A Hothouse of Ideas
By Tracy Jan

New Orleans, La. — On a recent school holiday HGTV host Debbie Travis walked into her teenage sons' bedrooms and threatened beatings if they didn't clean up.

Before she knew it, they were giving away the furniture. Their beds and wardrobe drawers littered lawns throughout their Montreal neighborhood.

Her boys, you see, were redecorating. They biked to Home Depot for primer. Shopped for new furniture at Ikea -- on a $200 budget set by dad. Sewed curtains. Constructed shelves from skateboards. Stenciled rap lyrics on the walls. For two weeks the boys holed up in their rooms with their girlfriends and friends, drilling away.

"These boys are the future," Travis told a roomful of feature editors and reporters attending the home and garden panel at AASFE's 58th annual convention at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside. "They are the people reading these newspapers."

She assured the audience that her sons were not "wusses." One, a strapping 6-foot-tall football player, is an example of a new generation of homemakers newspapers should address in their home sections.

Television shows like hers -- "Debbie Travis' Painted House" and "Debbie Travis' Facelift" - entertain and inspire. But it's newspaper columns that answer the questions of overwhelmed yet interested young people, Travis said.

Young people on a budget who want to work with what they've got. Young people who are often renters in the city. And newspapers, she said, need to make it easy for those readers to decipher all the choices and new home improvement products.

A decade ago the average person watching home decorating shows and flipping through home improvement magazines was a young mother or a 50-year-old, Travis said.

"Now we have an epidemic in our hands," she said, as the audience and readers grow to include kids and men. Travis, who writes a syndicated column on home design, said newspapers should be targeting two types of young readers who are increasingly interested in home décor: teens like her sons who are revamping bedrooms or dorm rooms and first-time homeowners in their mid-20s.

The first group shops at Ikea and Urban Outfitters, spending more money than ever before on décor. Newspapers should address their interests in their language, offering ideas that incorporate pop culture such as stenciling music lyrics on walls.

The second group values flea market finds and are concerned about saving time and money. Newspapers should suggest low cost alternatives to decorating whenever possible and be on the lookout for products that make life easier.

Panelist Elizabeth Mayhew, style director of Real Simple magazine, said her magazine is all about problem solving, not decorating. It's about organization, finding the stuff you need, feeling that "everything is going to be OK," she said. Overwhelmed readers aspiring to save time turn to Real Simple for direction. "It's about editing your life," she said. "Making the right choices."

The magazine, Mayhew said, helps women without speaking down to them - tackling home make-overs that, for example, help a mother of four boys keep her hallways uncluttered and kids organized. Furniture and other products featured in the magazine are easily accessible at Pottery Barn or Ikea, not through some exclusive trade source. "We are their trusted good friend," she said, "offering advice women used to get from their grandmothers and mothers."

HGTV's "Interiors by Design" host Chris Madden, who told editors she reads three newspapers before getting out of bed each morning, shared her solution to Oprah's challenge to make decorating and design easier for all.

Madden's multimedia slide show took editors on a journey through serenity, adventure and romance along with décor that matched as a way for editors to see readers through a more emotional view finder.

Tracy Jan, a 2004 AASFE fellow, is an education reporter at The Oregonian. She can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .