IMRE Home IQ

Touch Grows at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show

Home Experts Team — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:28:06 +0000

The days of cranking, pulling, turning, pressing, twisting, pushing and sliding are disappearing. It’s becoming all about touch.

Product designers and manufacturers are utilizing the latest technology in touch activation to make products easier to use, more visually appealing, and, let’s facer, just plain cooler. This trend was on display at the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Chicago in April.

You can trace the touch-activation trend as far back as the “touch lamps” of the 1980s & 90s, which used capacitance (the ability of a body to store an electrical charge) to allow users to turn the lights on and off simply by touching it. Later, Apple employed the same technology in the iPod, and still uses it today in the iPhone and iPad.

Touch technology made its way into the kitchen & bath with the introduction of Touch 2O technology by Delta Faucet Company just a few years ago. This year, the company unveiled the latest addition to the touch-faucet family – the Jason Wu for Brizo Collection. The faucet is seen in action here:

While faucets were among the first in the category to use touch, other product manufacturers are incorporating it into their products now, too. Dacor introduced a new microwave drawer at KBIS, which seamlessly incorporates this ubiquitous appliance into the base cabinets and off the countertop. And it opens and closes with a simple touch.

Window blinds have been notoriously difficult to operate in the past, requiring pulling and twisting, all while leaning over furniture. While remote-control blinds have been around for a while, Lutron has made them more affordable with the introduction of its Serena remote-control shades. And since Lutron is a pioneer in making the light switch easier to use, you know that the Serena remote is ergonomically friendly.

With these products and more, it seems that touch technology is here to stay. Not only does it streamline the operation of a home’s systems, it also adheres to sound universal design principles – making products more accessible to users of all ages and abilities.

As manufacturers embrace touch technology, you will see it used in more product categories – plumbing, lighting, locks, and more.

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Wordless Wednesday: Home Away from Home

Home Experts Team — Wed, 16 May 2012 14:12:51 +0000

Images Provided By:

Eclecticinterior

Veloisto

Holly Shores

Pinterest Picks: Upcycling

Danielle Hogan — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:48:10 +0000

What’s old is new in this week’s Pinterest Picks featuring the best in Upcycled goods. New to upcycling? IMRE Green IQ expert, Danielle Hogan, is here to inspire you. Upcycling is the process of converting salvaged, second hand or waste materials into new materials of better quality – visually and environmentally. Take a look at Danielle’s picks, and find more ways to create beautiful things with items you may already have in the home at the IMRE Home IQ Pinterest page.

Leave The Light On For Renewable Energy Technology

Kristi Rains — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:21:32 +0000

Think back to a few years ago, when renewable energy technology in the form of solar, geothermal, wave and wind power seemed to be the winning answer to the world’s growing energy crisis. Since then, the movement for renewable energy in the United States has hit a number of roadblocks, including cuts in government subsidies, political turmoil and international competition. By and large, these emerging technologies still haven’t caught on with most American consumers.

However, efforts to expand the reach of renewable energy by researchers, corporations and government partners continue, with significant success. Just last week, the country’s first commercial solar plant built on federal public land was activated near Las Vegas, and now generates enough power for nearly 10,000 Nevada homes. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s government considered legislation to expand geothermal energy production in an effort to increase energy independence for the isolated state, where household power bills are about three times the national average.

Across the globe, what else is happening in the world of renewable energy? See below for a few highlights:

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association announced that in 2011, solar power became the most installed energy source in Europe.

Iceland, the world’s leader in geothermal energy, is looking to expand its geothermal production by building the world’s biggest underground electricity cable, which would power 1.25 million homes.

Australia’s government announced $10 million in funding for the world’s first grid-connected wave energy project in the Southern Hemisphere, which will begin delivering power by the end of 2013.

Domestically, New York’s Department of State and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are one step closer to offshore wind energy projects after mapping wind farms against existing bird and fish habitats.

To find out how to bring renewable energy technology into your home, visit the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Savers website. The site also has ideas for making your own clean electricity with small solar, wind or hybrid electricity systems.

