Home Builder Developer - Interior Renovation and Design

Union, N.J. Bed Bath & Beyond has put together a three-year plan as part of its transformation strategy. Full details will be announced at the companys Investor Day event on Oct. 28, but during this mornings second quarter analyst call, executives previewed some of the changes.

Sourcing: A newly formed procurement organization will crated a centralized spending control and vendor management process to deliver substantial savings. BBB had previously announced that it plans to develop more house brands, cull duplicative skus and pare its supplier roster.

Product priorities: The retailer plans to expand and double down on private label brands in bedding, bath, kitchen and storage/organization, said Tritton.

Physical stores: The plan includes what president and CEO Mark Tritton intimated will be a broad store remodeling program launching next year. In the meantime, one-third of the 200 stores slated to close permanently will go dark by the end of this year. The company expects to transition 15% to 20% of the sales generated by those locations to digital or other nearby company stores.

New customers: BBB gained roughly 2 million new online customers during the second quarter 40% of them new to the brand. The latter are six years younger than established customers and less likely to use coupons, which have long been a drag on the retailers bottom line. Coupons arent going away, but in the future coupon offers will be more curated, Tritton said.

In another plus, new customers are buying from higher margin categories, specifically bedding, bath, kitchen, food prep, cleaning and home maintenance, he added.

The second quarter ended Aug. 29 generated healthy results for Bed Bath & Beyond, including its first positive quarterly comp since Q4 2016 and strongest adjusted earnings per share in more than two years. We bel this was a pivotal quarter for our organization, said Tritton.

Q2 net sales slipped 1% to $2.7, driven in part by the sale of the One Kings Lane division. Digital sales jumped 88%, while net sales from stores fell 18%. Total comp rose 6%.

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BBB: Strategic sourcing, store remodel initiative on the agenda - Home Textiles Today

Debbie and Greg May

SAN JOSE, Calif. (PRWEB) October 01, 2020

Greg and Debbie May, co-owners of May Construction, a Santa Clara Valley residential remodeling firm, have recently seen a surge in new business as a direct result of changes made to their customer service model, which they attribute to their status as a married couple working in business together.

The success of May Construction, Inc. has occurred despite the challenges residential remodelers have faced over the past six months. Through careful planning and adapting their business approach to a new reality, the Mays have brought in 12 new design/build projects over the past several months an unprecedented leap in growth for their business.

"It is not altogether uncommon for residential contracting firms to have a family-owned business with married couples working together," Debbie explained. "But a shift in our communication has led to tremendous growth that would not have been possible had we not been a couple in business together."

"We would not have seen this type of growth even during normal times," Debbie went on We continue to receive referrals from satisfied clients, but this positive shift is something else entirely.

"As a married couple who own a business together you develop special tools to draw on," Greg added, "especially what I believe is the most important tool of all -- clear communication. It has helped us withstand some hard times in the past and right now has catapulted us forward.

"Greg and I have distinct roles in the company," Debbie elaborated, As a licensed contractor Greg handles anything directly related to design and/or construction. I do the initial evaluation with clients, as well has oversee business development, do the bookkeeping and manage the office staff."

"In a way it's like a well-timed baton transfer in a relay race," Greg went on. "Everything is planned out well in advance to ensure success. Debbie makes the initial contact with a client, and it's important for her to gather information and see if the project is a good fit. From there, after Debbie's careful screening, I speak to the client in more detail about their remodeling needs."

Greg May is an expert builder, providing the highest standards for superior customer service and backed by integrity, dedication, and commitment to superior craftsmanship.

This important but subtle change in understanding, the Mays believe, could only have come about by being wedded in marriage and in business. "There was an ah-ha couple-type of moment," Greg said. "Debbie and I shared a knowing glance and knew right away we were onto something that would benefit our customers."

That's something we would not have realized had we not been a couple in business together," Debbie affirmed.

"We found a silver lining," Greg added. "We will continue to use this approach. We feel pretty optimistic about where May Construction is headed.

Greg May was trained in construction by his father, and has continued his family's tradition of excellence since 1977. May Construction. Inc. specializes in design-build, whole house remodels, additions, kitchen, and bathroom remodels throughout the Santa Clara Valley.

