Recent Articles

Apartment Bathrooms, Part 1

Sleek and functional, an apartment bathroom is designed to cope with limited space and busy lives. Choose simple shapes and gleaming plain surfaces for a modern look. Creating a stylish, easy-care bathroom in a small space is a common problem for many people, and particularly for city dwellers, where space is at a premium. The...

Scandinavian Kitchens, Part 1

With its streamlined country elegance, the Scandinavian style is an ideal solution for the heart of the home. Natural finishes and understated decorations combine to create a sense of warmth and hospitality for a family kitchen. With its emphasis on natural light, clean lines, and painted wood, Scandinavian style is an...

Furnish Your Porch With Care

Furniture for outdoor use spans the designs made popular through the centuries. You can select benches similar to those used in Versailles, Adirondack chairs, antebellum wrought iron inspired by Victorian New Orleans, and myriad other choices. A word of caution: just as decorative birdhouses won’t last outdoors, some...

About Patios, Decks, And Gazebos, P...

Free-standing outdoor spaces, such as gazebos or other garden structures, differ from sheltered spaces in several ways. Generally, they are not seen from the front of the house and are usually integrated with the landscape. Gazebos provide a wonderful opportunity to let loose a little and give in to your more fanciful...

Apartment Halls, Part 2

Furnishings Floors: Smooth, hard floors are the elegant, practical choice for the apartment-style hall. Pale and modern woodstrip flooring is light and space-defining, and looks good on its own or with a vibrant abstract design rug or two. A smooth sweep of plain floor acts as a foil for light and bold areas of color, and acts...

How To Choose Tiles

Whether you opt for hard tiles, such as ceramic, marble, terra cotta, or stone, or the softer finish of vinyl or cork, you’ll find that tiled surfaces offer many decorative and practical advantages over other forms of wall and floor covering. Tiles are divided roughly into two categories: Hard finish includes ceramic,...

Introduction To Outdoor Decorating

Savvy homeowners don’t end their decorating at the door, they keep going to include the decks, porches, sunrooms, and patios that surround their homes. They treat these spaces as outdoor “rooms” that deserve the attention the other rooms in their homes receive. They choose the best furnishings, colors,...

How To Decorate Sunrooms And Porche...

Attached outdoor spaces that provide total or partial shelter should be considered an extension of the home’s interior design. In most cases these areas embrace an entrance or serve to join two interior areas-a breezeway, for example. Traffic patterns figure importantly in overall furniture arrangements, as does the...

Red, Red, Red, Part 2

Red is traditionally used in dining rooms – the Victorians believed it aided the digestion. It makes a wonderful backdrop for sparkling silver and glass, sets off the rich tones of dark wood furniture, and casts a romantic glow in candlelight. This is a room used generally in the evenings and for short periods so it...

Island Kitchens, Part 1

If you have enough space, a well-planned central island can become the functional heart of a kitchen, providing extra storage, work surfaces, or a venue for quick meals. An island kitchen is essentially one that is large enough to allow a central working unit. This can be as complex as a custom-built unit, possibly on more than...