Firms put sparkle in season

"This year, bar none, has pretty much been the strongest," said Carl Pfullmann, owner of CP Designs, which has strung Christmas lights on about 40 homes in the Alamo Heights and Terrell Hills areas. "People want good deals, but they want lots of lights."

Mark Ambrose, general manager of ABC Home & Commercial Services, said he expects to increase his lighting installation work by about 10 percent, primarily as the result of new customers, not bigger jobs from returning customers.

"We'll be happy with that, considering the economy and everything that is going on," Ambrose said.

Officials said homeowners have been asking for more decorations this year, covering more angles of the house, and low-energy LED lights have become popular, though costing more initially.

Companies said home-lighting installation can start at about $350 but can cost several thousand dollars, depending on how large the house is and how many lights and decorations are included.

Jennifer Sharrick, co-owner of Show Me Decorating, said her company provides Christmas tree decorating services for as little as $350 and beautifies doorways for about $500. In its third year in San Antonio, Show Me Decorating could triple its revenues this year, Sharrick said.

Financial numbers for the overall sector are hard to pin down.

The American Lighting Association tabulates totals on sales of Christmas lights alone, not the labor required to put them up. Those sales fell from $7.3 million in 2007 to $5.1 million in 2008 but rose to $6.2 million last year, the association said.

Through the first three-quarters of 2011, sales reached $4.6 million.

It's a sector dominated by companies that provide landscaping, pest control and other services to businesses and homeowners during the rest of the year. But companies that provide the service annually say it's been a dependable source of revenue during a season that otherwise could be a financial drought.

Shawn George, who owns Elite Lighting Designs, said he provided his holiday customers a small discount as the recession deepened and most of them have stayed with the firm. This year, he said business could grow by more than 30 percent, mainly because of the increase in residential customers.

"It's safety and convenience and knowing that it's available," George said in explaining the factors that have been driving demand.

David Dunne, president of Preferred Holiday Decor, said everyone has been looking for ways to economize during the economic downturn. But malls still need to spruce up their properties for the holidays and more businesses and municipalities are showing their holiday spirit through outdoor decorations.

Dunne said his company, which installed the new holiday lights on the River Walk and completed decorating projects for Valero Energy Corp., USAA and other corporate clients, expects holiday lighting revenues to exceed $1.6 million this year. That would be about 65 percent more than last year.

Holiday Decor has an affiliated landscape design and construction component that provides more revenue, but holiday lighting is important both because of its size and its nature, Dunne said.

Communal setups top list of new kitchen trends

In 2011, designers are seeing more communal setups that include multiple sinks, refrigerators, even cooktops.

Unlike a century ago, when the kitchen was relegated to the darkest space in the back of the house, kitchens today have become the hub of the home, with islands, prep areas, seating and indoor-outdoor connections that allow people to participate or just talk, says Glen Jarvis, principal of Jarvis Architects and designer of a home on next weekend's Rockridge Kitchen Tour in Oakland (see box, J7). "We live in them," he says.

"Kitchens are much larger, so that they can suit four or five people," says Beth Laughlin of Laughlin Designs in San Rafael, who has noticed a "huge trend toward secondary cooking stations." With more hands in the kitchen, Laughlin says, she has had to rethink the "work triangle," the sink-cooktop-refrigerator triumvirate that has long been considered the anchor of good kitchen design. Laughlin finds the refrigerator is the biggest offender, impeding traffic and work flow in a busy kitchen. "When people are really stuck in the triangle, I recommend refrigerator drawers for the cook, and put the refrigerator in a place where everyone can get to it."

To accommodate additional cooks, San Francisco designer David Kensington likes to include extra sinks and keep prep areas off to the side. In place of the island, he's seeing another trend emerging: The family table is moving in. "It brings people back into the kitchen and gets people more involved with food." Kensington likes the idea of plopping a farm table in the center of the room.

Another top kitchen trend? You'll find it in the trash. With the Bay Area a national leader in recycling, particularly green waste, kitchen recycling centers are more popular than ever.

According to the National Kitchen and Bath Association, an estimated 89 percent of kitchens designed by NKBA members in the final quarter of 2010 include trash or recycling pull-outs.

How kitchens are lighted is evolving too, as incandescent bulbs are being phased out. Eli Israel of Integrity Remodeling in Oakland says: "Title 24 energy efficiency, where 50 percent of your lighting has to be energy efficient, forces you into two types of lighting: fluorescent and LED. Most people don't really like the fluorescents, so (the challenge) is coming up with creative ways to get the lighting to look the way you want it."

Kitchen design is also being driven by the economy. "People are simplifying everything - from the style of cabinets to what they put in the cabinets," Laughlin says. "There's not a lot of bling. People aren't spending thousands of dollars to make it look like a French kitchen."

"Not every kitchen has to be a crazy Taj Mahal," Israel says. "You can dress up things with nice cabinetry, balancing high and low."