Home Improvement

Image by by TANAKA Juuyoh (田中十洋)

In their training, student interior designers often learn about the history of their profession. This can be a really vital way to give context to their subsequent careers. In this article, I will draw on my experience as an interior designer and educator to discuss the history of this exciting field.

The earliest professional interior designers were based in London – the British had become intrigued by Egyptian techniques of decorating household objects and wanted the same for themselves. London families became desperate to use an interior designer to make magical spaces and accessorise their interiors. As interior designers came to be recognised as professionals, they increasingly found a need to draw on history to make fabulous results. This was particularly right when making designs for historic London mansions or listed buildings – they saw historical reflections as a way of preserving the past while also looking to the future.

THE ANCIENT ROMANS

In Ancient Rome, citizens demanded comfort, luxury and wealth. These elements are still vital in the work of interior designers across the world today. The lavish decorations, tapestries and iconic stonework today remain as timeless and well loved in London as in Tokyo or Sydney. The Ancient Romans adored bespoke furniture and loved quality textiles and expensive fabrics.

MONASTIC TIMES

After the collapse of Roman rule, the church assumed power and largely discouraged the most creative interior designers. Opulent interiors were taken out and interior designers were instructed to install silent and simple oak panels with dark lines and sharp edges. This influence was felt throughout Europe – from London all the way to Florence.

RENAISSANCE AND REVIVAL

The Renaissance saw the emergence of professional French or French-inspired interior designers. It was a new age of elegance and sophistication, which saw the rebuilding of the London Interior Designer community and a fresh take on creative and gorgeous living spaces. A “palatial” feel was rediscovered, and interior designers started to take advantage of new transport axes going through London to the continent and to the Americas in order to rediscover their profession and herald the next generation of design.

This brings to an end my article on how the work of interior designers has changed over the ages. In my next article, I’ll reflect on how interior designers use interior fashions for fantastic effect.

Corporate Relocation: Tips to measuring a cities business climate.

Getting to know a variety of municipalities around the country, in my role on a corporate relocation team, showed me the excellent, the terrible and the just plain hideous. Some cities were so hard to deal with that they never made the first cut.

The day-to-day difficulties, even getting through on the phone with a responsible city official, were perplexing. Or in others no one seemed to be in charge, and it took forever for the most minor decisions to be approved. Compared to our corporate choice making process many cities approach was indeed glacial in its speed.

In other cities, many in the same state or area, showed an impressive efficiency. They were attuned to the needs of the relocating corporation, their officials were available for consultation and choice making and they made a excellent faith accommodation to answer our relocation concerns.

In one community they had developed such a proactive approach in helping the small employer (for example, recently they attracted a body shop with 2 employees, an Ebay entrepreneur with 5 employees and a tile shop/contractor with 4 employees) that it was a simple transition to effectively work with the larger employer. Their successful focus was to encourage the smaller growing employer to broaden their cities economic base. This proactive approach had grown from suffering a long period of economic malaise when a large employer had went from the area over 20 years previously.

All along the relocation process we will question ourselves and were making judgments on which city or area would we relocate to or open a new operation. So our first step in finding a location to relocate or expand a new operation would be to make a general subjective assessment of the business climate in the community. Rarely, would a city make the first cut if the subjective factors were negative even though the purely economic factors might look somewhat favorable.

The first step is to identify cities that are motivated to generate job growth and revenues. This is the core trait we were on the lookout for. Is the city making economic development happen? Not just “elephant” hunting but is the business climate attractive to the smaller employer?

Here’s a method that helps us arrive at the ultimate small list. We call it our “Wendy’s” approach.

When the founder of Wendy’s Dave Thomas was starting, the tale goes; he couldn’t afford a huge expensive real estate department in researching new locations for his restaurants. After some thought he concluded the huge guy on the block, McDonalds, had a an extensive real estate operation so he would just piggy back onto whatever location was analyzed, picked out and opened by McDonald’s. Once Thomas chose to locate in an area he would locate the busiest McDonalds and find real estate for his new Wendy’s on the most well traveled street near the McDonald’s. The strategy worked and Wendy’s took off like a rocket.

Using the “Wendy’s” approach we first review the city’s latest economic development report. Has the city recently received a significant HUD grant or maybe grants? Has the city successfully attracted one or more development firms for mixed-use development? Depending on the size of the community is the development commensurate with the community’s resources?

Another sign the city is willing to help start a new enterprise from scratch; does it have a new business incubator program? What is its track record? Again look critically at the program’s results. Business success tales and failures from the program, interview the participants. What is the community doing to get the most bang for their buck with this program? Compare the program to others in the state. With this information you’ll have an early picture of a serious effort or a community just taking advantage of state and federal funding.

Another “Wendy’s” tip is to look for the recent arrival of banks in town or the expansion of local banks. A sure sign of a city that is friendly to business is its level of local investment activity. Banks enter markets in order to generate quality loan activity from newly established or expanding credit worthy businesses. Likewise, look for newly opened, trendy restaurants and gauge their lunch and dinner traffic.

On the retail side, are shopping districts vibrant? Better still, are older stores and shopping malls spending dollars to modernize? These are vital signs of a strong growing business climate.

Lastly have a look at the central business district. This is where you’ll find results if the city officials are successful in reestablishing a downtown where residents can live, work and have fun.

Compare these two cities: in one they placed over 80 planters filled with flowers in the downtown area but neglected to water the plants so instead of a colorful positive backdrop all you saw were dead flowers. In the other community they cut out planting areas in the centers of the downtown boulevards for planting of flowers and shrubs. They involved local service clubs and schools. One city employer had the task of driving a tractor pulling a trailer with a tank and watering the plants. Driving into the downtown area of the second city was like driving into a well cared for garden. Who do you reckon scored higher in our “Wendy’s” analysis?

