Colors, textures and scale all have a visual impact on you immediately. Did you ever notice the architectural scale in Disney World is 4/5 to make children feel more important, bringing visual objects down to their level? Why is MacDonald's logo red & yellow? Red makes you hungry, yellow makes you feel excited. Industrial factories' bathrooms are painted Puce Green not by accident, no loitering there.........these little facts are all part of the myriad details and thought processes that go into well planned Interior Architecture.

Scale and the importance of space planning are most often overlooked by the nonprofessional. No matter how tiny that beach condo may be, you still desire it to look spacious, with flowing traffic patterns, optimizing every view.

The choosing of correct lighting is critical, emphasizing your colors and textures, or ruining the entire desired effect. Which shopping environment do you prefer? Wal-Mart's cold, fluorescent overheads or the warm, inviting incandescent lighting in Whole Foods, which, when added by the way, generated 41% more sales. If lighting did not affect our moods, why do we think candles are romantic?

The difference between a "decorator" and an interior designer is four long years of college. Your designer should be able to draft floorplans in scale, including electrical plans, furniture plans, reflected ceiling plans, even demolition plans. It should start with your blueprint whenever possible to avoid those costly changes later on. Let's get those electrical outlets, tv jacks, computer access, ceiling fans and chandeliers in the right place the first time. All of these choices are made long before the shopping begins.

Now is the time to incorporate all your special desires. Sand Castles has a questionnaire for you to complete that allows us to get to know you personally. We will know if we need space for a weekly bridge or poker game, a wine cellar, outside kitchen, home theatre, grand piano, kitty condo, aviary....whatever the challenge, this is the time we work on creating the appropriate space for your enjoyment.

The next step can be the selection of flooring, wall textures, countertops, cabinets, doors, bathroom fixtures and appliances. This is followed by choosing just the right colors for the inside and outside of your new home. On some projects all of these choices have been made by the developer and your designer takes it from there.

When all of these decisions have been made, we then begin the exciting furniture, accessory and artwork selections. By this time, a good designer knows precisely what you like and can even second guess you!

Baby Boomers have presented us with a whole new world of challenges and rightly so. When your home is still in the drawing stage it is very easy to plan ahead for the many future years that you should enjoy in complete comfort....why not widen the doorways now for possible wheelchair access, lower the stair risers or eliminate a few stairs for later ease of movement? These are all factors and details that should be discussed with your designer in the early brainstorming sessions of your important project.

There are some architects and designers that produce the same cookie cutter work over and over again. At Sand Castles, we do our best to make each project uniquely "You." Even if the property we are working on is for investment only, it will be satisfying for you to see that your rental website does not resemble any other.

I hope that you will consider choosing Sand Castles for all your interior design needs here in the Bay Islands. Upon completion of a project, my biggest pleasure is to hand over the keys and say "Welcome Home."