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Wedded in Marriage and Work: Greg and Debbie May's Construction Business Thrives During These Challenging Times - PR Web

Tim Griffin is leaving The Kitchen after nearly a decade as the director and chief curator of the experimental New York art space. During his tenure, Griffin continued and expanded the storied institutions focus on interdisciplinarity and oversaw a program featuring Chantal Akerman, ANOHNI, Charles Atlas, Gretchen Bender, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Ralph Lemon, Aki Sasamoto, and Tyshawn Sorey, among others. His term also led to new initiatives including the hybrid talks series The Kitchen L.A.B. and electronic music series Synth Nights. Griffinwho began helming the nonprofit in 2011 after a seven-year run as the editor-in-chief of Artforum, where he is currently a contributing editorwill shift into an advisory role at The Kitchen by years end; he has accepted a visiting professorship in the art history and English departments at Ohio State University in Columbus, where his wife, Johanna Burton, directs The Wexner Center for the Arts.

I cant imagine a more inspiring or humbling experience among artists than what The Kitchen, and its dedicated staff and board, has offered me over the years, said Griffin. Few places have such a history, decade after decade, of presenting the unexpected. Even fewer have people so deeply committed every day to supporting artists innovative work, and who, time and again, manage to pull it off whatever the challenges.

In addition to organizing exhibitions and performances, Griffin has spent the last two years fundraising in anticipation of The Kitchens fiftieth anniversary in 2021 and the renovation of its building at West Nineteenth Street in Chelsea. The organization has raised $11 million ahead of its special benefit show, Ice and Fire, curated by Kitchen board members Wade Guyton and Jacqueline Humphries opening with online viewing October 8. In the last few months, the venue has also adapted to pandemic-induced lockdown, introducing The Kitchen Broadcast and revising its residencies to include a TV studio model. A search for a new director is being conducted by Isaacson Miller.

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Tim Griffin to Depart The Kitchen After Nine Years as Director - Artforum

Asia Pietrzyk

It has come to my attention that my apartment sucks. Objectively, that might be too harsh an assessment, but it certainly feels true right now. Dont get me wrong: It has big, sunny windows; appliances that are functional, albeit old and ugly; and an amount of closet space that I would describe as enough. But the many things the apartment leaves to be desiredcheap fixtures, landlord-beige walls, and an ancient tile kitchen floor that never quite looks cleanhave become unavoidably obvious to me as Ive sat inside of it for the better part of this year.

The longer I sit, the more the flaws taunt me. The shallow kitchen sink, combined with the low slope of its faucet, makes it impossible to fill a pitcher straight from the tap, but most of my daily drinking water used to come from a machine at the office. The back wall of my kitchen, swathed in white paint, has borne the brunt of gurgling vats of spaghetti sauce and sputtering pans of fried-chicken grease, but I failed to notice the unscrubbable spots when I wasnt standing in front of the stove preparing three meals a day, every day. The dusty ledges and shelves, unsightly window-unit air conditioners, and scuffed, jaundiced paint job werent so irritating when they werent my whole world.

In May, when the novelty of quarantine baking began to wear offone can make only so many galettes out of frozen fruit originally bought for smoothiesmy idle hands turned to the problems around me. Armed with my pathetic beginners tool kit, I started small. I raised and releveled a shelf that had been crooked for, by my estimation, at least two years. I ordered frames for prints that had been stashed in my closet and charged my long-dead drill battery to hang them. I scrubbed my tiny kitchen with Ajax from top to bottom, and in the process realized that some of my stoves components werent supposed to be the color theyd been since I moved in. I sharpened my chefs knife. I flipped and rotated my couch cushions. I ordered and assembled a new shoe rack, even though my feet dont go very far these days.

[From the July/August 2020 issue: Amanda Mull on the end of minimalism]

The sense of satisfaction I got from these projects grew as the weekends went by, along with my belief that I could do pretty much anything after watching a couple of instructional videos on YouTube. I couldnt control much in the pandemic, but I could control what happened in my own 450 square feet. As summer began to creep toward fall, my ambitions expanded: Install a new showerhead? Paint my cabinets? Put up a peel-and-stick tile backsplash? What couldnt I do with Google, a Home Depot credit card, and a total willingness to lose my security deposit?

