Tour of Homes in Lakewood Ranch ready to produce 'wow' effect

Raise your hand if you are one of those people who live in a beautiful abode, yet can't help but visit model homes to check out the color of the cabinets, the size of the floor tiles or the material used on the bathroom countertops.

For all of you, and for anyone in the market for a new home ... well, hallelujah! ... the Lakewood Ranch Tour of Homes is back, running from Oct. 20 through Nov. 19.

I have to admit my idea of interior decorating can best be described as thrift store chic. I could probably figure out a way to tie a fishing theme together throughout all the rooms, but figuring out whether a room should be contemporary or Tuscan, fugetaboutit.

For those of you who are seeking a new home, or just love to tinker with your wall coverings, Tour of Homes will feature "Meet the Designers at The Lake Club" from noon to 4 p.m. on Oct. 21 as one of its many special events connected with the tour. There, at 8307 Lake Club Blvd., you can chat up some model home design wizards used by Stock Development.

One such designer is Tye Davis of Pizzazz Interiors, who shared some design secrets that even made sense to me, a guy who once bought a plaid couch.

Davis knows she has to produce the "wow factor," for both the person who pores through "Better Homes & Gardens" as well as the person whose only interest is whether the garage floor is sealed.

To that end, Davis has two secret areas of concentration, which I guess won't be so secret now.

"One I love dressing up is the foyer," she said.

She figures if you have a lot of visitors making an entrance, it might as well be grand. "You want to find a dramatic foyer piece," she said. "All eyes will go to that beautiful piece of furniture or chandelier. It can be a statement piece."

The next, believe it or not, is the "powder bath."

Immediately, I asked her to take a step back. Power bath? Huh?

Oh, the guest bath. A half bath. I need to polish up my interior decorator speak.

Davis laughed, then continued. "This is a place for your guests," she said. "In fact, those are the two places, the foyer and the powder bath, that all your guests will see."

She explained the guest bath usually is a very small square footage, but it is a place where is makes sense to use a dramatic design, such as wallpaper or floor tile."

"The elements of style can be exaggerated," she said. "You can express your personality."

She went on to talk about kitchen cabinets having to do double duty in Florida since most homes don't have basements, that window treatments shouldn't obstruct views and that models need to have a lot of greenery.

Of course, Meet the Designers is just one event among many that will have the accumulative effect of allowing people to experience life in Lakewood Ranch. You can tour more than 70 model homes, enjoy a nature walk, take in a home-buying seminar or attend a theater production of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

For a complete list of Tour of Home events, go to lwrtourofhomes.com.