Warroad, Minn., April 12, 2010 – Have you ever found yourself fumbling for words while trying to describe your vision for what you want your living room to look like? Are you the type who might tear a photo out of a magazine and hold it up to the wall to see how that look might work in your home? The “Window Shopping” iPhone app from Marvin Windows and Doors is for you.

The Window Shopping app is a tool to help homeowners plan basic designs for windows and doors, inside and outside the house. After taking a photo of an interior or exterior space that could use an upgrade, the app user can choose from nearly 50 resizable photos of Marvin windows and doors, arrange them over the photo, and save or send the photo to share with friends, family or a local Marvin dealer. Watch a demo video below, and learn more or download the app at www.marvin.com/iphone.

The app includes interior and exterior views of several Marvin windows, as well as the five unique windows designed by Karim Rashid, Milton Glaser, Sarah Susanka and others as part of the myMarvin project. Users also can choose from an array of patio doors, offering a full lineup for redesigning the interior or exterior of a home. Window Shopping also includes automatically updating feeds from MLuxe, Marvin’s blog about fine home living and home improvement, and a special “Green Feed,” a series of articles and resources about energy efficiency and sustainability.

“Once a homeowner creates and saves a design idea, a Marvin dealer can bring the design to life by helping personalize windows or doors with the desired hardware, wood choices, colors, energy-efficiency ratings and so on,” said John Kirchner, public relations manager for Marvin Windows and Doors. “A dealer-locator tool is built into the app, which makes it easy to turn a homeowner’s design dream into a reality.”

Consider these findings from a recent study of older Americans (age 55 and up) by the Mature Market Institute:

• Nearly two-thirds (63%) plan to stay in their current home as long as they can. That number rises to 78 percent for those aged 75 and older
• Eight in 10 prefer a single-story home to a two-story or split-level, with 75 percent preferring to have the master bedroom on the main floor
• Windows that open easily rank among the top features that consumers said would help them remain in their homes longer, with 81 percent of consumers citing them as important. Other key desired features include a washer/dryer (90%), ample storage space (84%), and an easily operated thermostat (73%)
• Energy efficiency also ranked high on the list of desired features, with 73 percent of consumers saying that features such as windows with low-emissivity glass and EnergyStar-rated appliances are important to them

Those findings highlight why more than 80 percent of the builders surveyed in the same study indicated that they included Universal Design features in their 55+ community homes.

These features include:

• Wider doors and hallways
• Lever door handles
• Lower kitchen cabinets
• Larger medicine cabinets
• Attached garages with garage door openers
• Non-slip floors
• Larger medicine cabinets
• Easy opening windows

Recent census data shows that more than 29% of Americans aged 64 and over suffer some form of physical disability that makes it difficult for them to climb stairs, open doors and windows, or use a historically designed bathroom. That number reinforces the need for Universal Design when it comes to home building and remodeling for an aging – yet still independent – population.

Marvin Windows and Doors is responding to the growing need for Universal Design with products like:

• The Ultimate Casement line of windows, which swivel 140 degrees in “wash mode” to allow owners to wash the outside of the window from inside the house
• The Ultimate Push Out Casement, with wash mode plus the added ease of a simple push to open – no crank to turn
• The Low Profile, High Performance Sill – fits flush to the floor for easy access to patios and decks
• Unsurpassed hardware that makes opening even the largest windows a breeze

For more information on Universal Design, visit the Center for Universal Design

The MLuxe blog, Marvin Windows and Doors’ take on distinctive home style, is inspired by the company’s guiding principle: that each window and door it creates is “Built Around You.” MLuxe aims to help you express your personal style through your home, but the site will discuss far more than windows. Topics will range from architecture to sustainable living to ways to simplify your life.

To make MLuxe more relevant and helpful, the site will feature regular contributions from architect and best-selling author Sarah Susanka, home remodeling expert Lou Manfredini and garden designer P. Allen Smith.

Check out the site now, and be sure to subscribe to receive our future posts. www.marvinblog.com. More info on the blog and its contributors here.