I was stymied only by the popularity of my impulses. As I looked for cabinet paint, backsplash tiles, and even a new kitchen faucet, out of stock warnings abounded. Gathered around a firepit in a Brooklyn backyard, a friend of a friend complained that the citys home-improvement stores appeared to be out of lumber, one of the many effects of skyrocketing demand atop shaky supply chains. Millions of Americans had simultaneously decided the same thing: If were going to be inside, it might as well be the inside we want.

Gretchen Schauffler had been through this before. In 2008, she and her husband were running a business called Devine Color, which she started by selling customized paint shades to her Portland, Oregon, interior-design clients out of the trunk of her car. The couple was in the midst of selling the brand to Sherwin-Williams, she told me, when the economy collapsed, and with it, all talk of a deal. The market crashed, and we were buried, Schauffler said. Homes were being foreclosed upon, not freshly repainted.

In 2018, out of the paint business for years, Schauffler started Design Is Personal. The company makes products for the do-it-yourself projects that you might be inspired to undertake after an HGTV bingesticky-back wallpaper in fun prints, easy-to-install carpet squares, and wall planks that give you the fixer-upperlook, no nail gun required. In early March, as the United States first pandemic hot spot blazed in neighboring Washington, Schauffler was terrified that the same thing was happening againdisaster had come, and it might take her company with it.

But in April, she realized that she had the opposite problem: Orders had started pouring in. Schauffler told me the companys sales are up 400 percent over last year, and her best sellerssheets of peel-and-stick white subway tiles and metallic mosaicshad completely sold out twice already. Everyone was at home, they had time, they looked at their environment, and they went online, she said. They started watching tutorials and ordering supplies.

Home Depot and Lowes registered monster sales increases not long after the pandemic began, both on the internet and in their brick-and-mortar storeswhich Home Depot lobbied local governments to label essential businesses. Thats in spite of interruptions in residential construction and professional remodeling in many areas of the country.

At Apartment Therapy, a website about home improvement and design, editor in chief Laura Schocker viewed the countrys pandemic anxieties through the prism of her readership, which is 60 percent larger than last year compared with the same period in 2019. Home, if were lucky, is our safe place, she told me. Customizing it to reflect back who you are as a person is something positive we can do right now. Early how-to-sanitize traffic gave way to people looking for tips on setting up home offices and workout nooks, then to those in search of ways to maximize tiny yards and balconies as summer set in. Now, as temperatures cool, people are settling in for the long haul, looking for more complicated DIY projects.

Of all the things that Ive done to better my apartment, soothe my anxieties, or occupy my time during the pandemic, nothing has worked quite as well as replacing my kitchen faucet. The project cost $75 and took about an hourit would have been even faster if I hadnt needed to learn some tricks for removing bolt covers with needle-nose pliers and loosening a seized nut with a lighter. But those roadblocks made it all the more satisfying. Not only does the more functional faucet make my now-constant dishwashing less of a slog, but installing it was a reminder that there are still some problems that can be solved by one person wielding the right toolor even the wrong one, if you can figure out the magic combination of search terms to punch into Google.

Humans have a need to be competent, to feel like they have some control over their existence, says Sally Augustin, an environmental psychologist, especially when theyre feeling emotionally tender and isolated. Nesting is another way to describe the impulse that is likely driving many of the newly minted DIYers, she told me. Its a desire to eliminate your homes nuisances and aggravations in order to maximize comfort. One way thats done, Augustin said, is by moderating the complexity of your space. We dont realize were doing it, but were always sweeping our environment, visually, and when you have a lot going on, when there are many objects and colors and shapes in view, it makes you stressed. The same thing can happen when an environment is too spare. Humans tend to like soft lines, colors, and textures.

