Houzz visits Las Vegas Market #lvmkt – pictures and highlights

Las Vegas Market Winter 2012 was a terrific experience, enabling us to personally connect with Houzz community members as well as countless designers and showrooms who came out to meet us and learn more about Houzz. A sincere thank you to everyone at World Market Center who helped make our experience a success.

At the Houzz lounge – generously furnished by Phillips Collection and Global Views – we met with many designers in our community, and also had the opportunity to demonstrate the Houzz platform to many designers new to our site and app.  On Tuesday we hosted a savvy group of design bloggers including Adrienne Breaux & Abby Stone from 2Modern Blog and Apartment Therapy, Angela Elias of Casa Sugar, Ashlina Kaposta & Jami Goldsmith from The Decorista, Capree Kimball from Curbly.com, Jeanine Hays from Aphro Chic Shop, Jill Brandenberg from Design Lovers Blog, Ronique Gibson of Freshome, Susan Jensen Smith of Your Home, Only Better, Sandra Downie of The White Library, and Toni Roberts of Design Dazzle. It was a pleasure meeting them and hearing their enthusiasm for the greater design community.

Design bloggers speak with Houzz CEO and co-founder Adi Tatarko and VP Liza Hausman

Our lounge was located adjacent to many amazing showroom spaces and we took much inspiration home with us.  Designer Anthony Baratta covered the show for Houzz, you can read about his picks from Las Vegas Market in his featured ideabook.

On Tuesday evening the lovely folks from the Phillips Collection – Mark, Julie, Jason and Jessica hosted a lovely wine reception for us, where we were also joined by Houzz interior designer Judith Balis who had just come from filming Showroom Showdown for HGTV.

The highlight of the show for us was our presentation to a full house on Wednesday afternoon. Designers and showrooms both turned out to hear CEO Adi Tatarko tell her founding story and demonstrate the Houzz site and iPad app, and VP Liza Hausman explained how professionals can use the Houzz platform to increase their exposure, build their brands and grow their businesses. Houzz interior designer Garrison Hullinger brought down the house, sharing personal experiences the entire audience could relate to, and demonstrating how his participation in the Houzz community, answering questions and interacting with homeowners, is generating many new clients each month.

Houzz CEO Adi Tatarko speaks to a full house at Las Vegas market

Designer Garrison Hullinger shares how he interacts with homeowners on Houzz

We’re looking forward to the next Market and hope to see you there!

AIA report shows remodeling is strongest sector

Last week we published data on the priority remodeling projects across the country, answering the question “In this economy, what are America’s priorities?”  Recent data released by the American Institute of Architects also supports the notion that remodeling projects are primarily where people are investing in homes, rather than on new construction on second or vacation homes.

According to the AIA “After a sharp dip in September, the Architecture Billings Index (ABI) climbed nearly three points in October. As a leading economic indicator of construction activity, the ABI reflects the approximate nine to twelve month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) reported the October ABI score was 49.4, following a score of 46.9 in September. This score reflects an overall decrease in demand for design services (any score above 50 indicates an increase in billings). The new projects inquiry index was 57.3, up from a reading of 54.3 the previous month.”

AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker told a San Diego journalist “Currently all the major residential construction sectors remain in decline, with second and vacation homes rated as the weakest. Conversely, most residential architects rate the home improvement market in their area as healthy.”

Houzz.com study: What tops America’s home improvement list? #interiordesign

Houzz has become an invaluable resource for homeowners and other consumers who are researching, planning and managing remodeling, building and decorating projects, giving us unique insight into what projects are getting the most attention, and in which regions of the country.

The Joint Center for Housing studies recently stated that home remodeling activity is expected to remain weak through the first half of 2012. Given the enormous volume of activity on Houzz, from saving and sharing ideas to researching and contacting building, remodeling and design professionals, we wanted to answer the question: in this economy, where are people focusing their home improvement efforts?

We are sharing those insights with our community in a study and infographic entitled “What tops America’s home improvement list?” released today. The data provides unique insights into the type and relative volume of planning and research activity occurring for specific home improvement projects, insights that can help guide the marketing efforts of home design professionals, retailers and manufacturers.

Some of the key findings include:

• Americans increase their home improvement activity around closets and entryways in the fourth quarter
• Most major metros make kitchens the top priority, but Los Angeles and Miami gave bathrooms the top spot
• San Francisco, Seattle and Miami prefer modern or contemporary kitchens; other metros opt for more traditional styling.

For a copy of the study toplines contact liza (at) houzz dot com

Vote today! Houzz is a finalist for Most Useful Tablet App in #MashableAwards! #houzz_inc

We’re thrilled that the Houzz app (free in the iTunes store) is a finalist for Most UsefulTablet App in the Mashable awards.  A huge thanks to our amazing community of homeowners and home remodeling & design professionals for getting out the vote!

But it’s not over yet – we still need your to help select Houzz as the winner from among the 7 finalists. Visit the voting page on Mashable today through December 16th to cast your vote. You can do it daily.

Winners will be announced on Mashable Dec. 19, and will be honored at MashBash CES Jan. 11, 2012, during the 2012 International CES convention at 1OAK, the hot new nightclub at the Mirage hotel in Las Vegas.

Here are the finalists:

Most Useful Tablet-Based App

This category honors the readers’ choice for the best app designed for use on a tablet.

