If you have any doubt about homeowners' interest in the appearance of their homes, let go of that doubt and trust me when I tell you they're interested. About 100 people braved single-digit temperatures to cram themselves into a paint store in Barrington, Ill., on a Wednesday night, just to hear color expert Dee Schlotter, color marketing manager for Pittsburgh Paints, talk for 30 minutes about the hot colors for 2009. Among the handful of color combinations and other trends she discussed, Schlotter highlighted The Colors of Fallingwater, a line of paint colors inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's classic Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. Although the color scheme is not new, Schlotter called attention to the way Wright drew...

From Rob H - I was at the International Builders Show last week, and feel good about what I saw. I visited almost 30 manufacturer booths in just over two days, and it was clear that manufacturers are not sitting back waiting for things to get better. They're not crying about the state of the housing industry, they're working hard to provide builders, architects and ultimately homeowners with innovative products for their homes. Each manufacturer I saw continues to launch new products and go after new markets. When the market finally turns around, builders and architects will have plenty of great new products available to help you differentiate and thrive. Latch on to their energy and aggressiveness and apply it to your business today...

RD&B magazine sent a survey to readers in November 2008 to get insight into the industry. The results were interesting - some surprising and some expected. One statistic that wasn't necessarily surprising was that 72% of respondents said their green practices will increase in 2009. And with that, only 1.5% of respondents said they don't use green practices at all. Codes and laws regulating green/energy-efficiency seem to becoming the standard. EPA now has its WaterSense program to regulate water-saving products; LEED helps builders certify their projects as green; and more associations are providing resources on green topics. But at some point does green building simply mean good building? I met an architect on my flight home from...

The Dow was down again yesterday which seems to be a weekly occurrence. But despite the issues on Wall Street, the American Institute of Architects released its compensation survey at the beginning of November with promising results. According to the release, "... a nearly six percent annual increase in average compensation for architecture positions between 2005 and 2008, the strongest period of growth since AIA began collecting compensation information in 1990." This sounds like positive news! Especially with all the negative news we hear about the housing market. Click here to view the complete report. So, are the survey results realistic with what residential architects and designers are experiencing in the custom home...