DIYing, as a pursuit, has some baked-in advantages in these bizarre times. Namely, its just you, doing things by yourself in the safety of your own home, without the intervention of outside disease vectorser, professionalsunless you screw something up. New technology has met the moment. Both Schauffler and Schocker told me that DIY-friendly products have improved substantially in recent years, with adhesives and finishes that are more durable and affordable and less amateur-looking, which might make a weekend project more attractive to people who never would have done home repairs themselves in the past. Then, too, if youre one of the millions of newly unemployed Americans, finding a way to feel useful might help combat the depressing aimlessness of being out of workand the internet is teeming with guides for free or low-cost home-improvement projects.

When it comes to the mostly young, mostly female consumers who buy renter-friendly home-upgrade products and read articles about how to make a some-assembly-required dresser look like a million bucks, theres probably an even simpler explanation for why theyre investing in their environs this year: What else is there to do? The (somewhat shaky) conventional wisdom is that Millennials, who range in age from their early 20s to nearly 40, prefer to buy experiences instead of things. They supposedly rent in exciting cities, travel, go out to dinner, and spend money gallivanting. In a world in which almost all experiences have been precluded by a global disaster and an American passport is basically uselessand in which many of those young adults were striving for a lifestyle that their bank accounts could only occasionally support, anywaymaybe notions about what constitutes an experience will change. You can learn to do anything on YouTube.

This article appears in the November 2020 print edition with the headline Fluffing Your Own Nest.

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The Higher Purpose of Home Improvement - msnNOW

Pressure Washing Services Market Is Reported To Boom Irrespective Of Coronavirus Pandemic

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Global Pressure Washing Services Market 2020 | Growth, Share, Trends, Opportunities And Focuses On Top Players | Clean and Green Solutions, Pressure...

By Morgan Taylor, Reporter

HENRYETTA, Oklahoma A Muscogee (Creek) Citizen takes steps in a new direction towards his dreams in his new venture as a small business owner. Steven Randall started his new business this year called SkyTown Clean LLC.

SkyTown Clean LLC specializes in power washing from sidewalks, driveways, to equipment and machinery, vinyl siding, to anything outside that needs to be power washed, Randall said. My most popular requests are driveways and parking lots; I charge an hourly rate of $50.

Randall always wanted to start a business of his own and be his own boss. When he decided to start his business, he saw a need in his community that needed to be met and started doing his research.

I noticed that there was a lot stuff outside that needed to be cleaned, Randall said. I started to google and found out that people actually do this for a living just nobody was doing here yet so I decided to go ahead and take off with it.

By using specialized power washing equipment, Randall can perform a number of services to clean any exterior or outside object. His motto is if you got, I wash it.

Randall currently works his business on his weekends and days off from his primary job as a certified welder.

My whole goal of this is to make this my full-time career. Randall said. I want to say SkyTown Clean is going to be a household name. I want to be global in every city. I want to do waste clean up, chemical clean up, construction clean up or anything to do with cleaning up. To fire damage to wreck clean ups, I want SkyTown Clean to be everywhere.

Located in the Henryetta area, if the job is big enough Randall will travel to complete a task.

Depending on the job I will travel for a job. Ive traveled to Tulsa and to Oklahoma City, Randall said.

Randall has many goals when it comes to his business and with the help of the Mvskoke Loan Fund he is making progress on completing each steppingstone.

One of my goals right now is to get CESO certified with Creek Nation, Randall said. I want to possibly get in with the tribes and do all the casinos, hospitals and facilities.

Being CESO with the Nation will give Randall more job opportunities. Randall has used services from the Nation that have helped him receive his LLC, Limited Liability Company.

This helps me out, if somebody tries to sue me or something I can go to tribal courts, Randall said. Sonny Bevenue and Eric Starr with Mvskoke Loan Fund have been there for me whenever I had a question or to give me information. My next thing is to apply for loan through them for better equipment.

For more information on SkyTown Clean, LLC contact Steven Randall at (918) 623-7653 or through e-mail at skytownclean@gmail.com

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Muscogee (Creek) Citizen aims for the sky - Muscogee Nation News

In its newly published report, Reportspedia has provided unique insights about the Washing Services Market for the given period. One of the major objectives of this report is to categorize the various dynamics of the market and to offer the newest updates such as mergers and acquisitions, various technological developments, new entrants in the market, which make an impact on different segments of the Washing Services market. The report also takes into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Washing Services market and offers a clear evaluation of the future market demand during the forecast period.

