like Vanin Agrusa. By doing so, the home buyer quickly gains knowledge of a homes potential. Or in other words, is the home is a dud, or a diamond in the rough.

Working with a designer or decorator as you look for a home is just as important as it is for a home seller to use a home stager, says Vanin Agrusa, who found her own dream home after viewing more than sixty properties on the market. Engaging the services of a visionary will also be able to identify up and coming neighborhoods.

It absolutely makes sense for a home buyer today to engage a designer or decorator with the knowledge of home renovations, costs, and with a vision of the homes true potential, says Senior Vice President, Cassidon Real Estate Group, Robert Agentis.

Every home buyer should have a wish list, but not many home buyers have the vision or ability to embrace the true potential of a home on the market, adds Agentis. Often, homes from the 1950s and 60s are passed over due merely to cosmetic fixes, i.e.. ripping out old carpets, window treatments, etc.

Even the smallest room such as the powder room can be transformed through finding and adapting colors, walls, and adding pieces from all over the world and from every period, adds Vanin-Agrusa.

For Agrusa, after searching through an inventory of sixty homes in a fifty mile radius, it was love at first sight for her elegant brick Georgian Colonial.

Her first big project, among many, was to create a back yard by thinning a line of trees and building a retaining wall, and designing and constructing a pergola.

Agrusa says homes with less potential were on the market for $100,000 more in the same neighborhood. The savings from the start can be substantial, and a designer can help crunch the numbers for you.

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Lucia Vanin-Agrusa Launches Design Service for New Home Buyers, Real Estate Market

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) -

Families dealing with Alzheimer's disease confront all kinds of difficult situations, but one couple was stunned when they were asked to leave a Northland restaurant and not come back.

The symptoms of Alzheimer's keeps getting worse for Carolyn George. Her husband Larry takes care of her. He said it's difficult to see the slow decline of the vibrant interior decorator he married nearly 40 years ago.

"It's a slow disease. It's a bad disease. It's changed considerably as far as what we can do, but I try to get her out as much as possible," Larry George said.

But one outing took a turn for the worse when Carolyn George accidentally made a mess in a restaurant bathroom. The couple had eaten at Kate's Kitchen nearly every day for three years, but this last time the owner asked them to never come back.

"I was embarrassed, a little upset, depressed for the rest of the day," Larry George said.

The owner of the restaurant couldn't meet with KCTV5 Friday for an on-camera interview. Instead he sent a statement saying that similar incidents had happened in the past.

He wrote,

"Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident; this has been an ongoing issue. As an owner of a business that deals with the health and safety of all our guests and employees, we have to make decisions that are in the best interest of everyone."

"Our restaurant has been blessed with guests that overcome obstacles with many different types of disabilities. Throughout the day we work side by side with them to assure that during their visit with us they are comfortable and feel at home. We have several guests who are battling the terrible disease of dementia; we know their families, their likes and their dislikes."

Link:
Northland restaurants tells woman with Alzheimer's not to return

When Italian-born interior decorator Alessandra Branca and her husband Steve Uihlein built a vacation home on Harbour Islanda long, narrow island in the Bahamas' where, per Architectural Digest's rendition, the "predominant mode of transportation is the golf cart," and one would have to choose between Bill Gates and Diane von Furstenberg if looking to borrow a cup of sugarincorporating vernacular elements was key. They chose classic regional materials like pecky cypress and coral stone for the two stucco-and-shingle British Colonials they situated at opposite ends of a 40-foot-long swimming pool, one a six-bedroom with a veranda on both levels, the other a poolhouse with extra guest quarters. Other traditional features have obvious benefits, like the Bahamian upside-down house plan, which puts bedrooms on the ground floor and public areas on the top, keeping the communal living and dining rooms breezy and cool, but the decorator added a few personal touches to the project, which she spent time away from homes in Rome, Manhattan, and Chicago to help oversee.

The main house's staircases, for example, were made wider at the base, so guests, including the couple's three grown children, "feel like open arms are welcoming them." As to Branca's work on the interior, it channels the same aspiration she had when decorating a Manhattan apartment for Hearst's seventh annual Designer Visions showcase; as she explained while giving a tour last fall, "Any time I can link the past and now in a new and unexpected way, that's where I'm happy." This kind of remixing plays out in the living room, pictured above, with a pair of vintage armchairs outfitted with Bennison-print cushions, and a few nineteenth-century campaign chairs run through with thick Alessandra Branca for Schumacher stripes.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest Another second floor living area brings together a vintage red cabinet from the 1960s, Hunter Douglas woven-wood shades, and an octopus triptych from Branca's Chicago shop.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest In the dining room, an RH table is set with vintage chairs. The light fixtures are from Ikea.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest An Oly four-poster with Les Indiennes curtains sits in the master bedroom. The blue print of an H on the pillowcases presumably stands for Highlowe, the name that Branca and Uihlein gave the place. It gets repeated in one of the poolhouse's guest bedrooms, pictured in the full set of photos over at Architectural Digest.

Photo by William Waldron/Architectural Digest Glazed French doors, Chinese Chippendalestyle railings, and one supremely enviable pool are visible from the outside.

