Home-improvement shows influence Valley homeowners

From the Daily Hampshire Gazette Home Magazine - March 2005

From "Changing Rooms" to "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" to "Knock First," designing shows are red hot. HGTV - Home & Garden Television - alone has more than 20 of them. Everyone loves a good makeover, and Valley residents are no less addicted to these shows than the rest of the country. Many are using them as inspiration for their own home renovations.

This is good news for area furnishings stores and interior designers. Designer Keith Woodruff, who owns the store KW Home in Easthampton, says, "What [design shows] have done for the industry is to make the world of design available to everyone. It's not just Architectural Digest [magazine] that you look to for ideas anymore."

Woodruff takes the latest furnishings trends and brings them into both his store and his design work. "There is absolutely a market for that in this area," he says. "There is a more educated and interested population here. They want style brought into their homes."

Jill and Carl Rohrberg moved to the Valley from Boston several years ago and are renting in Northampton while building a home in Haydenville. Woodruff is helping them choose colors and furnishings for their soon-to-be-completed dwelling.

"I'm an HGTV junkie," Jill says. "I love 'Designing for the Sexes' and 'Designers' Challenge.' " Watching the shows sparks her desire for certain looks, but using an interior designer is very helpful, she says. "I don't have to worry about anything. I feel I have help. Keith really sat down with me and talked about color and what I wanted. I had all these ideas and he said yes, but then steered me toward other things. The colors he picked I never would have chosen for myself, but he has access to resources and ideas that I wouldn't have."

Woodruff and Rohrberg chose furniture from manufacturers Chicago Textile and Robin Bruce, the latter a line that Woodruff characterizes as "competitive with Crate and Barrel and Pottery Barn, but better quality."

"We're using a chocolate-brown couch that I never would have gone for," Rohrberg says, "but I love it now. The rest of the room will have blue and green accents. I would have made every room a different color but Keith said, 'You might want to stick with similar colors for these three rooms.' "

The master bedroom will be painted a Benjamin Moore color called salmon berry. "I keep trying to tell my husband that it's not pink, but it really is," Rohrberg laughs. "It's a deep pink, but it's not dark and we've chosen furnishings to go with it. The headboard, ottoman and bed skirt are gray with plum and the duvet cover is a deeper plum and salmon color. They are a bit more masculine.

"We're building an ordinary house - it's nothing extravagant, but I feel with Keith's help it's going to be extraordinary," Rohrberg says.

Susan Netto of Country Fine Design in Williamsburg says that as they have over the past five or 10 years, Americans are continuing to "cocoon." "People want comfort and quiet," she says. "They want to come home from a hard day at work and know that their home is a haven for comfort and serenity."

Another trend is "vivid color," Netto says. "I recently returned from shows in Atlanta and Philadelphia and people are looking at color. It used to be you'd paint [the walls] white or cream and design around them. Now people want to have color on their walls, so the question becomes, 'What can I put on my walls and how can that coordinate with my environment?' "

Bold colors were exactly what state Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, wanted on the walls of his Amherst condominium, but he found himself dissuaded by Keith Woodruff. "I have a tendency to go overboard with color," Rosenberg says, "and Keith said it would be too confusing, that my space was too small. He wanted the walls to be white, but eventually [we compromised] by using light colors."

For years Rosenberg lived with roommates, but "finally reached a place where I wasn't going to have them anymore," he says. That was when he decided to redecorate. "I was reluctant at first [to use a designer]. My reaction was, 'Only rich people do that.' I felt that A) I couldn't afford it, and B) I was biased against it. But talking to some friends convinced me that it wasn't only for rich people. I think I actually saved some money along the way because it kept me from making mistakes and buying things I didn't like and would have had to replace."

Rosenberg was never one to keep on top of design trends, but for about a year before he redecorated he "watched HGTV-type shows like 'Trading Spaces' for ideas, which is one reason I ended up getting help," he says. "I liked too many things. I needed someone to save me from myself," he laughs.

In addition to wall colors, Woodruff helped Rosenberg choose furnishings - "a big overstuffed couch with a conservative pinstripe pattern, an oatmeal patterned rug, a new bed. He advised me on the duvet, the sheets. It's one of those things where the sheets are partially exposed," Rosenberg explains.

Rosenberg has some "very colorful art" he's collected that complements his new furnishings. "[Illustrator and author] Eric Carle sent holiday cards over the years," he explains. "The dominant color is green. I framed them. They're really beautiful and they work with the couch. I also have a big wall hanging I bought in Egypt. It's a country scene by a river with camels and palm trees. It has a lot of vibrant colors."

Woodruff also helped with the lighting - floor, table and sconces. "People who know me and who have been in the house can tell right away I used a designer," Rosenberg says. "They say, 'You didn't do this, did you?' " he laughs.

"I work closely with the client to bring their style in," Woodruff says. "There's a whole contemporary design aesthetic going on in the world that's not being seen around here. I'm trying to bring it here. We still see a lot of the New England colonial style, but we're integrating [the contemporary] into it. The new trend is a little more metropolitan. There's an influx of people moving here from the city and they want a more current feel [in their houses]."

For people who can't afford a designer for their entire house (Netto charges a sliding-scale fee of $45 to $65 per hour; Woodruff's rate is $100 an hour), both Netto and Woodruff say there are still ways to get help. "I have people who come into the store and just want help with color," Woodruff says. "I'll help with color and they'll choose the interior decor on their own."

"Overall I think people are willing to pay for insight and direction, if they know they'll get a creative result," Netto says. "Sometimes even having just one room redone will brighten a house."

However inspiring televised design shows may be, there is a caveat, Woodruff says. The shows are "helping the consumer to be more interested in the field of design in the home," he says, "but they're not helping the consumer understand the length of time it takes to get a job done. It's a process. Those shows have millions of dollars behind them and they're hiring hundreds of people. It takes a lot longer than what you see on TV."

While you may not be able to completely overhaul your living space in the course of a weekend, there are endless possibilities for redesigning if you've got time, desire and a little bit of help.

The author, Laura Sylvester is a freelance writer based in Shutesbury. She can be reached at newsroom@gazettenet.com. This article is reprinted here with the permission of the Daily Hampshire Gazette.