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Power Wash UKAction Pressure WashingAbout Time Pressure WashingPro Power WashShack ShineRevive Power WashingKeymyrly Cleaning ServiceWilliams WashingPressure Washing ClearwaterHandyman Power Washing ServiceJudge ServicesJeri Cleaning ServicesKC Power CleanClean and Green Solutions

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OutdoorIndoor

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Global Washing Services Market Report 2020 by Key Players, Types, Applications, Countries, Market Size, Forecast to 2027

Chapter 1Report Overview

Chapter 2Global Market Growth Trends

Chapter 3Value Chain of Washing Services Market

Chapter 4Players Profiles

Chapter 5Global Washing Services Market Analysis by Regions

Chapter 6North America Washing Services Market Analysis by Countries

Chapter 7Europe Washing Services Market Analysis by Countries

Chapter 8Asia-Pacific Washing Services Market Analysis by Countries

Chapter 9Middle East and Africa Washing Services Market Analysis by Countries

Chapter 10South America Washing Services Market Analysis by Countries

Chapter 11Global Washing Services Market Segment by Types

Chapter 12Global Washing Services Market Segment by Applications

Chapter 13Washing Services Market Forecast by Regions (2020-2027)

Chapter 14Appendix

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Global Washing Services Market Report 2020 by Key Players, Business Opportunities, Applications, Market Size, Countries Forecast to 2027 (Based on...

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Colectivo asks that customers use a mask at its Shorewood cafe. The village of Shorewood now requires a mask in all buildings open to the public.(Photo: Jeff Rumage/Now News Group)

Mandate face masks. Close or limit numbers in bars. Limit seats in restaurants.

Republicans in other states have taken strong action when faced with rising coronavirus cases.

But in Wisconsin, Republicans who control the Legislature instead run to court to overturn an order by Gov. Tony Evers mandating face masks in public spaces.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have offered NO plan of their own to fight the deadly virus.

Track COVID-19 in Wisconsin: See the latest numbers and trends

If youve been wondering why case counts rose exponentially during a terrible September in Wisconsin far higher than surrounding states look no further than this:

Wisconsin has no statewide plan to fight coronavirus.

And neither does the federal government.

"I think, unfortunately, more people are going to have to die before our policymakers accept we need laws and policies that improve the health and safety of our state," Patrick Remington, former epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison's preventive medicine residency program, told the Journal Sentinel's Molly Beck.

On Monday, Wisconsin was third in the U.S., behind only North and South Dakota, in a New York Times analysis of case counts per capita. The situation is dire in the Fox Valley and Green Bay, where hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed and people are standing in line for hours to get a test.

Much of this was preventable.

RELATED: GOP lawmakers stand still as virus rages in Wisconsin

RELATED: Whose job is it to address COVID-19 surges in Wisconsin? In the Fox Valley, local leaders are frustrated with 'punting' of responsibility

RELATED: 'Frustrated and heartbroken': Health care workers say Wisconsin's COVID-19 spike is the result of people ignoring preventive steps

But at a time when Wisconsin desperately needed thoughtful leadership from Fitzgerald and Vos, as well as Evers, it got petty political games. Evers issued a new order on Tuesdayto limitindoor gatherings, including in bars and restaurants. It's a good idea, but it remains to be seen how Republicans will react.

Obstructivebehavior is nothing new from Fitzgerald and Vos, who rammed through a bill limiting Evers powers as governor during a lame-duck session right after he was elected and before he took office.

The pair successfully sued Evers earlier this year over the extension of the governor's first public health emergency. Although the administrative branch of state government has had public health emergency powers since the 1800s, the Republican-backed state Supreme Court justices gave their friends in the Legislature veto power over Evers' ability to act. They struck down his "safer at home" order and instructed the governor to issue statewide actions through the legislative rulemaking process.

Gov. Tony Evers wears a face mask during a briefing with reporters on the state's response to the coronavirus pandemic.(Photo: Molly Beck / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

After the court's divided vote, the Department of Health Services submitted Evers' plan to the legislative rules committee in May.It was rejected by committee leaders, who offered no alternatives or made any attempt to negotiate or compromise. Vos claimed there was no need to negotiate new guidelines, even though the premise of the lawsuit was to block Evers order and force him to work with the Legislature.