Alessandra Branca's Chic Bahamas Getaway [Architectural Digest] All the Luxe Details in Hearst's Designer Visions Showhouse [Curbed National]

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The Printed Page: Come Tour Alessandra Branca's Bewitching Bahamas Retreat

Crystal Palace garden designer Georgia Lindsay reaches Grand Designs final

5:30am Friday 4th April 2014 in News By Robert Fisk, Chief Reporter

Garden designer Georgia Lindsay is in the final of a Grand Designs competition

Shakespeare said all the worlds a stage but for Georgia Lindsay it is more of a garden.

The 44-year-old, from Crystal Palace, originally trained in theatre design and is a mural artist and interior decorator.

But since 2010 she developed a passion for garden design and is now down to the final four in this years Grand Designs competition for her small city garden design.

She said: "Maximising a small space to create an interesting enjoyable place to relax is my forte.

"It is a family garden, where relaxation and play co-exist harmoniously.

"The garden has many sustainable, green features which is a strong ethos behind the Grand Designs image.

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BY Alexandria Abramian

April 02 - 2014 3:34 PM

BOWMAN GROUP ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Design inspiration can strike at any time. For interior decorator Robin Strickler, when it came to dreaming up her own Newport Beach family home, that moment came when she first watched Somethings Gotta Give, the 2003 Nancy Meyers romantic comedy with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson. For Strickler and countless other design junkies, however, the true star of the film was the sprawling Hamptons home with its soothing and textured palette of neutrals. It was that movie that inspired me to create a home that is more Hamptons, as opposed to a beachy cottage look. For me, its all about a look that is clean and cozy at the same time, says Strickler, who is the owner of Design Works in Costa Mesa.

More research ensued as in, Strickler watched the movie more than a dozen times, closely studying not just its furniture and accessories but also its architectural elements and finishes, like transom windows, dark wood floors and high-ceiling spaces. The dark hardwood floors set the tone, says Strickler. Then pretty much everything else is white. The overall effect is to go with the cooler, monochromatic palette and leave the color to the artwork. It suits the house and is a soothing backdrop to the architecture.

Hence, there are no fuchsia throw pillows, bright yellow wallpaper or vibrant green armchairs here. Instead, Strickler, who sourced much of the furniture from vintage stores as well as Hickory Chair and Lillian August, created a rainbow of textures instead of colors. There are velvets and flax linens and woven fabrics. Gray was actually my accent color, she admits. Were probably the only firm in town that designs without a lot of color.

And while the home has a wine cellar, a chefs kitchen and indoor-outdoor flow, the scene-stealer is the great room. The large space, with its mix of new and vintage elements, its high ceilings and cleverly differentiated areas that dont disrupt the flow, works as a stylish anchor to the entire home. I put in pieces that look good, but that will also get used, says Strickler.

Not that the decorator got every last film-inspired design detail that she dreamed of. One of her favorite spots in the movie is Diane Keatons master bedroom desk, an area where the actress writes, ruminates and cries (a lot). Strickler hoped to create a similar space in her home, but the approval process intervened. I loved that office off the bedroom, but the city didnt approve it, so instead we did a window seat there. Now Ive grown to really love and use that space, too.

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Big Screen Chic

Mrs Apfel will sell the items on luxury flash sale site One Kings Lane She was involved in restorations of the White House under nine presidents

By Misty White Sidell

PUBLISHED: 17:51 EST, 31 March 2014 | UPDATED: 17:58 EST, 31 March 2014

Fashion icon and former interior decorator Iris Apfel is selling more than 800 pieces of vintage furniture, jewelry, and accessories on the luxury flash sale website One Kings Lane.

Mrs Apfel, 92, who is based in New York, was involved in design restoration projects for nine different presidents at the White House including Kennedy and Clinton.

Now a trendsetter in her own right, and famed for her love of bold jewelry, she is clearing out her warehouse storage unit.

Treasures for sale: Fashion star Iris Apfel, 92, will sell more than 800 items from her personal archives on luxury flash sale site One Kings Lane

Poodle play: These porcelain poodles are among the 800 relics for sale, and represent Mrs Apfel's habit of collection dog memorabilia

Global bunch: The relics represent an array of geographical areas including Europe (left) and Asia (right)

She told Refinery29: I've had all these things for many, many years, and they were a part of my home furnishing career. I kept holding onto them because I was thinking I'd go back into that business, but then all the fashion stuff came my way. I had those beautiful things lying in fallow in a warehouse it was time to let go.

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Iris Apfel to sell 800 pieces of vintage furniture and accessories

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Turn Out The Lights
Painted Walls Complete Kilm Beige SW 6106 Sherwin Williams at Dentures and Dental Services South Arlington http://youtu.be/2-mVOVJVhs8 Paint Walls Kilm Beige...

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Fluffy Bunny Interior Decorator Episode 01
Rosie is a lionhead dwarf rabbit, and in this video she is just over one month old. She likes to rearrange the furniture and takes particular issue with towe...

By: Richard Houchin

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Fluffy Bunny Interior Decorator Episode 01 - Video