OK, so maybe with the stock market in the toilet and your 401k plan not looking so hot as of late, it might not be the best time to take on challenging remodeling projects for your home. But even as you tighten your wallet, sometimes you just gotta get your decorating fix on. And the best fix is something that actually fixes something, like a sky-high heating bill.

If you're looking to help make your home more energy-efficient and cut down on that dreaded heating bill, you should think about swapping out your current window treatment for cellular shades, which insulate against heat loss at the window. Cellular shades are an easy way to update the look of a room while earning a payback in reduced energy costs all year long as they also help to keep rooms cooler from the incoming summer sun.

Cellular shades were introduced more than 25 years ago, but with mounting concerns of rising energy prices, more and more homeowners have gotten hip to these shades. The vast collection of choices has also helped to boost their popularity. Cellular shades are offered in myriad colors and even patterns. Blinds To Go, which has 107 stores and an online store at Blindstogo.com has a new collection that is directly color matched to the best-selling Benjamin Moore paint trim colors to make decorating really easy.

While the current economy might be keeping you from knocking down those walls and building the master bathroom you've always wanted, small upgrades around the home might just be the remedy to help sooth that decorating itch.

Want to learn more about creating an energy-efficient home? Check out HomeFinder.com's Green Home Guide.

If you have your house on the market during the holidays, staging with holiday décor is a wonderful way to showcase the positive features of your home. In order to do so effectively, it is important to recognize the fine line between decorating your home for the holidays and staging your home for the holidays. The goal when staging is to use the decorations to enhance your selling potential. If done right, you could be popping open a bottle of champagne earlier than expected this year.

Simple, neutral and natural
The most important rule to remember is to keep decorations simple. Potential buyers need to be able to envision themselves in this house, to see their lives in this home. Thus, the fewer personal effects you display the better. Instead of displaying those holiday cards from family and friends this year, they would be best kept in a decorative basket that can be swiftly stored for showings. In addition, while we all love showing off our family's holiday art, you should forego displaying it on the fridge while you're still showing your home.

Keeping decorations simple also means they should be used sparingly. The key to staging is to never clutter the space, but since holiday staging involves added décor this can be a difficult challenge. If you are not sure how much is too much, I suggest you use three pieces or less. This will ensure a clutter-free holiday look and feel throughout the home.

It is also important when staging for the holidays to try to keep the décor as nonreligious as possible. One tasteful Christmas tree or menorah is perfectly acceptable, but be advised that these are the only exceptions. Pictures of Santa, nativity scenes and other iconic holiday imagery should be held to a minimum or better yet, kept in storage for next year.

Light on decorations
Instead of these personal holiday decorations, use traditional, natural decorations such as poinsettias, wreaths, and garland. Add a potted poinsettia or two to add color and life to the family room, but get rid of it as soon as it starts to die! Hang a wreath on the front door to accentuate the curb appeal. Use garland on the threshold or mantel to draw attention to these beautiful selling features. And if you do decide to add any of these holiday decorations, be mindful not to create any permanent damage — garland, lights, and wreaths should be mounted with noninvasive adhesives.

If you have your house on the market, enjoy and celebrate this holiday season while strategically accentuating the positive features of the house. Remember to keep decorations simple, neutral, and natural. Happy holidays and best wishes for successful staging!

For more interior design and home décor tips, contact Kelly Stevenson at kellystevensonid@gmail.com.

I'm a bit of a shopaholic, but a reasonable shopaholic. I have my price limits, and I have my niche of things I enjoy buying. So whenever I come across some fun accessories, I like to share my findings with my readers. But I can't take credit for this week's fabulous find. Mark Tepper, HomeFinder.com's vice president of business development, and Frank Breithaupt, vice president of marketing, both sent me some links to some eco-friendly furnishings that are must-haves for your home this fall.

Greenington

Bamboo is not just for pandas. Check out Greenington's large collection of bamboo-manufactured furniture. Since bamboo material is very different than wood, special attention and care must be given to the manufacturing of these products. Greenington's factories are one of the leading bamboo product manufacturers in China.

Greenington furniture uses only the maturated Moso bamboo that is at least 5 years old — bamboo uprooted before four years can be too soft and is more likely to dent. From processing the bamboo raw material into the solid stock and panel, they build the final product in one of their three factories under tight quality control. In meeting consumer's needs for a wider selection of color pallets, Greenington now offers its uniquely stained bamboo furniture line with charcoal and espresso colors. Greenington also provides the special order program that allows the customers to design their own product.

Bamboo can be harvested in four to six years, making it an extremely renewable resource. By comparison, hardwood products are made from trees that are hundreds of years old. The increasing demand for wood materials has contributed to massive deforestation around the world. Older trees like the oak can take up to 25 years before it matures and is ready for harvest again. Greenington's classic bamboo is 20 percent harder than oak and exotic bamboo is 100 percent harder than red oak, according to Greenington. The company will also soon offer their collection through Chicago-based Pearlfurniture.com.

View Greenington's furniture collection.

Eco-chic
With its mantra, 'Designing to Inspire Change,' Environmental Language (el), an award-winning furniture and kitchen design firm, believes that good design in its essence should be sustainable. Founded in 2001 by Jill Salisbury, the company launched its premiere collection in 2003, making it among the first in the U.S. to design high-end, residential furniture and kitchen cabinetry while meeting with the most stringent environmental and performance standards available.

El meets LEED requirements in their products and provides carbon emissions offsetting in the transportation of its furnishings from manufacturing to the end user. These eco-friendly products deliver heirloom quality craftsmanship with forms that celebrate the design as well as the materials. Upholstered pieces use natural latex, organic wool batting and wool barrier cloth, along with other natural materials. Woods are reclaimed or sustainably harvested, structural elements are made from FSC-certified core material. El also uses stainless steel, which can be recycled and reused. The finishes are naturally derived and are non-toxic.

