I generally hesitate to steer people to large paint stores or paint companies, like Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams, or the Martha Stewart Colors paint line. Most people think this is where they should go first for color inspiration. But it's a bad idea. There is simply too much choice. Although the colors themselves may be great, the selection is overwhelming.

It's like walking into a gigantic supermarket and saying, okay, now what do I make for dinner?

Instead, I recommend selecting color from a fabric, a movie, a magazine picture, or other inspiration; it's easier to relate to as you can see a mood, atmosphere, and context for using colors in specific combinations.

Here are some other color tips, hints, suggestions, and overall advice regarding choosing color for your home. Please share them with your friends!

European Fabrics Can Inspire You.  I think a great scarf from Hermes or an expensive necktie from Etro -- or any number of European fabrics -- can inspire your color scheme in any room. I advise going for an unusual set of color combinations that appeals to your taste. Imagine describing to your best friend what your color scheme is. If you're saying, "I'm doing my room in beige, blue, and brown," it's easy to visualize, but you risk your interior being boring and typical. Now imagine you're looking at a French scarf or a vintage Italian dress and you've got another description for your friend: "Well, the scheme is coral, teal, purple, and gray." If it sounds weird to you, I predict it will be great! Be brave with color. As we say in our Design2Share videos, be brave and err on the side of European taste as they have a strong and fanciful color sense.

Consider Color Intensity.  Usually the more intense the color, the less area it will cover in a room. Think of the man in a gray suit with a red tie. That's a very classic and traditional combination. But consider the man in a red suit with a gray tie. That's very daring! There are opposing sides to every color scheme, and depending on the intensity of the colors, you will likely have one bolder and one tamer scheme, depending on how you prioritize your use of the more intense colors. Select whichever scheme best suits you.

Take Your Room's Temperature.  Be sensitive to the "temperature" of your color scheme. Typically, one keeps the color scheme within the same temperature. Blues, grays, greens, and black are cool colors. Yellows, oranges, reds, browns, and so on tend to be warm colors. When using white with these schemes, the shade of white you choose (yes, there are zillions of white shades!) should be either cool or warm, too. A safe bet is to select a white with a slight tint of the adjacent color mixed into it. Benjamin Moore, for instance, has a section of whites that's clear to see in which direction each white "shades off." I recommend avoiding pure white as it tends to be far too strong and glaring for a room.

Use Color For Best Effect.  Color is a strong and inexpensive tool for decorating any room or area of your home, but use it with a good degree of thought behind it. Typically, many people paint the trim or molding in a room white. That's fine, but it's not a hard-and-fast rule. Here are two examples where that rule should be broken:

• A small entry hallway with many doors will look busy and claustrophobic if all the doors and trim are painted white, contrasting with a wall color. Paint the entry door white and all the others to match the walls. That way, the front door is seen as a focal point.
• If the ceiling is low in any room, painting the base and crown moldings the same color as the walls will make the walls look taller -- and that illusion of height is what you want to achieve.

Color Contrasts Add Punch.  Like night and day, sweet and sour, yin and yang, colors should be considered as contrasts to one another. This way, your color scheme can create interest and drama. Visualize an all-white room, with white walls, ceilings, and floors. This room might be quite calm and restful, but it might also bore you to tears. Now visualize your all-white room with a black floor and a punch of black accents in the furnishings and upholstery. Contrasting colors can make all the difference.

Use Linens For Bedroom Color Schemes.  Your bed is a huge upholstered focal point in your bedroom, children's room, or guest bedroom. Select a fun set of linens as a basis for your room's color scheme. Textile designers are incredibly skilled at combining colors in clever ways to make them really stand out. Select one of the colors for the walls, another for the floor, and so on. Select the floor color(s) first as there are fewer choices to make with carpeting, rugs, and floor treatments versus the zillions of paint colors and wall coverings available. My recommendation is to buy two sets of linens for your bed in case one gets worn or damaged. You might also want to alternate linen color schemes every-other week for variety; if that's your choice, pick complimentary color schemes in your linens that will inspire the rest of the bedroom's color choices.

Go To The Movies.  One particularly fun source of color inspiration for your home is at the movies. Yes, you can definitely go to Pottery Barn, The Company Store, and Anthropologie, or look at other merchandisers, catalogers, and shelter magazines for color inspiration. But sometimes movies can be a fun and stylish inspiration for your decoration.  How many boys and girls bedrooms will be given an Asian twist because everyone in the family loved Kung Fu Panda? The Austin Powers movies inspired an entire generation of go-go retro-look bedrooms and color schemes with acid colors and metallics.

Atonement was a beautifully styled and designed movie in 2007 that inspired many homeowners to go with the 1930s look of mixing chintz, antiques, and floral patterns made popular by designers Sibyl Colefax and John Fowler; and the acid green color that Atonement's set designers added to their interiors to help create that over-ripe summer feeling (see photo above) made a lasting impression on many moviegoers. But whatever floats your boat -- you may find inspiration in Iron Man's metallic superhero suit! Go to the movies -- or read catalogs and shelter magazines and visit interior design merchandisers -- and get inspired to use colors in exciting and brave ways in your home.

Design2Share's Irwin Weiner ASID had a children's room featured in the December 2007 issue of Architectural Digest.

Go to Rooms of Their Own: Flights of Fancy to the Ultimate Hideaway, 11 Spaces Just for Children

Visit Irwin's IWI website to review his work and interior design services.

Photo credits: Jill Denton, Javno, Momoy, Ruby Rooms, Film In Focus

Irwin Weiner ASID --

The sound of robins singing greets you in the morning. Tulips and daffodils are peeking through the ground. The sun is actually warm on the skin as you step outside. And with that, thoughts start turning to your home, and how you can make it as bright and fresh as the outdoors. You may want to get that kitchen remodeling started before the summer vacation, BBQs, and Fourth of July kicks in; spring is the time we research and start these projects. As we contemplate these projects, large or small, look at “healthy” or eco-friendly alternatives when painting, buying furniture and accessories, or just rearranging furniture. Employing healthy home design, and even feng shui, can make an amazing difference in our mental, spiritual, and physical well-being. Healthy home design is especially important if you suffer from upper respiratory ailments, asthma, allergies, and headaches; and don't forget the impact healthy homes have on expectant parents and the elderly.

