| Whether you are looking for contemporary designs, | | | | interior design services repertoire. Music/architecture |
| commercial interior design ideas, modern furniture or | | | | specialists from New York and London to Aspen and |
| historic relics for your home, design news can offer | | | | Belize are creating customized play lists that are |
| practical ideas. Many people like to know what they | | | | synchronized with their clients' decor. "Hearing the |
| are looking for prior to calling the professional interior | | | | wrong music in the wrong space can be very |
| designer, so they won't get talked into anything they | | | | disorienting," explains DJ Coleman Feltes, who has |
| may not want. Generally, the interior designer will be | | | | created mixes for Versace, Gucci and Dolce & |
| a good listener and communicator, knowledgeable in | | | | Gabbana fashion shows. Stylists charge between $50 |
| everything from interior design furniture and lighting | | | | and $250 an hour, he says, which is downloaded onto |
| to building regulations and kitchen storage space. So | | | | iPods or sent as CDs by mail. For the discerning, |
| what does the moment hold for interior design? | | | | high-end clients, atmosphere is everything and the |
| Green building materials, furniture and interior design | | | | perfect music fits into that paradigm. |
| services are making design headlines all around the | | | | Young interior decorators bring their own distinctive |
| world, but particularly in America, in places like | | | | visions to the table, according to the latest Baltimore |
| Seattle, Portland, New York and Austin. Last year, | | | | interior design news. For instance, 30-year-old Annie |
| green building technology found a friend in the | | | | Zemarel Werden, who comes from a background in |
| money-conscious consumer who was looking to save | | | | Italian fashion and landscaping, adores historic items in |
| on his or her energy costs. Traditionally, sustainable | | | | her professional interior design. "I like to use things |
| design had been seen as "pricey" and "hardly worth | | | | that have a sense of history [like an antique mirror], |
| it," but now prices have dropped and consumers are | | | | things you find when traveling or antiquing. |
| beginning to see where pennies can be pinched. | | | | I like the charm of an old house," she explains. |
| The LEED standard became the predominant licensing | | | | Ex-history teacher Charlene Lester says that her |
| agency and Energy Star appliances became | | | | style isn't flashy but is rather practical in her home |
| mandatory for government buildings in many states. | | | | designs. She adds, "Given the choice of getting |
| More than 14% of all US cities have some kind of | | | | something green that costs a couple of hundred |
| "green real estate" program in place and insurers | | | | dollars more, most of our clients go green." Italian |
| agree to protect sustainable houses. These | | | | Expat Fabrizio Fiorini uses "transitional" designs that |
| breakthroughs are clearing the way for a more | | | | aren't exactly contemporary but aren't traditional |
| responsible and environmentally-friendly society. | | | | either. He goes for "refreshing, upgrading and |
| While it may sound incredulous, the latest interior | | | | renovating," using bold colors and contrasting cold and |
| design news is that music has been added to the | | | | warm shades. |