Choosing New Designs For Your Bathroom

Thirty percent of the 121 million Americans who completed a home improvement project this year worked on new designs for their bathrooms. The average bathroom is 50-square-feet, which is not a whole lot of space to cram in whirlpool tubs, double sinks and separate shower stalls.

Even so, bathroom design knows no bounds and people are breaking down walls, moving toilets and building extensions to house their own personal spas. After a long day at work, nothing compares to a trip to the home spa.

New designs for bathrooms can quickly be created by simply slapping on a fresh coat of water-resistant paint and new tiles. In bathroom design, tile styles are abundant. Do you want subway, stone, pebble, crystal, mosaic or lighted tile anyway?

Mosaic tiles are some of the more popular home designs, made from shards of colorful porcelain or glass arranged in square, rectangle, circular or hexagonal patterns. Check out Erin Adams' Quilt tiles that come in pretty patterns, Oceanside Glass Tile's Tessera tiles, which come in 42 eco-friendly colors, or Sicis Metallismo stainless steel or polished brass tiles.

While choosing new designs for their bathrooms, a number of Americans are deciding to "go green" while they are at it. Here are some interior design tips for achieving your own environmentally-sound bathroom. First, go organic with your bath linens and shower curtains. This one is a no brainer and does not cost much to do. Organic cotton requires less pesticides and is usually softer than regular materials.

Vinyl or plastic shower curtains can be extremely toxic, cautions Annie B. Bond, author of Home Enlightenment. Instead, choose a heavy cotton duck curtain, she adds. You can find a number of eco-friendly bath products at www.gaiam.com. Then, choose natural bath products made without chemicals, like those at Aveda, to create a chemical-free zone. There are also green cleaning products, like the "Greenworks Cleaner" or "TerraCycle Cleaner."

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Design News Inform Consumers Of Trends

Design news is intriguing to consumers, as well as the professional interior designer. Reinventing ourselves and refreshing our spaces is a bold strategy but never fails to start anew.

In this year's news, green buildings will proliferate, celebrity designers will gain a bigger spotlight, consumers will be printing their own patterns and music decorators may even become a new sub-section of interior design services. Newspapers and niche magazines are generally good places to find up-to-date design trends and news.

While it may sound incredulous, the latest interior design news is that music has been added to the interior design services repertoire. Music/architecture specialists from New York and London to Aspen and Belize are creating customized play lists that are synchronized with their clients' decor.

"Hearing the wrong music in the wrong space can be very disorienting," explains DJ Coleman Feltes, who has created mixes for Versace, Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana fashion shows. Stylists charge between $50 and $250 an hour, he says, which is downloaded onto iPods or sent as CDs by mail. For the discerning, high-end clients, atmosphere is everything and the perfect music fits into that paradigm.

Also in design news, many home owners are looking for innovative designs and ways to update their older, more traditional styled homes. Jackie Terrell, a professional interior designer from West Hollywood, says that older homes are built for "the way we used to live." To make her client's homes appear less stuffy and formal, she adds "casual" their homes, without detracting from the historic beauty.

She transformed a dining room into an art project room with a heavy desk and Tolomeo lamps. In another client's kitchen, she added sociable features, like a bench, stool, warm hanging lamps, artwork and flowers. She uses neutral or white tones for open family spaces but splashes powder rooms and bedrooms with color, using consistent window decor to unify the home.

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Making Choices From The Better Interior Design Schools

When choosing from prospective interior design schools, be sure to see that they are accredited by the Council for Interior Design Accreditation. Once you have your bachelor's degree for interior design, you will need to acquire several years of apprenticeship/work experience before you are eligible to take the National Council for Interior Design Qualification exam.

It is possible to become an interior designer without attending an interior design school, but you will need to have 7,040 hours of applicable work experience prior to taking your certification exam. Likewise, those who have an associate's degree need 5,280 hours of work experience and those with a bachelor's degree require 3,520 hours.

One of the best interior design schools is the Pratt Institute in New York City. This interior design school focuses on academic art theory, artistic design and placement coursework (during the senior year). According to their website, "It is widely acknowledged that interior design education, as it is taught across the United States, began at Pratt.

That so many of our alumni are found in the Who's Who of Interior Designers is no surprise. The Interior Design program is consistently ranked among the top in the country in an annual independent professional survey." Courses range from designs color and lighting, to architectural drawing and building, to office management and portfolio development. Pratt focuses on preparing students for a competitive job market.

The New York School of Interior Design is another one of the interior design schools to consider. Even though this is a "young" interior design school (started in 1916), the coursework is more versatile than other schools. There are two undergraduate degree programs.

For instance, the 132-credit bachelor of fine arts in interior design and the pre-professional 66-credit associate in applied science in interior design. Additionally, a 24-credit non-degree program is offered ("Basic Interior Design") to help an aspiring professional develop a portfolio to seek further study or entry-level work.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is a 60-credit Master of Fine Arts program focusing on advanced history, theory and methods research.

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