So how do you go about “spring cleaning like Mother Nature,” and bring about healthy, green and/or eco-friendly cleaning principles into your space? The real push for eco-friendly design actually started in Europe about 30 years ago in studies done on “sick building syndrome” or Bau-biology. Sick building syndrome is caused by our vacuum-sealed, no-ventilation buildings filled with products (paint, carpet, furniture, cleaners . . .) that are emitting toxins and poisons into the air. Frequent migraines, fatigue, upper respiratory ailments, and sore throats are only a few of the symptoms of SBS (sick building syndrome). Bau-biology is the study of design and construction of homes that fulfill all health/holistic requirements. Spaces are built with natural materials, utilizing natural light, avoiding the effects of EMFs (ElectroMagnetic Field radiation), and using energy- and resource-efficient systems. The United States is slowly catching up to Europe in our views towards green design and “healthy home” choices. If you need some more reasons to go au naturale in your home, here they are:

1. You can increase the physical health of all living occupants of the space (kids, pets, elderly, you . . .) by improving indoor air quality, reducing chemicals/toxins, and increasing water quality. Mental health improves, too, as you reduce stress and anxiety by becoming more connected with nature.
2. You will be following the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle) by adopting a healthy design plan for your home; however, I’d like to add a 4th R: rethink. As you become more informed of all available choices, you will see how easy it is to decorate your home in a healthy and still-fashionable way!
3. Read The Lorax, by Dr Seuss. It's all in there.

Okay, DeAnna, you say, you're convincing me -- but how do I start? Well, the hard part is making the commitment. I always suggest that my clients start by doing a MAJOR declutter and purge around the house. It’s okay to start small, but you must go through each room, closet, drawer, and cabinet and ask yourself, "Do I LOVE it? Do I USE it? Do I NEED it?" If you don’t answer with a YES to any of the questions, you must get rid of it. If you have a hard time with this, you aren't alone. I teach popular, wait-listed workshops on this subject. Men and women, young and old alike, are having struggles with decluttering and purging their house.

I guarantee you will feel a cathartic release when you do a house purge! Remember my motto: 

Past Items = Emotional Baggage!

After the purge, it's time to do a good spring cleaning. Use natural household cleaners. Sun and Earth, Seventh Generation, and my very own 3E Products are all wonderful resources available in mainstream retail channels. There are also some great books out there if you have the time and energy to make your own cleaners. (Green Clean is one of my favs!). Here are some tips to help you to de-tox your home, all a part of your new, green spring cleaning regimen:

1. Use natural hygiene products and cleaners. There are chemicals in many cleaning products, and when they were made, they polluted the environment; try not to bring them into your home or your body.
2. Go organic, whenever possible, with food (buy local and in season) and clothing and linens (man-made fibers are petroleum based and also include formaldehyde -- that's what makes that nice "new smell").
3. No VOC paints and finishes. All major paint manufacturers now make low or no VOC paint. Sherwin Williams has Harmony, Benjamin Moore has Aura, and Pratt & Lambert has Green Performance Standard products in their lines. You must ask for them, though! VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are the chemicals and toxins used to inhibit mold and quicken dry time; again, they're what makes "that new paint smell." Make the smart choice.
4. Eliminate plastics and vinyls from your home. Studies have shown that PVCs also "off-gas" like VOCs and have been shown to cause certain types of cancers. Yes, unfortunately this includes your shower curtain!
5. Beware of what candles you buy. Candles are a leading cause of indoor air pollution, which studies have shown to be worse than outdoor air. The big offender here is the wick. Wicks in most inexpensive candles are made with lead. Lead has been shown to cause a variety of illnesses. When purchasing candles for ambience, look at the wick. If you see a metal core, DO NOT BUY IT! Some wicks will be made with zinc, which is okay, however the best choice is cotton. Wicks with metal are the cause of sooting and black smoke that can stain walls. Look for candles made from beeswax, palm, or soy wax and scented with natural botanicals and/or essential oils.

Now let’s look at individual rooms in your house (and some more tips!):

Bedroom: The bedroom is the most important room of the home. We spend 1/3 of our lives sleeping. Therefore, it is imperative that this room is chemical/toxin free and promotes rest and restoration . . . as well as romance. In feng shui, the bedroom is related to the Relationship area. Here are a few tips:

• Keep this room clutter-free, especially under the bed. Air needs to be able to circulate around the body to rejuvenate. Clutter is a dust collector, so if you haven’t purged yet, do it!
• Keep electronic items to a bare minimum in this room to reduce the EMFs. If you must have an electronic alarm clock and/or phone in the room, keep them at least 3 feet from your head to reduce health risks.
• Buy the most luxurious linens you can afford. This will add to the sensuality of the room. And then use healthy products to care for your linens. 3E Products offers SLEEP, an eco-friendly line of laundry products specially designed for bedding, blankets, and pajamas. Stain pre-treater, fabric softener, and liquid detergent are scented with lavender essential oil to help promote a healthy night’s sleep.
• Lie down and see what the view is. This is the first and last thing you see before you fall asleep and this will stay with you subconsciously. Make it good; we want pleasant dreams.