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2012 Kitchen and Bath Industry Top Trends

Home Experts Team — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:20:55 +0000

Less than a week after the Kitchen and Bath Industry Show we decided to talk with a few kitchen and bath industry experts about what trends they’re seeing in the K&B retail space. To get started, we spoke to Lisa Davis, a showroom manager at Ferguson. Ferguson has more than 300 showrooms nationwide, featuring the widest selection of top quality bath and kitchen products. Here’s a look at what Lisa shared:

Q: What trends are you seeing in kitchens?

A: We’re seeing more motion controlled lighting, LED lights, and touch faucets like those from Delta. More people are looking for eco-friendly upgrades too, and they’re willing to pay up for them.

Q. What’s new in kitchen designs?

A. People are looking for straight lines and simple designs. They want professional grade products. Undermount sinks and stainless steel continue to lead sales.

Q. How about countertops. Is granite still the favorite among customers?

A. Yes, granite is still hot with customers. I really like Cambria though too – it’s another stone countertop product. They’ve introduced some new colors that I think are great. It’s easier to care for than granite and you don’t have to seal it.

Q. What’s new with bathrooms?

A. Kohler just launched a new showpiece toilet called the Numi. In addition to its unique, sleek look, it has a motion-activated lid and seat, advanced bidet functionality, a heated seat and feet warmer, illuminated panels, music options and even a touch screen remote. Air tubs like those from Whirlpool are also hot right now. Air tubs offer overall body massage therapy and work better with oils and salts for long soaks.

Q. What do people like in bathroom flooring?

A. While it’s not my specialty, I’m seeing a lot of cool things with tile flooring in the bathroom. I recently saw a great faux wood tile that made the bathroom pop.

Q. Shower or bath tubs – what’s more popular these days?

A. Definitely showers. People still are looking for spa-like experiences in the bathroom. They want rain heads, music features and more in their showers.

To learn more about bathroom and kitchen industry trends and designs, check out these websites: Ferguson or KBIS

Wordless Wednesday: High Contrast

Home Experts Team — Wed, 02 May 2012 15:27:33 +0000

Stimulate your senses with high contrast decor

Images provided by Bright Bazaar (Pinterest)

Pinterest Picks: Keep Calm and Carry On

Caitlin Haskins — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:59:01 +0000

Keep Calm and Carry On. You’ve seen the signs – maybe you love them, maybe you’re empowered by its morale boosting message or maybe you’re just plain tired of the trend and think enough’s enough. Regardless of your stance on this now iconic slogan (and its countless spoofs), we can’t deny its staying power and recent presence in homes, offices and retail. Check out a few of our favorite off-the-wall examples in this week’s Pinterest Picks. Looking for more in calming décor? Turn to our IMRE Home IQ Pinterest page for inspiration.

High Point Market: Harnessing the Power of Pinterest for Your Brand

Home Experts Team — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:20:43 +0000

Standing room only at the “Competitive Intelligence: The Power of Pinterest” event Monday night at High Point Market, proved that for brands, big and small, Pinterest is a platform with potential. Crystalyn Stuart, president of 5Loom powered by IMRE, provided insight on how best to turn that potential into power for your brand. Additionally, our four panelists provided diverse insight and best practices from the publishing, retail, brand and design industries.

7 Tips for Harnessing the Power of Pinterest for Your Brand

One of our pins from High Point Market

1. Understand and optimize for social discovery. Social discovery is adding a new layer of opportunity for brands to reach consumers in the discovery mode—before they’ve refined their want and conducted a keyword search for the item. This change in how users are acquiring knowledge is shifting the consumer-purchasing funnel. Social discovery allows users to discover products and quickly move to purchase with a simple click-through.

2. Identify industry influence. Sixty-five percent of top brands across the home category including furnishings and housewares are active on Pinterest. Look at how others in your industry are using the platform as well as how you can utilize the platform for your brand.

3. Create a balance of content. It is important to strike a balance with content that shows a brand’s personality while still promoting your business to customers. Boards can be organized in a myriad of ways depending on who is contributing, the seasonality of your boards, and what you personally consider to be important. Remember, however, that many followers don’t ever make it to your boards. Each pin is more likely to be viewed as a part rather than a whole of a themed board.

