HOME SHOW: Green can be 'Better' - Eco-friendly lifestyle, products visit Las Vegas

Living green doesn’t mean having to sacrifice style in your home. Just ask interior designer Libby Langdon.

Langdon, host of “Small Space Big Style” on HGTV, learned all about green design as she created environmentally friendly living environments for the Living Green Tour and Exhibit.

What's Out and What's In

In looking at trends I find it just as helpful to see what’s on its way out from the last season as what is on its way in for this next. The exciting thing about the High Point Market is the opportunity to see what trends will be impacting the consumer in the next year and a half. I’ll be there this April to get the inside scoop, but here are the trends I see reaching the consumer, as well as retail outlets, right now.

HGTV's Libby Langdon Learns How to Turn Her Design Styles "Green"

Libby becomes part of a 15 city Living Green Tour to feature eco-friendly products and home ideas

NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 25, 2008 – Westin Reinhart

Interior designer and lifestyle enthusiast Libby Langdon is taking the first steps in learning how to make interior design “green”. Libby has joined Better Homes and Gardens and Green Works™ on The Living Green Tour and Exhibit™ that is traveling nationwide educating consumers on how they can make the interior design of their homes better for the environment. Libby will use her design expertise and creative insight at the exhibit to bring consumers smart solutions on how to live beautifully and eco-friendly.

Interior Design Trends – Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008

2007 (or general) Design Trends on their way out:

- Painting your trim (baseboard/crown molding) a color darker than your – Crisp, clean white is back.

Libby’s Basement Makeover Ideas:

Summer’s over and it’s time to cover the grill, store the porch furniture and head indoors. All outdoor relaxing during the lazy days of summer has now turned to watching football on TV, curling up under a cozy throw and reading a great book or watching a wonderful movie. Fall is the perfect time of the year to makeover your basement, it’s a manageable project, there are simple things you can do that will completely transform it and it creates an entirely new area to gather when activities move inside the house. Roll up your sleeves for a couple of weekends and add valuable square footage and comfy living space to your home.

Anything trendy right now in small spaces?

Colors? Kinds of decorations? 

A big trend in small spaces right now is color, people used to think everything had to be white to look larger but they are realizing that a creative layout can do the trick and they can enjoy color at the same time. Some colors I’m seeing are consistent whether you’re in a small space or large – chocolate brown, caramel, aqua, bright orange, citron green, icy gray blue. The accessory used primarily in small spaces is artwork; it adds life and style to a room without using up valuable square footage.

Some of the spaces on the series are the homes of professional interior designers. Can non-professional homeowners create high-end decor for a small space within a modest budget? Any tricks for those with a modest budget?

Everyone can live in a beautiful space no matter the budget; you can absolutely create that high-end décor look without spending a fortune.I always encourage people on a budget to begin with paint, pick a bold color and begin there; it’s definitely the fastest, least expensive way to transform a room.