Kitchen: The bedroom is related to the Relationship area of the Bagua; the Kitchen is related to the Wealth/Abundance area of the home. Keep all appliances and plumbing in working order to keep “wealth” in the family. This room is for gathering and nourishing, so keep this in mind when designing your kitchen. Buy the highest-quality kitchen tools and food/ingredients you can afford to promote a feeling of wealth. Other tips for the kitchen:

• Again, keep this room clutter free. All flat surfaces seem to attract clutter. Resist the urge! Keep all small appliances that are used infrequently in cabinets. Knives should also be kept away when not in use (negative, cutting energy).
• Since this room is about abundance and nourishment, keep pesticides out of this room. Period. Use only natural cleaning products. Think healthy! This is a chemical/toxin free zone. 3E Products offers CLEAN, an eco-friendly dish-washing liquid.

Living Room: Another of the social, active rooms of the home, the living room is where you want to think comfort and flexibility. This room must accommodate numerous activities like watching TV, reading, and talking. The floor plan must be able to adjust to the functions of the room at any given moment. Rounded corners on furniture will reduce injuries if kids or pets are present. To bring life into this room, include upward-growing plants. This encourages growth and new opportunities. More tips for the living room:

• Flexible lighting is key in this area. Due to the variety of activities that take place in this room, think three types of lighting: general or overhead, task (desk, reading), and accent.
• 3E Products has an almond oil-base line of Environment Sprays to use instead of potpourri or other room fresheners. Scents include: lavender, orange, grapefruit, geranium, eucalyptus, lemongrass, bergamot, clary sage, and ylang ylang.

Bathroom: People tend to accumulate more clutter than you’d think possible in such a small space. From out-dated medicines and make-up, to insufficient lighting and clutter-filled counters, we can create an unhealthy, crowded mess. Mold and mildew is a huge issue in this room, so keep it well-ventilated and cleaned frequently. Soap scum is a breeding ground for mildew! More tips for the bathroom:

• No rules on color here. Be as bold and bright as your personality allows.
• If you don’t already have an exhaust fan and/or a window, put one in to add ventilation.
• Throw out ALL out-dated medicines and make-up as they are ineffective at best, and unhealthy at worst.
• There should be overhead general lighting and a shower light, depending on building codes in your area, in addition to task lighting for putting on make-up and shaving in front of a mirror and lavatory.
• Keep all plumbing in good working order. Fix all leaks immediately; you don’t want to waste water or risk bigger problems.
• Purchase natural bath and body products and bathroom cleaners. You’re doing a lot to create a healthy environment, so why would want to poison your body? Again, if something is labeled “fragrance” it’s a synthetic, petroleum-based product. Do not buy it.

Home Office: With more people working at home or self-employed, this space takes on new significance. Health issues concerning EMFs are prevalent in this room due to the concentration of electronic equipment. Computers, printers, scanners, and telephones can literally drain your energy. To offset this, bring in plants like spider plants, philodendrons, and ivies to create a healthier work environment. Jade, money, and orange trees are auspicious and represent wealth and abundance in feng shui terms; place these by the home office entrance! As a general rule, there should be 1 plant per 100 square feet of space for good indoor air quality. Other tips:

• Paper clutter is a constant in this space. Know how long you need to keep taxes and other important documents and shred the rest. Purge any unneeded, old papers from files. Keep all files up to date. Organizing at first will be a large project; the results will make you much more efficient in the long run.
• Task lighting is very important here. Do not ignore, and save your eyes!
• Natural light and ventilation are important (as in all rooms). Due to the bombardment of EMFs in this space, open up the windows year round to allow some fresh air to circulate, utilize crystals and sun catchers to “capture” the sun and disperse it throughout the space, and maximize outside views with mirrors.

Here’s a quick maintenance checklist to keep your whole-house living space healthy:

Daily: Open windows to let fresh air in and pollutants out.

Monthly: Vacuum or wipe down return and delivery vents to keep dust from blowing around, and wash refrigerator drip pans to keep mold away.

Bi-monthly: Change furnace filters in winter months (use HEPA pleated filters which have more surface area to collect dirt/dust).

Annually: Have your furnace inspected to ensure that it’s not leaking carbon monoxide.

Bi-annually: Have forced-air ducts cleaned. Do not use fragrance or antimicrobial chemicals. If someone has allergies or asthma, do this cleaning annually.

We tackled a lot here! I hope some of these tips can help you create a beautiful and healthy space for you and your family. Life is stressful enough without having our living conditions create even more stress.

Photo credits: The Budget Casa, collecting tokens, Style Will Save Us, dk images, AllPosters

Irwin Weiner ASID --

I hope the following steps help you as you face your decorating tasks, whether you're going solo or working with a design professional.

1. Dig Your Bones: Before designing your space, look at the shapes and planes of the room. This is often referred to as the bones of a room. Oftentimes, the more special the architecture of the space, the easier it is to decorate. You wouldn’t need much to create a beautiful room if it already had high ceilings, arched windows, tall columns, a coffered ceiling, and a wonderful view! The trick is to create a space that’s equally appealing without great architectural interest.

2. Be Moody: Decide on the mood you’d like your interior to have. Would you like it to be formal and intimidating, weird and funky, laid-back, or contemporary? Personally, I prefer an interior to be elegant, youthful, witty, and inviting. A few samples of whimsy and personal touches such as photographs and items found antiquing or flea-market shopping help add to the unique quality of an interior. In addition, adding pieces that tell a story or are inherited make any space feel more like a home.

3. Flip Your Lid: Remember that the ceiling of your room is a blank canvas. If possible, raise the ceiling, either by creating a tray into the attic or adding a prefab dome. Adding beams for a rustic look or a crown molding for a more elegant feel can go a long way to enhance your interior. I often use a door casing flat on the ceiling to give the interest of a crown molding while making the walls seem taller.

4. Hate Mold, but Love Moldings: Wall moldings are like an artist’s pencil on a page. They will enhance your space -- if done well. Parallel moldings can create a mid-century feel. Classically-shaped boxes can make a room feel traditional, dressy, and antique. Unless a room is very large or formal like a foyer, moldings should be painted the same color as the walls to maintain their subtlety. I know it’s tempting to emphasize moldings, but painting moldings a contrasting color can make them look like they’ll jump off the wall and chase you back to Home Depot!

