August is Too Late to Redecorate Your Home for the Holidays

If you want custom furnishings for your home for holiday parties, you have to order by mid-summer. Laura and Jerry Krull, owners of Aspen Carpet Designs in Mokena, IL, a custom rug studio, offer tips to make sure your home redecoration project is complete in time for the holidays.

(PRWEB) July 20, 2006 -- It’s 98 degrees Fahrenheit in late July and Kelly Roth is hurrying to place her orders for custom rugs that will be delivered just in time for her Thanksgiving family dinner in her home. “It may seem ridiculous thinking about the holidays in mid-summer, but if we don’t have the final designs, colors and sizes by August 20th, our clients won’t have their new rugs in time for Thanksgiving,” laments Jerry Krull, co-owner of Aspen Carpet Designs in Mokena, Illinois www.AspenCarpetDesigns.com. Krull and his wife Laura, operate a custom studio for creating higher end wool hand-knotted and hand-tufted area rugs for homes and businesses.

The lazy days of summer find most people thinking of vacations and relaxing. If you have ideas on redecorating for the holidays, you may be thinking of waiting until after Labor Day. “Our business requests explode the Tuesday after Labor Day,” states Krull, “it happens every year and we have many disappointed clients when they find out it’s too late to have custom rugs made in time for Thanksgiving. If you want your custom rugs by December 24th, then you had better have all your colors and designs finalized by September 10th, a mere 6 days after Labor Day.”

It can be a little disheartening to think about the holiday deadlines in July and August, but if you want your home redecorated for the holiday parties, then you better start ordering soon. Krull offers these tips for a successful home makeover by the holidays:

• Choose and order any custom pieces now, before Labor Day. Ask your furniture maker, drapery maker, faux painter or wallpaper installer what their lead time is at this point. Many custom shops, like ours, have a 12-16 week lead time or longer for custom pieces.

• It may take a couple of weeks to choose sizes, colors, and finishes, so start now with your choices.

• If you are planning on completely redecorating a room, you usually start with a rug and pull the colors from the rug for the walls, fabrics and accessories. With custom furnishings like rugs, you can have the rugs made to match the colors you already have in the room. But remember to meet the custom shop’s lead times to make your holiday deadline.

• If you are looking for custom holiday handicrafts at local arts & crafts shows, attend the early season shows, when the crafters have the best selections. Waiting until November will put you at the bottom of the list for any “rush” orders for that stylish pine cone centerpiece with the “taking orders only” sign.

Here is what Krull calls his “double secret” money saving tip;

• July and early August are the slow seasons for custom furnishings. Contact these custom studios now and your chance for getting a discount are greater than after Labor Day. Not only are you assuring your purchases will be delivered by the holidays, but you may be able to obtain a discount during the slow periods. Just ask what sort of summer ordering discounts they offer.

So if you want your home to be “picture postcard perfect” for the holidays, you had better start planning now. You will be proud of your home, and you may even save some money in the process.

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