Awards & Events: Webinars

Design for Small Spaces

Today’s homes come in all sizes, and depending on your geographic location, your clients may be working with less square footage than most. Empty nesters may be wanting to downsize after their children have flown the coop, and others looking to age in place desire less space that is more accessible. Depending on your level of experience working in these smaller spaces, there may be challenges you need to learn to overcome, and there is always “room” to learn more.

Key Takeaways
– Learn how to achieve all your clients’ goals in less square footage.
– Create a checklist to find out what they truly need and eliminate what they don’t.
– Find out how to make spaces look and feel larger through innovative ideas.

Embracing & Selling Sustainability, Wed. Nov. 17, 4 pm ET

Countertop Connection: Marrying Your Client to the Right Choice

Countertops might be the hardest-working element in a kitchen or bath. Their most important goal is to serve as a work surface in these high-traffic rooms, but aesthetics also play a large part since countertops are one of the first things one sees upon entering. As a design professional, your clients rely on you for guidance, and that includes choosing the right material for the way they use their space.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• How to identify the right choice for your client
• The importance of educating them based on certain criteria
• Updates on not-so-common materials

Simplify Your Product Offering: Take the Burden Out of Business

Remember the old adage: Sometimes less is more? Well, that especially applies to efficiently running your business, including the product selection process you offer your clients. You won’t miss an opportunity by not showing them every available product you have to offer in your showroom, and you may just be creating confusion if you do. Clients hire designers and visit showrooms to get help with the decision-making process – not to feel overwhelmed by the amount of selection.

In this webinar, you will learn to:

• Identify your clients’ needs, and eliminate layers of confusion by choosing products that would be most beneficial to them
• Make the sale yourself without causing customers to feel anxious and turn to buying online
• Create a simplified shopping environment without having every offering on display
• Streamline your offering so that your selling process and business operate more efficiently

Creating a Cohesive Home Design

You’ve no doubt been in this situation as a design professional. Your client wants to update an outdated kitchen or bathroom that has not seen a redesign in more than a decade. The renovation needs to include improved appliances, plumbing fixtures, cabinets – everything – but it can’t look so different that it fights with the design of the rest of the home. The clients want the new space to reflect a more modern look, but how can that complement the more traditional aspects of the overall house? Or they may want a more traditional look in a home that features more contemporary touches. Kitchen and bath sister spaces, including mudrooms, laundry areas and outdoor kitchens, also play a role in this conversation. We will discuss how to create a cohesive look and feel throughout the whole home through the use of such things as overall color palettes down to more specific design elements.

Sustainable Design: Reducing a Home's Carbon Footprint

Being environmentally conscious is a huge goal for today’s younger generations, but it is important to be top of mind for everyone. Helping sustain our planet can start with one’s own home, and there are several ways to achieve it. This webinar will discuss how you can do this with the kitchen and bath products you choose for your clients. These will include some obvious choices you may not be making because of budget worries, as well as some items you may have not known were available. It will also discuss the importance of choosing brands for their sustainable practices, as the process has to start there.

Connecting with the Smart Home

As consumers are becoming more tech savvy, they are wanting to take advantage of the benefits of connectivity in their homes. This can be everything from whole-home solutions for security, sound and safety, as well as items specific to kitchens and baths like a refrigerator that tells you when you run out of milk or a shower that can warm up via an app on your smartphone. This webinar will identify these solutions so you are armed with the knowledge to potentially add on to your kitchen and bath projects. We will also talk about the difference between a home that is Wi-Fi-enabled versus wired and will help you locate professionals in the smart home industry who can help you and your client achieve successful connectivity.

COVID-19's Impetus on Interior Design

In facing today’s unprecedented challenges, homeowners have had to put a hold on kitchen- and bath-related projects for the time being. As our industry is slowly opening and more able to provide the resources for those projects to take place, homeowners are no doubt wanting to ramp back up. Design needs may change moving forward in light of the pandemic and with so many people staying put at home. Will clients ask for harder-working appliances, increased food storage and even a bidet in at least one bathroom? In the same vein, they may also realize that with all the working from home and spending a lot of time together in the same house, they could benefit from an improved home office or less of an open space between the kitchen and living areas. Spaces that include health and wellness aspects are also sure to grow in popularity. It is our job as design professionals to help guide our clients in incorporating the design elements they need during these trying times and larger projects they can consider in the future while coming out of this crisis and returning to business as usual.

Design for Wellness & Supporting a Healthy Lifestyle

Homeowners of all generations are paying even more attention to the health of their homes and everyone living in them – especially during this global pandemic in which we are ensconced. This includes but also goes beyond using low-VOC materials, paying attention to ventilation and incorporating natural light. In light of the onslaught of COVID-19, homeowners are paying closer attention to more hygienic products that can instill a sense of control in our current state of chaos.

In this webinar, you will also learn what other aspects make up wellness design and how to help your clients choose products that will support their healthy lifestyles that are becoming ever so important. There will also be a focus on what goes on behind the walls to ensure today’s homes are as safe as they can be, as well as how technology can help augment this ever-growing need.