5. Risky Business: Take risks and trust your instincts when decorating your room, but don’t buy impulsively. Select furniture that is unusual, but make sure you feel that you can live with the pieces for a long time. Purchase the most expensive pieces you can afford. Don’t forget that what’s expensive today is inexpensive tomorrow. Remember how many times we’ve regretted not buying that one chair we passed up in an antique store a few years ago because it was too pricey? Go on. Take a risk!

Avoid decorating with things that create a feeling of unease in your room, like tables with too-sharp corners, objects that look as if you’ll hit them if you talk with your hands, and chairs that appear too delicate to sit on. The goal is to live in a space that is inviting and has a sense of calm. Lay out your furniture carefully, both with an eye to making the best use of space and to facilitate the function of the room. Remember that rooms can often be used for two purposes, such as a dining room-library combination or a family room where you can watch TV, eat a meal, have the kids do homework, or gather everyone together to play games.

6. You Light Up My Life: An even spread of light without any glaring light bulbs is ideal. It’s relatively easy to have your electrical outlets wired so that they operate from a single wall switch. It's most convenient to turn all your lamps on and off from a single switch area, obviously avoiding having to go around the room and switching on individual lamps. Use soft white light bulbs rather than clear for lighting fixtures as they soften the shadows cast on walls and ceilings. And don't forget to explore the latest fluorescents and eco-friendly lighting solutions to save energy and resources.

7. True Colors: I often select a color scheme by looking at a printed fabric first, such as a necktie or dress, a fabric sample, a pillow, a wallpaper swatch, or a photo in an interior design magazine. If I have many interesting items such as artwork, architectural elements, or a great view, I use less color in the additional decorating elements.

Color is an inexpensive way to add drama and punch to a room, especially where there is limited interest. Color is also easily changed later on. Painting walls and ceilings a strong color can add interest and personality to a room. I often paint a powder room, foyer, or dining room in strong colors as these rooms are not lived in as much as bedrooms and living rooms which usually require a more calming palette. Like food, color is a matter of taste. At the end of the day, you and your family should feel comfortable with the colors in your room.

8. A Delicate Balance: Like Black & White, Yin & Yang, and Sweet & Sour, a room should be balanced. Here are some balancing tricks I recommend:

• Add a touch of a hot color in a cool room, such as red flowers or a bright painting to counterbalance blues, grays, or beige.
• Stain a floor almost-black when using light furniture and/or a light rug.
• Incorporate comfortable and inviting furniture with formal upright seating.
• Mix your skirts with your legs! Not all the furniture should have legs -- or not all furniture should have solid bases and/or skirts. A few chairs with legs in a room with a few solid bases and/or skirted seating pieces create a pleasant mix.
• The top half of the room should be as interesting as the bottom half. Most furniture is 36 inches tall, more or less. Artwork, tall furniture pieces, and window treatments bring your eye up so that you can see the room as a whole.

Enjoy your room decorating, and good luck!

Photo Credits: Architectural Digest, Architectural Digest

Design2Share's Irwin Weiner ASID had a children's room featured in the December 2007 issue of Architectural Digest.

Go to Rooms of Their Own: Flights of Fancy to the Ultimate Hideaway, 11 Spaces Just for Children to see his contribution.

Interestingly, many of the showrooms, like Holly Hunt and Jerry Pair, have their own lines and they also carry lines of other manufacturers. 

Which showrooms carry which lines may vary from city to city. Building rental rates sometimes make it difficult for showrooms to show their complete stock from all lines. Sometimes you might see a single item from a manufacturer's line and you will need to use a lot of imagination to sense how a different piece from that manufacturer might look. Seeing the quality and finish helps a great deal.

Here are some pieces I loved this past year:

I was thrilled that the glamorous Madison sectional sofa is back, with its flat pleat welt and gilded base from Nancy Corzine. I also loved their tobacco-colored, crescent-shaped, Deco-style Fushion desk.

A favorite way of concealing a TV was on one of two options from Niermann Weeks. Their Danish Entertainment Center is a beautifully-finished cabinet made to look like a chest of drawers. The drawer fronts are all faux and bi-fold to reveal a substantially deep cabinet capable of housing all sorts of equipment. Their Venetian Secretary is a great way to house and hide a flatscreen TV. The doors would be lined with fabric.

Both pieces are available in custom sizing and in many different finishes. The Secretary is currently shown on their floor, and it's wonderfully covered in antiqued mirror.

J. Robert Scott has the Salon Deco Dining Lounge Chair (at left) and La Femme Side Chair (at right), and both are gorgeous.

The La Femme is whimsical with a round seat and back, and splayed Lucite legs.

The Salon chair is more serious and great when viewed from the back, absolutely perfect for when the back of a chair needs to face the entry of any room.

Donghia's Woodbridge Club Chair (see first photo, above) is elegant and clever. The floating wood panel above the arm is sensual and fresh.

Jerry Pair has great lines of furniture, including antiques and accessories that he collects from all over the world. His combination of these old, well-selected pieces with new lines creates vignettes that take out all the hard work for we busy designers. Each space in his showrooms is like having the work done for you. I'm often tempted to say, "I'll take it all!"

Jerry Pair carries Therien's line of furniture in some of his showrooms, and it is sheer perfection. The styling, finish, and quality are well worth the price. My favorite is their Volute Dining Table (photo, at right); sturdy and elegant.

On a more modern note, B & B Italia's 9611 table  (photo, below) designed by Antonio Citterio, from their APTA collection, is timeless.

John Salibello's stylish mid-century pieces (see two examples in the photos below) work well with all of the items I've described. One of the advantages of buying pieces from him is that they're available off the floor and can be taken on approval.