Overall the “Wendy’s” approach is an brilliant starting point in winnowing down possible city candidates for the relocation or the opening of a new operation. From here you can more closely study other data vital to your corporate needs. Lastly, if the candidates are about equal the “Wendy’s” factors can be used to break the tie.

A lot of people are trying these days to install solar panels, so they can save money and avoid paying extra for growing costs of the energy.

Just take a look at the prices questioned by most professionals and you will realize that few can afford to pay others to do this job. The must cheaper and simpler way to get solar power is to teach yourself how to install them.

If you are the type of guy that is motivated and likes the do it yourself mentality, making some solar panels can be an easy task. As far as the costs of buying the right parts and installing solar panels that are pre-made, it’s really much simpler to make them. Another excellent part of teaching yourself how to build solar panels is that you can also choose on the design and size.

When you get yourself a manual of excellent quality and you invest the time to learn how to build solar panels, you can easily find the needed supplies. You can find them in nearly every hardware store, since we’re talking about glass sheets, plywood or copper wire.

Finding photovoltaic or solar cells is also an easy task. You can buy them from local stores or you can order them online. Once you master the process of building solar panels, making one of 100 watts should only take around one day. Such a panel is perfect if you want to power a small workshop or appliances.

What is really vital is to find a excellent manual that offers you a lot of detailed instructions on building a solar panel. Skimping on the manual might offer you something with insufficient instructions, so pay the extra few bucks for a excellent one. Since you spend so small on making a solar panel, the few bucks that you pay for the manual are worth it. Overall you’re still spending very small compared to what a professional might question.

By putting a bit of effort into it, you can easily learn how to build some solar panels. Imagine the pride you will feel when your block will lose power and you will be the only one to have light.

Although very desperate, the most wise furniture sale shoppers will usually only deal with online home interior merchants who will tell you up front how exactly an item is made. Furthermore, they will also only make transactions with companies who reveal up front whether an item is a replica or an original.

Likewise, they only deal with reputable vendors. These respected Internet retailers are recognized by their willingness to respond to all customer service enquiries as soon as possible.

They are also usually noted for their openness, and willingness to provide company contact information. They also usually provide customers with best times to reach them, or they offer established business hours.

Of course, the only way to know for sure whether or not a company is respectable is to read feedback given by satisfied (or unsatisfied) customers. Furthermore, they usually will comment on items that they are bought according to how durable, dependable, and/or convenient those items are.

Obviously, the most trustworthy vendors will have the most extensive history of customer service satisfaction. Even if a complaint is made against one of these honest vendors, if they handle it properly in a way that satisfied the customer, this company is likely to be trusted.

Besides offering plenty of well-made items for sale, furniture companies who are honest also usually will often provide basic interior decoration tips. If not, they will at least, they will present photos of items for sale in a sample show.

You will benefit from this free advice as you use it to help stir up creativity within you. Furthermore, it will help imagine what the item would look like used in one or more ways.

In addition to the above, wise consumers know that the most trustworthy vendors are well-known for their commitment to producing or selling merchandise that will not easily break, fall apart, or crack. Already mentioned is the fact that you know of these companies as you seek information from consumer reviews.

The companies of high reputation also usually are remembered by most people. This further helps wise shoppers be confident that they can trust that vendor. This level of trust is especially necessary when using the Internet to shop.

Of course, even if they shop with vendors they can rely on, wise furniture sale shoppers also know that a furniture sale is usually for a limited time. Therefore, they know better to take advantage of discounts while they still can.

In order to satisfy your customers, you need to know what they want. For instance, until now, it took much more effort to find quality furniture for sale. This was especially right back during a time when telephones did not even exist.

During those ancient pre-telephone times, people had to travel long distances to find well-made items. But, today’s technology changes all of that. Not only is there the telephone, but the computer, the Internet, and even mobile phones.

How Vendors Attract Customers Today

Shopping is much simpler today, and finding quality furniture for sale can be bought in a number of ways, and very quickly. Now more than ever people are able to find quality home interior furnishings, decor, accessories, and more so readily, regardless of where in the world they live.
 
Regarding this, the newer, more efficient methods of shopping today are nearly always welcomed by both retail merchants and wholesalers. The reason why is these operations have been launched to generate revenue, and in order to keep operating it is essential that they provide brilliant customer service.

For nearly all vendors, part of providing the best customer service also means that they provide necessary conveniences, such online shopping. This is a very vital marketing tool that companies use so that they will be preferred over competitors.

One reason many people prefer online shopping for sets of furnishings is in how this type of shopping offers consumers far more choices that traditional methods of acquiring home interior goods. Furthermore, the Internet provides a far more convenient and efficient way for clients to make special requests.

Furthermore, looking for and obtaining bargains is also less time consuming when online shopping. All this is done without even ever leaving the home in most cases, or not even making so much as a phone call.

This is accomplished simply by the fact that they can even browse furniture for sale when a store is usually closed. This of course further helps them save unbelievably tremendous sums of money.

This is especially helpful if shoppers only have a small amount of money to spend on home redecoration projects. Obtaining discount furniture for sale helps bring home to consumers, that they will find what they are looking for at a fraction of the price the originally thought they would have to pay.

Many consumers are very surprised when they learn of the certain choices of high quality items that are that are now available at a bargain that they thought they would never be able to afford. You as the merchant can offer all this to them.