The company's goal is to generate greater awareness of environmental concerns and to inform of the benefits of sustainable living.

View el's furniture collection.

Want to find out more ways you can go green at home? Check out Homecape's new Green Buying Guide for energy-efficient tips and green remodeling advice.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@HomeFinder.com.

We all know that the real estate market is in a major slump. Nothing seems to make that grim point more real than when one takes a short drive through any neighborhood. For it is there we see, dotting the front yards of so many homes, a multitude of For Sale signs. But while looking at a sign in a front yard makes a tangible point of reference for what is happening with the sales of single-family homes, what's happening in the condo market is sometimes harder to see.

Because often there is no sign, it is easy to overlook the fact that there are many, many condominiums for sale, too. In some ways, selling a condo is harder then selling a single-family home. First, it is not uncommon, especially in larger developments, for one condo in a building to be selling against another condo configured with the exact same floor plan, features and finishes. And, except for slight differences in the exterior facades, it is also not unusual to find one building full of condos to be pretty much the same as another building full of condos in the same neighborhood.

Cookie-cutter condos
Sellers need to understand that with so many condos to choose from, they all start looking the same to the buyer. In the buyer's eye, without much distinguishing one from another, they become just another Vanilla Box.

While there are many configurations of the Vanilla Box, the typical Vanilla Box of today has the door in the rear, sliding patio doors to a balcony in the front, and a kitchen in the middle with stainless steel appliances, granite countertops and an island that separates the kitchen space from the open dining/living room area. All are pretty much the same — floor to floor, building to building, neighborhood to neighborhood.

With so many condos being relatively the same, the chance for a sale is quite competitive. Plus, if you are a home seller that is currently living in a Vanilla Box, in a neighborhood that offers similarly priced NEWLY constructed Vanilla Boxes, keep in mind that a shiny new Box is much more appealing to a buyer, than a scuffed, scratched, and worn used Box.

Stagers to the rescue
Good news is that the hope for selling your Vanilla Box is not a lost cause, whether it's the independent owner trying to sell their unit or a builder trying to sell one or more units. Both, for different reasons, can benefit from hiring an EXPERIENCED home stager.

Stagers will help an individual seller trying to sell their unit in a number of ways. First, they will point out the problem areas that make a used home look used, and then offer low cost ideas and solutions that will make the condo feel new. Next, while it is a fact that a furnished property is easier to sell than a vacant one, sellers need to understand that due to size constraints of the home (typically condos are more compact), furnishings in the condo need to be set in a way that actually help the condo show and flow for touring. A stager can help here, too. Good staging is a balance between adding the right amount of visual appeal, without having the interior decor distract the buyer's eye from the property.

For the builder, a stager can also be of great service. Who hasn't been a bit surprised to experience a builder's empty vanilla white unit after touring their lush and lovely model? For this reason, large builders have for years had model properties for buyers to see first. Today, the opportunity and benefit of having a model unit need not be a selling advantage reserved only for the larger builder. Smaller builders can hire a stager who can provide low-cost, yet beautifully designed staged-model solutions. PLUS, if the builder is selling multiple units in one building and the staged unit is sold, the staged model can be moved from one unit and reset in the next. The added flexibility of a 'rolling' model offers yet more flavor and appeal to the Vanilla Box.

So yes, without a doubt this is a tough market, especially for condo owners. But properties are selling. Fortunately, builders and owners of Vanilla Boxes can change the flavor of their offering from FOR SALE to SOLD!… with the help of a Home Stager.

Flavor It Forward... Craig Schiller, founder of Real Estaging

Do you live in an eco-friendly designed home and want to give props to the designer behind your masterpiece? The National Kitchen & Bath Association will be recognizing innovative approaches to water and energy savings in the bath with a new Best Sustainable Bath Award category in the 2009 NKBA competition.

Formerly named the Smartest Hot Water Award for its 2008 competition debut, organizers have decided to go beyond hot water delivery to recognize the expanding array of sustainable solutions being applied in today's new and remodeled bathrooms. Designers entering any of the competition's bathroom design categories will be invited to submit additional information demonstrating how they maximized both comfort and resource efficiency.

The winner
The winner of the Best Sustainable Bath Award will receive a $5,000 prize and be recognized at the NKBA Design Competition Awards Ceremony during the 2009 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show (K/BIS) in Atlanta, which will be held from April 30 to May 3, 2009 at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Last year's winner in the Smartest Hot Water Award was designer Marcio Decker of Home Concepts in Truckee, CA. Decker used a natural gas, high-efficiency storage water heater with a direct vent system for his master bathroom design in a new Squaw Valley vacation home. His design solution met the client's request for a spa experience in their master bath that combined a unique, stylized design with a highly efficient hot water supply, offering low operating costs and minimal impact on the environment.

NKBA is among the many industry associations leading the charge in recognizing the growing need for more eco-friendly designs, procedures and products in our home.

An industry institution
The 2008 competition received a record number of entries — nearly 600 projects from across the United States and Canada. A panel of NKBA-certified designers evaluates each project using five key criteria: visual appeal, creativity, elements and principles of design, presentation, safety and ergonomics.

The Best Sustainable Bath Award expands upon these with recognition for elements that appeal to consumer interest in green design and living, as well as an appreciation of the hot water products that make a sustainable bathroom possible. The 2009 Call for Entries will be announced by the NKBA later this summer. For more information, visit NKBA.org.

Got hot local housing tips or a story you want to share? Contact Amy Le at openingdoorsblog@HomeFinder.com.