Like Salibello, all the dealers I've listed have detailed websites and beautiful showrooms. Most of the items from the showrooms selling new furniture have extensive options for customization, from finish to function. So now it's time for you to get busy in the New Year, rev up your interior designer, cruise the showrooms and their web sites, and start finding some of your own favorites!

Photo Credits: Design Journal, Nancy Corzine,  Donghia, Jerry Pair, B&B Italia, John Salibello

Design2Share's Irwin Weiner ASID had a children's room featured in the December 2007 issue of Architectural Digest.

Go to Rooms of Their Own: Flights of Fancy to the Ultimate Hideaway, 11 Spaces Just for Children to see his contribution.

Irwin Weiner ASID

Shouldn't you buy the most expensive pair of shoes? Likewise, you should spend more on your interiors for the same reason.

My favorite -- and, yes, expensive -- pieces of furniture I saw and/or purchased for clients during the past year were antiques. More correctly described, they were previously-owned or used furniture, also known as estate furniture.

Antiques are sometimes dicey propositions. A chest of drawers from the 1970s could cost ten times the price of one from the 15th century, and this has turned the antiques industry on its head. The driver for price surges around certain styles and periods is that people want unique items that are well designed and have great style.

Here are some thoughts and recommendations for selecting great Old Things for the coming New Year:

1. It takes two. A combination of access to good resources and educated, professional advice is the key to making the smartest antique purchases.

2. A leopard can't change his spots. Just because a piece is old doesn't mean it's good. An ugly, cheap chair will most likely always be just a cheap and ugly chair. Professional interior designers who know antiques and the best of the best furniture periods will help you navigate the waters and steer clear of drek.

3. Seek out quality sources. Find antique dealers who pay high rents because they're situated in fashionable areas or are close to interior designer resources -- like those on East 60th Street in New York and on Melrose Place in Los Angeles. We call these antique boutiques. The dealers have taste. They understand the styles of discerning clients with good taste. They know that the pieces that are well designed, unusual, and can be seen as a real conversation piece in one's home are what sells. 

4. First, look online. An easy way to locate many high-quality antique dealers is through 1stdibs and Bond & Bowery. In order to view items directly, you can search these resources by city, period and type of furniture, or other criteria. Once you find an appealing item, accessing the vendor's own website is easy. See, for example, the Amy Perlin and Todd Merrill sections in 1stdibs and the George Evans and Rue Auber sections in Bond & Bowery.

5. Seek out the shows. Antique shows in big cities are also great resources: The Palm Beach Jewelry, Art & Antiques Show, The Winter Antique Show at the Park Avenue Armory, and the Brimfield Outdoor Antiques Show are a few that come to mind. The Brimfield, MA show is the largest U.S. market, bringing 6,000 dealers together in 120 acres of goodies for 6 days, 3 times a year.

Owing to high rents, many dealers are selling their merchandise at shows only. The dealers choose their best merchandise for the shows. Springing the extra dollars to attend the gala openings -- or getting to Brimfield on the first day at the crack of dawn -- is a great way to get a shot at buying the best pieces.

And if an antique show is helping to support a specific charity, giving a commission to a good cause helps ease the guilt of spending on one's self, too!

6. Try other resources. eBay, antique web sites like Antiques and the Arts Online, and auctions are excellent ways that dealers are starting to sell their merchandise. Dealers save on having to pay store rent and the items are well documented and easy to see online or in catalogs. Emailing an image to your designer or friend for their opinion is easy and takes little or no effort.

Most antique auctions are now online. Their web sites have amazing search capabilities that are continually improving. Christie's, Sotheby's, and Rago Arts are a few personal recommendations, but there are other great auction resources. 

Buying a great piece of furniture is a true joy. The thrill of the hunt and the victory of the catch can be fun and very  invigorating. 

Much like buying a good piece of jewelry, a fine antique can bring much joy for generations.

Then, the real fun begins: Once you have your prized piece, how do you display it to its best advantage?

Sister Parish redecorated her living room many times in her lifetime. The various incarnations were often shown in side-by-side photos.

It was fascinating for me to do the "Where's Waldo" game of spotting the same side table or mirror in each new setting.

I also like to look at old interior design magazines from the 1970s and see how the designers placed antiques. Seeing a French Louis XV desk in a peach bedroom with mirrored walls is very cool, and to a certain extent, quite comical. The fact is, many -- and, I don't mean all -- antiques and special pieces can be reincarnated in many settings.

Placing your purchase well is like placing a jewel in a good setting or mounting a painting in a beautiful frame. One enhances the other.  Imagine visiting the Metropolitan Museum and seeing the paintings without their frames, all placed in bare rooms. Needless to say, the paintings were painted and purchased without any regard for their frames or the rooms that they were to be placed in. They were created and acquired for their intrinsic value, beauty, uniqueness, craftsmanship, and design. The trick is to make it your important antique pieces work within your overall interior design -- and that is a subject we can tackle for another time. 

Suffice it to say that you need to find and acquire unique pieces first. I hope your New Year finds you acquiring some lovely old pieces, adding joy and interest to your beautiful home!    

Photo Credits: Art Market Insider, Todd Merrill Antiques, Todd Merrill Antiques, Amy Perlin Antiques, Antiques and the Arts Online

Design2Share's Irwin Weiner ASID had a children's room featured in the December 2007 issue of Architectural Digest.

Go to Rooms of Their Own: Flights of Fancy to the Ultimate Hideaway, 11 Spaces Just for Children to see his contribution.

Diana Vreeland, the doyenne of Harper's Bazaar, wrote a column for many years entitled "Why Don't You . . . ?" and she pontificated on fashion, elegance, style, and home design with wit and flair.

Her tidbits were brilliant, trend-setting ideas. The copy was printed in the magazine at a fashionable slant, breaking many magazine layout rules.

Ms. Vreeland chartered new courses. She would throw out so many startling and original lines! Each was like a little theatrical sparkler.

