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The right choice of window coverings can provide as many energy saving benefits for your home as it will in updating and beautifying your property. One advantage to saving energy is that it will also save you money during the winter months and through summertime as well. An astonishing 50 per cent of your home's cooling and heating energy can be lost through the windows. What follows are energy saving window treatments for your home.

You can start saving energy right away by using the proper window coverings. Saving energy doesn’t have to be drab. In fact, it can be quite exciting to bring a new window-treatment décor to your home. Everything you read here can look fantastic in your home, it will save you energy, and it’s all available from Budget Blinds!

Incorporating your personal style is an exciting part in the home design process. But before you choose ultra trendy finishes or an extremely traditional design, consider what is most appropriate for the long time value of your home. Follow these tips to design a home that is personal to you, while incorporating elements that add value to your house.

Choose quality over quantity Design a home that will withstand the test of time. Focus on the location, and the quality of the construction, materials and design rather than building the biggest McMansion on the block.

Avoid design trends Monitor design trends to avoid using trendy materials that will likely become outdated. This is especially important for kitchens, which have the biggest return on investment. Consider appliances that blend into timeless, custom made cabinets, to avoid dating your space in the future.

Focus on the details Investing your budget in the kitchen and bathrooms is wise, but don't forget to allocate funds for other high-impact areas of your home. Add elements of drama in unexpected places, such as the stairway. While often neglected during renovations, an eye catching staircase can make a big impact on the look and feel of the house. Investing in the closets will always pay off. Any opportunity to create more storage within your current space will add value.

Stay color neutral You may love the idea of bold red wallpaper in your dining room, but a neutral look is likely more appealing to potential buyers. When designing a home with resale value in mind, stay neutral.

Showcase natural light Natural light is a always positive feature for any home. Show off your windows with high hanging window treatments. Window treatments that are hung between the top of the windows and the ceiling gives the illusion that the windows are larger than they actually are.

How can we create spaces for young people that, in the words of Richard Mark of Jacobs Global Buildings Design, "encourage them to interact with each other and not just with technology?" This question kicked off Interior Design's Principals Roundtable during NeoCon East, part of a series inviting industry leaders to join a select group of peers for a high-profile think tank. The 20 designers and architects in the room realized that clients are craving a particular sense of place—even if they don't know what exactly that should feel like. So how can designers deliver the unknown, and get paid for it? Here's the discussion breakdown. Interior Design president Mark Strauss and IIDA executive vice president and CEO Cheryl Durst moderated.

1. Design markets are merging Karen Daroff of Daroff Design immediately identified how workplace design is crossing over into the hospitality market, and vice versa—the merging of previoulsy distinct markets is picking up speed as people crave "experiences that will travel with them from place to place," says Daroff. Patricia Sampson of Chambers agreed that, "feeding one industry to the other is just across the board. I was just in a hotel, office, elevator, etc—now all these different elements have to be in one club. The existing structure isn’t going anywhere, but the new mindset has to penetrate that structure."

2. The office needs of today's workers are VERY different It's long been apparent that the younger work force has a new set of needs—and designers are targeting them with so-called free address plans for open offices. But at the same time, existing workers are still struggling to adapt to new workplace environments. Elise Shapiro, global workplace manager of Ciena Corporation, "manages the design and interacts with the designers as my sweet spot," she says, speaking from the perspective of global clients. Shapiro shared the challenge of moving people "from a worm-farm facility into a contemporary open office plan... The challenge is to get people flipped to embrace the integration of technology and to disassociate them from their 70-inch-high panels and moving acrylic doors,” she says.

3. Designing for the unknown Rhea Vasler of Hickok Cole identified the problem of designing for technology that is constantly changing: "We have the reality of brick and mortar, but we don’t know what the technology infrascture will be like by the time the project is built.” Designers agreed: they go into almost every project, and the client is looking for something new that sometimes they can’t articulate. Jim Williamson of Gensler says, "It used to be 20 percent of projects were asking for new thinking. Now, not only has it flipped, but 95 percent of projects are companies and firms moving to new realities, and they want us to help curate that reailty... They want us to curate a complete experience." "There is fear of being behind the curve," says Valerie Hassett of Studio of Valerie Hassett. "They don’t know where they want to be, but they know they need to be somewhere. They turn to us to create a solution for something that is way behond a physical space. We should be getting a psychologist tab in addition to a design tab! But it’s good that they see us as someone bringing positive cultural changes."

4. Craving an authentic sense of place "The word authentic, you hear it everywhere," says Barbara Mullenex of Perkins Eastman. "It has emotional resonance. Millenials talk a lot about being authenic—but what does that mean for them? It shouldn't be a LES building plopped down anywhere." Sean Wayne of Hickok Cole spoke about the importance of designing to suit the client's particular culture. For Mullenex, this meant prioritizing the interior finishes for 8,000 housing units in Saudi Arabia: "They really wanted the tactile experience. Right away they wanted to see faucets, sinks, tiles, and the architects were shocked. They are used to coming from tactile interior spaces like mosques."

5. Show us the money If technology is a new huge driver and everyone is trying to figure out where it’s going, does your job have a higher value? As Williamson put it, "They want an Apple iPhone, but at the cost of a piece of paper." He expressed the room's frustration that, even though conversations and design strategies are more complex, fees are not rising in turn. Especially when designers save clients millions of dollars by bringing them good consultation. Everyone can see the changing technology—open office versus benching versus an open pantry, etc—yet only we have the knowledge. That’s what designers can bring to the table each and every time.