Vos and Fitzgerald have the power to convene the two houses they lead in the Legislatureat any timeto cancel Evers' current emergency mask mandate or put their own rules in place. If they put the public's welfare above their personal interests, they would work with Evers and state health officials to craft a bipartisan plan to get this pandemic in check.

But in this election year, Vos and Fitzgerald fear requiring party members to vote against the governor's mask mandate.An August poll by Marquette University Law School found 69% of registered Wisconsin voters supported the mask requirement. Vos and Fitzgeraldfear losing power if voters don't like their rejection of Evers' common-sense order.

So instead they hire private attorneys with our taxpayer dollars to support lawsuits against the governor while they sit on their hands.

Public health officials agree: Mask-wearing, frequent hand-washing and social distancing reduce the spread of coronavirus.

It has become clear that too many people in Wisconsin are not willing to take personal responsibility to slow the spread of this deadly disease on their own. The mask order, where enforced, helps protect our vulnerable neighbors.

William Melms, chief medical officer at Marshfield Clinic Health System, described what he saw driving throughcentral Wisconsin recently.

"Going past the bars, I saw that the parking lots were all full," he told the Journal Sentinel's Mark Johnson."There's less and less mask-wearing and social-distancing. To a great extent, people have become complacent."

And so the seven-day average of new cases has skyrocketed in our state from 674 on Sept. 3 to 2,346 by Tuesday. Deaths are rising rapidly, too, with the virus claiming 1,399 since the pandemic began and the seven-day average of deaths hitting a record.

When we'restruck by a public health emergency, our elected representatives should be looking out for all of their constituents, regardless of party, rather than playing political power games.

Sadly, that is not the case.President Donald Trump, who was hospitalized with coronavirus last weekend, has long discouraged the wearing of masks, mocking former Vice President Joe Biden at the recent debate for frequently wearing one.Vos and Fitzgerald are following lock-step behind their leader.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, left, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, speak to members of the media.(Photo: Steve Apps, Associated Press)

Heres what needs to happen now:

Vos and Fitzgerald should work with Evers to impose a statewide mask mandate, close bars or limit their capacity to safe social-distancing numbers, and take other responsible actions to reduce infections. Citizens who support mask-wearing should let them know who's boss their contact information is below.

We hope our leaders actually lead. But if they dont, we can still take responsibility for ourselves.

We can wash our hands frequently. Wear a mask. Practice social distancing. Avoid large gatherings.

And, we can vote against anyone who ranaway from their responsibility whenwe needed them.

Editorials are the product of the Journal Sentinel's Editorial Board, which operates independently of the news department. Email: jsedit@jrn.com

Contact the Legislature and ask representatives to work with Gov. Tony Evers to develop a plan to combat coronavirus in Wisconsin.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos:(608) 266-9171; email:Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald:(608) 266-5660;Sen.Fitzgerald@legis.wisconsin.gov

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Editorial: Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald refused to work with Gov. Tony Evers to contain coronavirus. They have made things worse. - Milwaukee...

ALEXANDRIA, VA Who is Claire Schwab, and what are some tips and tricks for fall decorating this year? Z-TVs Allison Priebe interviewed Alexandria interior designer Claire Schwab and asked all the right questions.

One of the top names in the home decor business is Alexandrias Claire Schwab Interior Design. On Tuesday, September 29, she sat down in her showroom to chat with Allison Priebe with whom she shares the retail space at 825 S. Washington Street in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to being a journalist, Priebe is an award-winning jewelry designer who owns Queen Bee Designs, which carries unique jewelry, accessories, and clothing. The pair joined forces about a year ago when they discovered their personalities and professions intertwined easily.

Schwab tells Priebe in the interesting interview above how she got into the business, whats trending today, and whats looking popular for the future.

Schwabs foray into decorating all started when she spent some time on a working visa living in London after graduating from Vanderbilt University. A talented seamstress and communicator, she fell in love with the fabrics and home styling the British customers shared in the Laura Ashley store where she was working. She returned to the States and promptly went back to school for her advanced degree in design, started networking, and hung her professional shingle out in Alexandria more than 32 years ago.