Why Don't You . . .

• remember how delicious champagne cocktails are after tennis or golf? Indifferent champagne can be used for these.
• put all your dogs in bright yellow collars and leads like all the dogs in Paris?
• travel with a little raspberry-colored cashmere blanket to throw over yourself in hotels and trains?

She had many comments on decorating, and I wanted to share with you a few of her gems (from John Esten's Diana Vreeland Bazaar Years).

Why Don't You . . .

• bring back from Central Europe a huge white Baroque porcelain stove to stand in your front hall, reflected in the parquet?
• use a gigantic shell instead of a bucket to ice your champagne?
• have a row of white pots on your window-sill with orange and brown nasturtiums trained into pyramids around little cone-shaped trellises?
• have a yellow satin bed entirely quilted in butterflies?
• revive the old-fashioned hat tree -- this time a white lacquer pole topped with ostrich feathers of carved wood, or a black and gold palm tree -- most useful in a bathroom to hold your clothes?
• put an enormous deep sofa at one end of a large studio room? Over this drape high on the wall a tremendous canopy of yards and yards of material -- copying your whole effect from the theatrical tapestries of Venice?
• tie an enormous bunch of silver balloons on the foot of your child's bed on Christmas Eve?
• paint a map of the world on all four walls of your boys' nursery so they won't grow up with a provincial point of view?
• do your closet shelves in immaculate white organdy, pleated, with Lubin's scented pink flannels wrapped around your things?
• have a private staircase from your bedroom to the library with a needlework carpet with notes of music worked on each step -- the whole spelling your favorite tune?
• cover a big cork bulletin board in bright pink felt, banded with bamboo, and pin with colored thumb-tacks all your various enthusiasms as your life varies from week to week?
• paint every door in a completely white house the color of a different flower -- and thereby give each room its name?
• realize, realize the return of black, and black and white, in decoration? It is of tremendous importance. Use it whenever you can.
• have a room done up in every color green? This will take months, years, to collect, but it will be delightful -- a melange of plants, green glass, green porcelains, and furniture covered in sad greens, gay greens, clear, faded, and poison greens?

Many of us loved The Testy Tastemaker, Mayer Rus' chatty and amusing House & Garden column on decorating mores and manners, and we hope that it will be resurrected now that H&G has closed up shop. But I wish the Snap, Crackle, Pop of Diana Vreeland's suggestions could somehow come back, too. Perched atop her pedestal, she gave readers homework assignments, threw out ways for us to aspire to more stylish home design and fashion, and contributed so many new things to keep us entertained and on our toes. Brava!

Photo Credits: elmundo, Pink Navy, Habitually Chic, Amazon

No one there seems to mind.

Most Christmas and winter holiday decorating reminds me of that: too much, too obvious, and too many people not really noticing.

Indelibly etched in my mind is the image of a woman I saw a few years ago in the Mall of America in Minneapolis. She had a Christmas tree on her sweater, matching tree earrings, and everything else she was wearing was either red, green, or winter-white.

Unless I’m brain damaged or in total denial, I can’t help noticing that it’s Christmas! I think it’s time to rethink the holiday decorating thing.

Here are some holiday design points I would like you to consider (without sounding too much like Scrooge).

1. Show restraint. Too much decorating is like too much jewelry. Try only one piece per room.

2. Don't colonize every square inch of space. If you’re obliged to display many items, like ornaments that have sentimental value, consolidate them ALL in one place, like on and around a tree.

3. Select items that are special and different. Cute is absolutely forbidden. The little Santa teddy bear is done to death!

4. Do NOT get sucked into the Hallmark holiday thing. This year’s bigger, better, more stylish, more creative angel tree topper doesn’t really make much difference, at the end of the day. My apologies to all you collectors, of course, but mass-produced collectibles is not my thing.

5. BE BOLD. Your tree should scrape the ceiling and the wreath on your door should be as wide as the door.

6. Have fun. I remember having Christmas dinner in a trendy restaurant in New York many years ago. The restaurant’s Christmas tree was fully trimmed and, like a chandelier, it was suspended over the diners . . . upside down.

7. Time for a color change. No more red and green. (Where does that scheme come from, anyway?) I think holiday color changing is catching on because I saw blue poinsettias at a nursery today. An orange and purple tree, for example, would be great.

When decking the halls this holiday season, try a little restraint and good taste when you try turning ho-hum into ho-ho-ho.

Photo credits: USA Today PopCandy blogspot, UK Home Ideas

Irwin Weiner

The event was a brilliant idea. The Times hosts a fun and delicious event that raises money for a wonderful New York charity. At the same time, it promotes the A&D building as a designer resource, and showcases the individual showrooms, restaurants, and chefs.

Now that’s business development, a creative alignment of business activities that produces a new sum-is-greater-than-the-parts thingie. And you would have loved this Taste of T thingie!

The designers and industry people attending the event were treated to great food and drink, and I enjoyed a relaxing visit to this well-known interior design destination. It was a thrill to see culinary stars that included Dan Barber of Blue Hill at Stone Barns (left) and Michael Laiskonis of Le Bernardin (right).

Although my office is in walking distance from East 58^th Street, I’m ashamed to admit that I’m always too rushed to appreciate the A&D’s many new showrooms and their great lines. And I know I’ve missed out on a lot. As much as I love the Internet, seeing an actual product is so much more meaningful than seeing an image. The custom and unique aspects of the many items shown, such as antique tiles and accessories, are often not shown on a vendor’s website. It’s just too expensive to keep up with cataloging everything new that comes in, unlike the more mass produced, mass market items one sees in typical mid-range Internet catalogs for furnishings.

The A&D Building traditionally was home to mainly kitchen companies. It was so much so, in fact, that the site was casually referred to as the Kitchen Building. The more expensive Design & Decoration or D&D Building, just a block away, was always the more prestigious resource center. The A&D was very much the Cinderella of the area. The expensive rentals in the D&D made it prohibitive for most furniture showrooms to rent there as the floor space is terribly expensive. One can see dozens of fabric choices in the square footage needed to show a single piece of furniture in the D&D.

