Decorating Den Interiors invites public to help judge annual design contest

Home Accents Today Staff -- Home Accents Today, 4/3/2012 2:50:43 PM

Decorating Den Interiors announced it is opening up judging for its annual International Dream Room contest to the public, for the first time in the contest's 27-year history.

During the month of April, design enthusiasts may view and vote on real makeover projects, illustrated with more than 200 sets of before and after photographs, at www.iddvoting.com. Visitors to the site may vote in any or all of the categories, which include makeovers for bathrooms, bedrooms, children's rooms, commercial, dining rooms, family rooms, home offices, kitchens, living rooms, window treatments and "miscellaneous" projects.

Decorating Den Interiors, the largest home furnishings and interior design franchise company in North America, traditionally holds this contest for its more than 325 owners and designers through the U.S. and Canada as a company-only event, but this year decided to open a phase of the judging to the public.

"These are real rooms for real people with real budgets," said Carol Bugg, ASID, DDCD, vice president and director of design for Decorating Den Interiors. "For 27 years, this contest has been judged only by journalists of national interior design and home magazines. This year, we thought more people would like to see the vast variety of designs by our award winning decorators throughout the U.S. and Canada and vote for the ones that inspire them the most, so we have added this segment of the judging. There is no cost to view the designs and judge.

"In past years, many of the entries in our Dream Room contest have been featured in national and regional magazines. With our online voting, we hope to give even more people inspiration for adding those beautiful touches that make their house a home," Bugg said.

By judging, visitors to the voting site will be participating in the selection of a Peoples' Choice Award in each category, which will be presented at Decorating Den Interiors international conference and market to be held in Atlanta May 4-9. This year, for the first time, the public is invited to help judge hundreds of makeovers in Decorating Den Interiors' annual design contest.