It turns out you do not need any special qualifications to call yourself a decorator. Im an interior designer because I have a degree and am certified and licensed, said Schwab explaining the difference between a decorator and a designer. A designer can read blueprints and do partial and whole house renovations and can work with contractors, electricians, and tradesmen and architects on the whole picture.

The humble Schwab then says, But I tell clients I am an interior decorator mostly, which I am too. Its less intimidating.

How is business today? We are lucky to live in Alexandria, where the economy is generally booming. Oddly enough, the pandemic has been wonderful for home decor. I know people are on Zoom and they are looking around at other peoples houses and looking at their own, and they are realizing how tired things have become, says Schwab.

There have been some definite, notable trends in the last ten years, one of which has been a significant shift away from brown furniture. Is brown bad? asked Priebe, recalling a recent article she had just read. Well, good antiques should be oiled and preserved. They show you are grounded with the past. But there are bad antiques too, advises Schwab.

Now chairs are another thing. Special pieces can be reframed and reupholstered. We are doing more recovering of furniture in COVID, and I love that because people arent just throwing things out. My upholsterers are busier now than ever.

For budget-minded clients, Schwab loves helping people think outside the box too. She recommends accenting existing pieces with small accessories, refinishing tables, changing fabrics. I love helping people make pillows for example. Thats easy.

Get a neutral sofa. Its the biggest piece of furniture in the room. You can always change the pillows and a throw, advises Schwab.

We look to fashion for trends. The lines, the colors. It translates to home decor. And then, we see it in our cars, which is interesting. says Schwab. So when deciding on a home color scheme, know the ones that make you happy are the ones you find yourself wearing the most, for example.

Proportion and balance are important. Give things air. Dont over-accessorize. Learn to edit.

And all of your light switches should be on dimmers. Thats just a golden rule, laughs Schwab.

During the video, Schwab and Priebe take the viewer on a show and tell journey through the design space, explaining why this works and that might not.

In addition to showing how a simple gray sofa can change its whole look from summer to fall, you will see easy examples that can make a difference in the overall mood of a room.

I love a little touch of black too. Its a very grounding color. But when you think about fireplaces, tv screens, those are all black, mentions Schwab as she unfurls a cashmere throw to accent the sofa, transforming the furniture to a winter look.

The new color is navy, and shades of blue. Im seeing them in all the textiles, paints, and accessories, says Schwab.

There is still also a strong presence in the taupes., she continues showing some Benjamin Moore paint chips.

Use baskets, especially now that spaces like dining rooms and other spaces are also being used for virtual schooling. Have them at the ready for newspapers and school supplies, she says showing beautiful examples of baskets and containers that are functional but respect the design of the room.

With these easy and affordable tips, Priebe says, Now that everyone is peeking into our homes on Zoom and Skype, we need you now more than ever.

To reach Claire, you can contact her via email at cschwab@claireschwab.com, call 703-615-9495, or find her in the popup showroom daily and on the weekends at 825 S. Washington Street and make an appointment.

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BUZZWORTHY: Claire Schwab on Interior Design and Fall Decorating - The Zebra

Now that home is your new office, making it comfy and congenial will only add to your productivity at work. A green patch at home always brings in positivity. While rows of potted plants can adorn your balcony or terrace, hanging planters can jazz up your empty vertical space. Here are a few easy-to-grow plants that you can decorate your corner withPOTHOSPothos, popularly known as the Money Plant, is a variety that can be easily grown at home. You simply need to put them in a pot and place it somewhere on your bookshelf. Alternatively, you can hang the pot near your window and you are sorted. This plant is easy to maintain, and does not require watering every day. Pothos prefer moderate light, so just make sure you place it in a brightly-lit room.

SPIDER PLANTSThese plants come with long, thin curved leaves, and are another good option to add greenery to your house. The plantlets of Spider Plants can be pinched off and grown again. This variety also loves bright light, and looks beautiful when hung from a pot.BURROS TAIL

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Add a touch of greenery to your home workspace with these hanging plants - Times of India