Business of Home

Fall 2023 | Issue 29

From the platforms designers use to power their businesses to the innovations they are installing in their clients’ homes, technology has permeated every corner of the industry. In this issue, we examine what’s changing the way designers work today, including the ups and downs of the Instagram algorithm, the nascent capabilities of AI, how improvements in digital printing shape what makes it into a firm’s sample closet, and how smart home devices can improve health, wellness and safety.

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Features

19 road-tested digital tools that save designers time and energy

Most of the design industry has finally moved away from sending faxes—but as we move fully into the digital age, what does it take to keep your business humming? These are the top tech platforms designers love now.

BY Haley Chouinard and Lizzy Reisinger

5 shortcuts to making tech work for you and your firm

Sick of the Instagram hamster wheel? 4 secrets to beating the infamous algorithm

The Instagram algorithm has become notorious for its mystifying methodology, which can make or break user success with every invisible whim. What does it take to get it right?

BY Caroline Bourque

Want to design homes that work smarter, not harder? Here are the tech tools you need now

In a market of rapid-fire tech innovations, we cut through the noise to find out what you need to know about smart home design right now.

BY Hannah Hickok

How to use AI to improve your design business

Need a hand writing copy, driving business and spurring creativity on your team? The AI revolution is here. Here are all the ways it matters for designers.

BY Fred Nicolaus

Everyone’s getting into digital printing. Should you?

Almost anyone can print a fabric now. What does that mean for your business? Inside the design industry’s digital printing revolution.

BY Fred Nicolaus

Design Dispatch

magazine

The hand-made hardware brand every designer should have on their radar

Centuries-old craftsmanship is at the heart of Rocky Mountain Hardware’s designs, but its latest collaboration is smartphone-friendly.

magazine

The genius way one designer grew her firm’s profit margins by 20 percent

To capture the higher margins on construction, Ati Williams lawyered up, got her general contractor’s license, and opened a design-build firm. She explains how you can do it, too.

on the beat

Arts and Crafts designs were once a radical response to mass production. Here’s why the homespun movement resonates again today

With an emphasis on sustainable materials and honesty in craftsmanship, the design elements and ethos of the late 19th-century Arts and Crafts movement continue to endure.

open book

Alexa Hampton’s 7 rules to turn a bedroom into a personal retreat

It’s easy to step into a well-designed space and know it works. It’s often harder to describe why, exactly. BOH asked celebrated designer Alexa Hampton to dissect the choices behind her moody, maximalist Manhattan bedroom.