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Watermarke: Bold and Big Make a Small Space Live Large
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The designers didn’t shy away from bold, large-scale furniture and artwork in the 534-square-foot Astor Court model. |
The latest in a series on the secrets of The Nationals model home merchandising winners.
By Jan Mitchell
The Gold model home winners in the 2006 Nationals Awards have secrets to share about the different aspects of model home merchandising. Whether it’s use of materials or colors, the scale of the project or just breaking the rules, all of them reveal hot trends that are emerging today.
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Bright green walls and light wood help create the “edgy, young style” of the one-bedroom model, meant to appeal to students attending nearby UC Irvine. |
Model: Astor Court
Community: Watermarke
Award: Best Model Merchandising $250,000 to $400,000
Builder: Sares-Regis Group
Merchandiser: Design Tec
Location: Irvine, Calif.
Watermarke’s merchandisers had a big challenge when it came to decorating the Astor Court model — how to make the 534-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath condo live large.
Their answer: Throw out all the old caveats about color and scale for small spaces. Think bold and big instead.
“We were not afraid of color,” said Lana Canova, vice president of design for Design Tec Inc., of Newport Beach, Calif. “We used a lot of it.”
Not just a lot of color — bold, edgy color. Light colored maple-planked flooring was used throughout the living areas for a seamless look, which further expanded the space and helped make the bold colors stand out even more.
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Placing chairs around the sofa-back table and stools around the kitchen bar showed that entertaining could be done with style in this smaller unit.
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Watermarke is near the campus of the University of California, Irvine and the Astor Court price point made it a perfect investment for students. So Design Tec gave the model an edgy, young, decorating style to appeal to students.
That style was carried through to the furnishings. A strong, L-shaped sectional sofa was used as the focal point of the great room.
Bold, whimsical artwork depicting people at a cocktail party overlooks the sofa. To make up for the lack of a dining room, the merchandising team used an oversized sofa-back table that can double as an eating space.
The combination of colors and furnishings showed prospects that entertaining could be done with style in this smaller unit.
The Watermarke condo conversion has set the trend for similar communities in the area, Canova said.
And why not? Just 13 months after Watermarke opened in December 2004, the community sold out its 534 homes, said Chad Harpole, of the Sares-Regis Group.
Jan Mitchell is the senior editor of NAHB’s Sales + Marketing Ideas magazine. She also writes about model merchandising, interior design, architecture and consumer trends for other industry and consumer publications, including Professional Builder magazine and its online counterpart, Housingzone.com. Her bestselling book, “Sales and Marketing Checklists for Profit-Driven Builders,” is available through BuilderBooks.com. She has served as a judge for regional and national builder marketing competitions and is a member of the National Association of Real Estate Editors. For more information, e-mail Mitchell at mitchell.jan@comcast.net.
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 ‘Creating the Not So Big House’ Available at BuilderBooks.com”
“Creating the Not So Big House,” available through BuilderBooks.com, focuses on key No So Big design strategies for creating a house that values quality over quantity and emphasizes comfort, beauty, a high level of detail and a floor plan designed for today's informal lifestyle.
The publication features an up-close look at 25 houses from around the country — from a tiny New York apartment to a Southwestern adobe, a traditional Minnesota farmhouse and a cottage community in the Pacific Northwest.
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