4C
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
APARTMENT GUIDE
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2005
Nesting by the nose
By Eils LOTOZ
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWPAPERS
VIA KRT CAMPUS
Creating a great home, everyone knows, is about color, space and light. It's about choosing the right furniture, fabrics and accents.
But more and more, people are using fragrance to evoke experience, express individuality, and set the right mood in their homes.
It's not only a question of personal style. A growing body of research tells us that pleasant scents can make us happier, relaxed and more alert.
"There are about 86 active studies validating the effect of odors on mood states," says Alan Hirsch, a neurologist and the director of the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Center in Chicago. He has studied how odors can aid perception of room size, aid learning and
arousal, and reduce the desire to eat
"I think
Noting that last year's Nobel Prize in medicine went to researchers who discovered how olfactory cells enable humans
we're going to be seeing interior decorating with smells in the future, the same way we do with color."
to recognize
and remember 10,000 different doors , Hirsch says,
"I think we are just on the cusp of what is going to be a huge trend to ward using smells functionally in the home.
Photos courtesy KRT Campus
Already, says Terry Molnar of the Sense of Smell Institute, which funds olfaction research and educates the public about scent, researchers are working on fragrance-infused fabrics for home decor.
"The technology is there to microencapsulate fragrance into fabric, so that every time you open your drapes you will get a whiff of scent," Molnar says.
For now, the growing ranks of the scent-conscious are snapping up candles, room sprayes, and plug-ins that diffuse fragrant oils and solids. According to the Consumer Specialty Products Association, whose air-care division represents more than 200 companies, including the makers of Glade, Renuzit and Airwick air fresheners, home fragrance products brought in $2.7 billion in sales in 2004. That's projected to increase to $3.6 billion in 2006.
"There has been significant growth in recent years as the type of product has changed along with consumer demand," said association spokesman Bill Lafield.
Not only have the scents themselves changed, so have the delivery systems. Among the new products: a revamped version of Glade PlugIns that allows consumers to customize scents. And Proctor & Gamble's ScentStories, introduced last year. The device "plays" disks that cycle through five scents meant to evoke experiences such as "Relaxing in a Hammock" and "Exploring a Mountain Trail."
And then there is the burgeoning high-end home fragrance market, with consumers shelling out for $38 bottles of Cucina kitchen spray, in scents of fig and fresh herbs or ginger and Sicilian lemon, and $76 flasks of Alora Ambiance air freshener.
The latter, touted by Oprah Winfrey
Photos courtesy KRT Campus Cleaning products are used as scent to convey a sense of self and status. Above is a bottle of meyer lemon ironing spray sold by Restoration Hardware, and below is a bottle of rose anise home fragrance by Caldrea.
in "O" magazine, comes with bamboo sticks that act as wicking devices for the fragrances. Among them: gardenia and tuberose, and a muguet, lemon and sandalwood combo.
But the biggest phenomenon in this pricey realm is essential-oil-scented cleaning products. The category, pioneered by the Good Home Co. and Caldrea, which makes proprietary brands for Williams-Sonoma, includes products for home and laundry — fabric softener, detergent, dish soap, cleanser, stainless-steel spray — all in exotic scents of green tea patchouli, cucumber mint or lemongrass.
Though sales figures are not available for this segment of the industry, the Good Home Co. claims more than $4 million in sales last year.
And a Caldrea representative says that, since the company's launch in 2000, it has sold more than eight million of its products. They come in six different aromas, with names that sound more like health foods than cleaning fluids — "energetic" Citrus Mint Ylang Ylang and "enlivening" White Tea.
"People are stressed out and multitasking," says Molnar, of the Sense of Smell Institute in New York. "They don't just want to wash the dishes. They want it to relax them, too."
BY JAMES H. BURNETT III
MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL
VIA KRKT CAMPUS
In bachelor pads, chic replaces cheap
Every guy who is single is aware of the rules of early bachelor living — thou shalt have at least one piece of homemade furniture, thou shalt use any available floor space as overflow closet, thou shalt mount an animal head on the wall, and thou shalt recycle pizza boxes as place mats.
But single guys also know - or should know, anyway - that when college or trade school ends and gainful employment begins those rules go out the window, along with the moose head and the pizza boxes.
and the pizza boxes.
But since the odds these days are that bachelors will remain so longer than in the past, it's imperative that they live well now instead of waiting until they are married or settled down, experts say.
"The life cycle of the bachelor is getting longer," says James Heidenry, executive editor of the men's magazine "Maxim." "Men are waiting to get married now, especially on the coasts. ... So it is worth taking the extra time to make sure you are living in the right setting."
The keys to living right? Paying attention to style, location, practicality, entertainment and comfort, Heidenry says.
Milwaukeean Chad Curran, 30, seems to have captured all five of those elements in his sophisticated and design-savvy bachelor pad.
For Curran, manager of an automotive dealership, outfitting his 1,900 square-foot condo in the old Nelson Brothers Furniture building downtown was a labor of love.
All the condos in the building are loft style with hardwood floors, exposed duct work and original Cream City brick. "I decorated my condo with a lot of different prints. Most of them have a party or automotive theme to them," he says. "I have a pretty cool martini print above my bar/wine rack that seems to evoke a lot of conversation and gets everyone in a good mood."
Curran got outside advice when decorating and outfitting his place. Look and space were more important to him than the latest gadget ... except, of course for a good dishwasher and washer/dryer set.
"I have found that as I get older, the ability to have a good place to entertain is more important than having the loudest stereo," he explains. "My condo is very open and can — and does — comfortably entertain 75 people.
totally unaware.
"Don't be afraid to ask for advice," he says. "Bottom line: You pay the bills and have to live in it."
CAPITALIZE ON YOUR SPACE
Short on space? If you have a tiny apartment, no one appreciates your pight more than Nick Scotti, producer and host of the Style Network show "New York Nick."
New York Hick. Scotti, a model/actor/artist offers these space-saving tips:
Scotti, a model/actor/artist offers these space-saving ideas Consider a Murphy bed, which folds up into the wall. Scotti, who lives in a small apartment in Queens, N.Y., recently added a Murphy bed that when folded acts as a shelf and mini-bar on its backside and frees up more than 80 percent of his floor space.
Buy furniture that doubles as storage space. Scotti has a leather-topped wooden bench that can provide seating or serve as a coffee table.
often bench that can provide seating or serve as a stand. If you can afford it, get a flat-screen TV that mounts on the wall. You'll save a couple of feet of floor space by not having a traditional entertainment center.
Replace clunky furniture — the kind you bought right after college — with large Japanese style sitting-pillows or several small square ottomans. They create a bohemian look.
James H. Burnett III
WEDN
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