• Houzz
• IMO Instant Messenger
• Trulia
• Slideshark
• Quickoffice
• Tripadvisor
• Flipboard

Thanks to #WDesign and the Minneapolis Design Community

Our thanks go out to everyone who supported last night’s event at the W Foshay in Minneapolis: Jaqueline, Matt and Susan from the W, Metro Magazine, Amsum & Ash and the Minneapolis ASID and AIA, and of course Renee Hallberg and Gabbie LeJeune of RLH studio. Thanks also to the nearly 200 design professionals who came to meet us, many from our Houzz community including Kate O’Hara from Martha O’Hara Interiors and Architect Charlie Simmons. It was rewarding and education to hear and share stories of how designers, architects and builders are using Houzz to communicate with clients and grow their businesses.

Liza Hausman from Houzz, Renee Hallberg and Gabbie LeJeune of RLH Studio on stage at the W

We had a lively discussion following the presentation, with the community engaging deeply on how to use the Houzz platform  – whether for the first time or becoming even more active. Many folks who have been in the industry for a long time shared that they are more than a little intimidated by technology – even emcee and AIA president Phillip Koski admitted he was far from being an “early adopter” – so the event went a long way to making these professionals more comfortable with jumping on board, and

Houzz Holiday Helpers: Ideabooks as Wishlists and Great Gift Guides with Style

Whether your holiday shopping push is triggered by jingle bells muzak, Thanksgiving or daylight savings (well, what else will you do in the dark but shop online?) we at Houzz are using the site and app to make finding creative, stylish gifts fun, fast and filling.

Our community of Houzzers came up with the great idea of using their personal ideabooks as wishlists – what a brilliant group! With all the product ideas on Houzz, you can easily collect your favorite gift ideas into “wishlist” ideabooks for each friend, family member or coworker and share them in the same way you collect and collaborate on your most inspiring spaces.

We’re also publishing a series of gift guides in November and December. Our first gift guide is 50 Gifts Under $50 – check it out for budget-minded items that also have great style. Affordable doesn’t have to mean boring.

Our second guide is 50 Great Gifts for Color Lovers –  If you’ve got a friend with a personalized license plate that reads ROYGBIV,* finding a suitable holiday gift will be a relatively easy task using our fun (and very bright) guide.

Be on the lookout for more of our 50 item gift guides rolling out each week, we’ll update this post with all of them as they are published. Happy Hunting!

You’re Invited: Houzz Coming to Minneapolis 11/14/11 For W Happenings Inside Design Event

posted by Liza Hausman

The wonderful folks at the W Hotel Minneapolis together with the Minneapolis AIA and ASID chapters have invited me to represent Houzz at a special event on November 14th to introduce Houzz to the broader Minneapolis design community. Many of our Minneapolis professionals have already let me know they are attending and I’m very much looking forward to meeting them in person.

W Hotel Minneapolis The Foshay

The Capture•Communicate•Create, a W Happenings Inside Design event, is taking place at the iconic W Foshay hotel on Monday, Nov. 14 from 5:30 to 8:30 pm. I’ll be speaking together with some great members of our Houzz professional community, interior designers Renée LeJeune Hallberg and Gabbie LeJeune of RLH Studio in Minneapolis.

10 Ways Home Design and Remodeling Professionals Are Using Houzz

It’s been absolutely inspiring to talk to our Professionals about the ways they are using the Houzz site and app.  Ideabooks are perhaps the most-beloved tool, and are effectively revolutionizing the professional-client communication process. Here are 10 of the best and most popular uses we’ve heard:

1. Communication platform. The majority of pros ask clients to create their own ideabooks with comments on their likes and dislikes even before the first meeting.  One architect told us this “saves hours of preliminary drawing work and saves my clients the associated cost” plus it makes it far more likely that a project will be a success. A builder told us he not only communicates with clients via ideabooks, but he takes his iPad to the job site and shares images with subcontractors to make sure they get the finishes exactly right. As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words.
2. Exposure to homeowners. Professionals are getting quality clients and prospective clients through Houzz. From interior designers taking on projects in other states, to builders getting business in their local market, to landscape architects getting projects overseas.
3. Educational tool. Professionals send clients and prospects who are overwhelmed by design to Houzz to help them learn about styles and spaces, and to give them a tangible and comfortable place to start what might otherwise be an intimidating process.

6 Top Design Events: Oct. 21-Nov. 12, 2011

High Point Market #hpmkt is in full swing today. Here are some other noteworthy events inthe design world in the coming days and weeks:

EXHIBITION — Oct. 21, 2011 – Jan. 8, 2012
Second Lives: the Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles
The Textile Museum
Washington, DC

EXHIBIT — Oct. 22, 2011 – Jan. 29, 2012
17 Swedish Designers
American Swedish Historical Museum
Philadelphia, PA

EXHIBIT — Oct. 22, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012 
David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, NY

Celebrating 200,000 photos on Houzz! #interiordesign

We’re celebrating in the houzz! We hit the 200K photo mark today (200,019 at the time this screen shot was taken). That’s two hundred thousand high-quality photos of residential interiors and exteriors, uploaded by design professionals into their portfolios on houzz.com. Thanks to our wonderful community of pros – more than 28,000 of them have created profiles and are active on Houzz – and all our design enthusiasts, we’re honored to provide a platform that brings greater exposure to amazing design work, and is changing the building and remodeling process for designers and homeowners alike.  Happy browsing, we hope all the new photos will soon fill your eyes and your ideabooks!