The A&D has recently welcomed some inspiring new tenants, drawn by a combination of attractive space and rents.

Homer Furniture, the showroom of the designer, Richard Mishaan, has stylish and contemporary lines.

Stylish and contemporary furniture also complements the line I saw at the more streamlined and edgy B&B Italia (chairs, right).

The contemporary furniture perfectly complements the contemporary designs at the kitchen and bath showroom Boffi (basin, left) as well as the ubiquitous, high-end appliance/kitchen showroom Miele. 

The colonially-inspired furniture of Robert Lighton, formally British Khaki, is elegant and classic. Lighton has also designed a line of gorgeous watches that are featured on his website and displayed in the showroom. Interestingly, his showroom was previously a retail store in Soho. He’s chosen to transfer to a building that, although open to the public, is generally considered a designer “trade” building.

As much as I understand the business development, or biz dev, aspect of the Taste of T event, it was more my personal design development -- can I say des dev -- that made the event so wonderful for me.

My personal development increased as I walked through the new showrooms, admired the exciting finds, and enjoyed great food (the appetizers served in bird shell halves were rarified and exceptional).

If you can’t get to the A&D Building, then try accessing the showrooms and their websites through the A&D portal. Start by looking at their tempting Photo Gallery. 

Web surfing won’t be the real deal like my recent field trip. But, like good food, it will make you want more. The A&D is definitely worth a visit.

Photo credits: Signature Shutters, Epicurious, Star Chefs, Architonic, Boffi

The fact is, if my clients weren’t so picky, they’d shop at Bloomingdales and leave me alone. Of course nice, supportive, and trusting clients are the absolute -- and mostly unattainable -- goal. It’s odd to think that most of my clientele consider themselves to be nice and supportive clients, although that is far from reality.

But more about that some other time! Now is the time to muse about the design business.

As an experienced and educated professional, I am able to provide a service much like an expensive restaurant. A good interior designer delivers a high-end combination of product and service. Interestingly enough, I’m finding that the high-end service part is more desired than the high-end products themselves.

Online shopping, including websites like Gumps, eBay, and 1stDibs, are clear and easy ways for everyone to shop for merchandise. The Internet is the all-time leveler between decorating professionals and their clients. There’s a certain security in purchasing an item from a respected Internet site; the prices are so easily compared for similar merchandise. Almost gone are the days where one purchased a piece of furniture at an exorbitant price, only to find it in a different store for a fraction of the cost.

With a bit of quick research, true market value is much easier to determine for both design professionals and research-driven clients. Most picky clients like to do their own research to back up what their designers recommend, of course. They want to verify what their designers recommend, sometimes getting valued second opinions from family, friends, and perfect strangers. (Don't get me started on how this tends to drive designers a crazy!)

So high-end products are not necessarily what clients are looking for designers to provide. Service is the in-demand commodity. Busy schedules and fierce competition are what makes good service expensive and hard to come by.

Good design service needs

• to be delivered patiently,
• by an experienced and well-educated professional,
• in a person-to-person, high-touch relationship,
• at fair market rates.

Interior designers are like doctors when it comes to business. First observation: it’s funny how the word facelift is both medical and decorative! Second observation: we both try to see as many patients as we can per hour.

Both doctors and interior designers want to increase productivity and revenue. Truth be told, I also want to own a fabulous home and be wealthy enough to hire a designer! I will try, like any good design professional, to maximize my billable hours. Emails, telephone consultations, and job-site meetings are all very time consuming. And we know that Time = Money, either in or pocket or flying out of our bank account.

So, design clients everywhere, do not be shocked when your decorator always tries to steer you away from unproductive chat time, personal gossip sessions, or friendly soirees. We're professionals, and our meters are running during office hours. In that respect, we're just like any other professional, billing you for our service.

What Abe Lincoln said about lawyers also applied to interior designers: "A decorator's time and advice is his stock in trade."

Here's another business rumination. What amazes me most of all about New York magazine’s annual “Top Doctors” list is the different categories. The areas of specialty represented are vast, and the categories continue to expand. Clearly the wealth of knowledge that’s available has necessitated the need for medical specialists in every form. In looking for a doctor, we want the most educated and experienced service provider in the field.

This applies to interior designers, too. As a residential designer, I’m not very good at designing offices, and I would be even worse at designing a restaurant. That’s the most basic reference, but here are some more subtle reasons for choosing a particular designer over another:

• Match of personality
• Personal taste
• Sense of style
• Great portfolio
• Marquee clients (from the rich and famous to your trusted auntie)
• Age

About that last point: a trendy, young couple is unlikely to hire a much older designer, and many older designers are reluctant to take on whippersnappers.

Let’s carry the comparison of the interior design business to other industries. If a chic restaurant has servers who give me bad attitude, I can walk out. If I have a bad attitude in such a setting, the restaurant is unlikely to tell me to leave. One has the power to scream at an airlines representative for not giving out an upgrade, and it's your basic understanding that the airline is not going to blacklist you.

This represents an essential difference in the interior design industry versus other high-end luxury service industries. When it comes to the interior design industry, firing happens both ways. I have fired clients for the following reasons, and I am proud for doing so and standing my ground as a professional:

• Second-guessing my designs
• Seeing me as someone to expedite their designs rather than seeing me as the design source
• Not committing to purchases

Interestingly enough, I have not fired anyone (yet) for being rude or abusive. Designers tend to take a lot of boorish behavior in stride as part of the territory of working with clients on sensitive, difficult, emotional projects. Ones home, after all, is most personal, and it's traumatic to see it ripped up and put back together again by relative strangers.