“At Furbish our ultimate goal is to build a lifestyle brand and to create an experience that people want to be part of and a lifestyle that they want to live. Throughout pins of rooms or funny sayings or dogs I will pepper in a piece of jewelry or a new pillow that we have, to engage someone who didn’t realize that I was a retailer. I’ve found that if I’m true to what I really like and continue pinning interesting images then the followers will come.” – panelist Jamie Meares, Owner, Furbish Studio

4. Attract a different audience. Brands are able to reach new readers, customers and influencers through Pinterest. Those who engage with your brand online may be a very different audience than those that gain information via traditional media channels.

“ Our online audience is traditionally very different than our print audience. The best part is when someone looks at a pin, clicks through and lands on Country Living and they’re like ‘I would never guess that this beautiful living room came from Country Living magazine.’” – panelist Rachel DeSchepper, Web Editor, Country Living

“We saw registration [for High Point Market] start to rise especially among those people we were trying to hit with Pinterest which were interior designers and small hip retailers.” – panelist Cheminne Taylor-Smith, Vice President of Marketing, High Point Market Authority

5. Get to know your customers, and let them get to know you. Pinterest provides a way for both the brand and the customer to get to know each other. The platform provides a space to express your personality and preferences allowing for a more harmonious relationship to be developed.

“Most of my clients follow me on Pinterest. If all of my kitchens I have pinned they find completely atrocious they aren’t going to hire me which is good because we aren’t going to work well together. On the flip side of that I’m thrilled if my clients use Pinterest to collect their dream kitchens because it’s a much faster and easier way than them sending me 1,000 emails of things they are interested in. I have the opportunity to look through their pin boards to get a better sense of who they are.” – panelist Traci Zeller, Associate ASID, Traci Zeller Designs

6. Mitigate your liability on Pinterest. Pin carefully. If you post original images, include a watermark on your image to retain your copyrighted material. As a brand pinning images that aren’t yours, we recommend placing a disclaimer on your profile and boards to state your intentions clearly. For more about Pinterest liability best practices, click here.

7. Build a promotional engine. Pinning great content is fun, but now it is time to get serious on Pinterest and build your promotional engine—the driver that takes Pinterest from a simple pilot to a top contributor to your marketing mix. This is your strategic plan for driving awareness, quantifying and increasing user engagement and building loyalty among your followers. A few ways to build a promotional engine include:

Cross-promote across your branded channels – Link pins to your website and other social channels to activate the way users discover your online services.
Loyalty Offers –Pinners collaborate and share with others for a special offer to unlock.
Blogger partnerships – Leverage or build your relationships with bloggers by repining their content to a specific board on your platform, or allowing them to curate or contribute to a board.
Contests and Sweepstakes – These are great for building excitement and increasing fan volumes but be careful to not overuse contests and sweepstakes. If conducted too frequently, brands can suffer high attrition rates and lower quality fan base.

Wordless Wednesday: Rubik’s Ottoman

Home Experts Team — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:02:07 +0000

Having an accent piece like this patchwork cow hide ottoman from Nourison will create a new dimension to any room. It also brings back great memories of a classic childhood favorite – the Rubik's Cube.

The above image was taken at The High Point Market. Ottoman is made by Nourison

Pinterest Picks: April Showers

McGavock Edwards — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:43:27 +0000

As the old saying goes – April Showers bring May Flowers – a phrase that encourages us to look forward to the month of May with excitement and enthusiasm, leaving the dreary spring months behind us. But we at HomeIQ choose to celebrate April showers (and baths). In this week’s Pinterest Picks, HomeIQ expert McGavock Edwards shares some truly unique examples of excellence and innovation in shower and bath design. The biggest question of all is do you go for a shower or bath? Visit our IMRE Home IQ Pinterest page for inspiration.

Bringing the outdoors, in

Shower with a view

Rain shower bathtub

Sleek and masculine

Raindrops keep falling on my head

tête-à-tête– a shower built for two