RealEstateJournal | Home Improvement:

When it comes to interior decorating, the big buzz is coming from an unlikely creative community — designers whose nametags read Ikea, Lowe’s, even Ace Hardware. Hoping to boost their share of the $196 billion home-remodeling industry, national chains are expanding their ranks of full-service designers and taking on some fancy jobs. Lowe’s, which added more than 50 locations in the past year, says its in-store kitchen designs have sold so well it is now branching out into deck-planning services. The Great Indoors, Sears’s home-décor chain, did 54% more kitchen designs in 2004 than in the previous year. Coming this summer to House Beautiful magazine: Projects by two designers from Expo Design Center, a Home Depot subsidiary.

Further evidence that either the Apocalypse is upon us, or our lives are becoming more efficient.