Here's an aspect of the design business that I find fascinating. See what you make of it . . . . I have been told by many shelter magazine editors and design publicists that the best work from interior designers is their own homes. The budgets might not be as large as their clients, but the creativity and freshness is there in spades, without compromise.

So what do these rumblings all amount to? I think they have helped form my Design Business Manifesto: I am worth everything I earn from my design clients. My two decades of interior design experience, added to my seven years of formal design training, and my fifteen years of managing my own design firm have helped me refine my skills and define the type and style of design I do best. As a design professional, I give great service, I am a business professional, and I can help a client achieve a beautiful interior.

I and my fellow decorators perform their jobs well and relate daily to their clients’ needs. Our clients should develop a trust in the professional design process, and trust their chosen interior designer to do a great job on their behalf. This, coupled with a good working relationship, is all one needs to get a great interior.

The decorating process should be fun, creative, and enjoyable for both professional and client. Designers are professionals who treat their creativity always from a business perspective. We stay in business because we're discerning and professional.

As noted earlier, when a client doesn't allow us to do our business professionally, they're sometimes fired.

For tips and advice on hiring design professionals, watch our Professional Help video.

Photo Credit: All Art Schools

Let's ignore completely the fact that I was drawing interiors back in nursery school while other kids were scribbling things like this picture. Here's what I'm really wondering about: I don’t know where I could have seen those types of interior details.

The home I grew up in had more of an I Love Lucy interior, something mid-century modern. I couldn’t have seen this particular interior on TV either. Television didn’t arrive in South Africa until I was a teenager. Perhaps my design inspiration was from an ad in a bus shelter or somewhere in a movie magazine that I might have paged through. The fact is, I was already looking at interiors and judging what I thought was beautiful and what was not. Even at such a young age, I had -- albeit in a simple form –- taste. And I was looking around at interiors and visually processing my surroundings.

As a teenager in the 1970s, I hoped to purchase a Villeroy & Boch china pattern with the faux marbre surround. I thought it absolute perfection. I saw this as a set of china I could enjoy for rest of my days. Thankfully, my tastes have changed. Again, I was processing things around me, I was looking and thinking, and informing my sense of style every step of the way.

Like the overdone chicken and egg analogy, which comes first: style taste or trend? Did I like the fake marble in that china pattern because it was fashionable, or was my attraction a deep expression of my innermost aesthetic desire? Perhaps it was a combination of the two, but no matter.

Frankly, my decorating dears, I don’t give a damn. My love-hate relationship with that set of dishes reflects one thing only: my aesthetic education. Shortly before he died, the prolific artist and colorist Paul Klee declared that he finally understood color. And I’m now only beginning to feel the same about interior design, some 21 years into my career.

A decade ago, I visited Palladio’s famous Villa Foscari ("La Malcontenta") outside of Venice. More recently, I visited Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat House in Brno, Czech Republic. After years of looking, seeing, and experiencing interior design, I found myself in spaces that I consider to be absolute perfection. I was equally, and vastly, moved by both structures. These were my Design Temples, both awe inspiring and possibly life changing.

Why life changing? I think it's because in both spaces, I felt humbled to the point of giving up design, totally and completely throwing in the towel. The mastery of these design achievements made me feel that my design education hadn’t even begun. Palladio and Mies were undoubtably geniuses. Since my visits to their temples, I have come to terms that I might never create such enduring structures or design interiors that will last forever.

But life goes on, and my decorating Grail awaits. On the one hand, I am humbled to the point of humiliation by experiencing great design. On the other hand, I am inspired by the height of the design barre. It’s limitless what great design can create. I am climbing.

And I am looking at everything. Design2Share has been a great experience in allowing me to look at the fine work of my fellow interior designers. Most of them, the unpublished ones and the ones you see in the finest shelter magazines, has achieved something sublime that I've been able to look at, process, and come away better for the experience.

But here comes a note of caution: Look at everything, but don't label everything fabulous. Train yourself to Learn to Look and then to Be Discerning. Please watch our first Design2Share video on Getting a Great Look to help you start your approach to a great visual design education.

A philosopher once said that one could either be a strainer, a sieve, or a sponge. The sponge absorbs all that person is exposed to. The strainer retains the lees, the dregs. But the sieve retains the gold.

I wanna be a sieve, I wanna be a sieve! And I want you all to be sieves, too.

Years ago, the goal of many interior design projects was to purchase magnificent pieces of art or furniture that were so incredible, one’s heirs fought over them for generations. The Frick collection is an excellent example of a wealthy art patron's blindingly amazing interior. Some of the Paris salons at the beginning of the 20th century were parallel achievements.

With tremendous changes in technology, politics, and even climate, we’ve come to terms with adapting to change much more frequently than anyone from our parent’s generation. Change acceleration has also hit the design world. In the last dozen years or so, we’ve seen collective style tastes range from traditional to 1940s to 1950s to 1970s to contemporary to Baroque, and so on.

Decorating is fast becoming an aerobic exercise.

Learning to Look will help you develop your sense of style and good taste while style trends are changing so rapidly.

• Experiencing great interiors first hand is the best way to visually educate yourself on the fundamentals of great design.
• The Internet is a lesser experience, but it's a good substitute if beautiful homes and interiors are not accessible. Look up great designers, great architecture, and great interiors.
• My recommendation for the next-best-thing to real interiors is the wonderful world of high-end shelter magazines, also known as "decorator porn." Magazines like World of Interiors, Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, and the English edition of House & Garden are the loves of my life. Look through them, look for what thrills you, and sieve away the rest.
• Interior design books, like those published by Taschen and Rizzoli are also Learn-to-Look favorites.

Constant looking and evaluating is what design education should entail. It is an enjoyable and sometimes humbling lifetime pursuit. I hope you enjoy every beautiful step in the path.

Share your favorite inspirational buildings or interiors with me. Thank you for your comments . . . .

Photo credits: In Vivo,  CISA A.Palladio