There he sat, all 80 pounds of him, folded with great effort in the seat of my new beige chair, paying no mind that he was not only dirtying up my new goods, but crushing the downy embroidered throw pillow that cost more than I’ll ever admit. “Percy!” I yelled. “Bad dog!” He stared back [...]
You don’t have to know a rhombus from a rectangle to know that geometric patterns are a hot trend in home design. The proof is everywhere; talk to any designer, flip through the pages of design magazines and catalogs, or scan the shelves of home décor stores and you’ll see an abundance of geometric patterns [...]
The RSVPs are in, the menu planned, the linens pressed, the floor vacuumed. You feel ready for the party. Many times, setting up the bar is an afterthought, or at least saved until the last minute, only because you know you can count on the standard bottles that live quietly in the liquor cabinet. Pull [...]
From pottery to porcelain, from silver to stamps…you name it, it’s been collected. But what should we do with all these collectibles? Put them in a box and forget about them? Absolutely not! Collections tell stories of our lives, and should punctuate that story as accents around our homes. Here, three consummate collectors of varying [...]
Recently a friend gave me a tour of her new custom-built home. “And here’s the keeping room,” she said, gesturing to a cozy, window-filled nook off the kitchen. Before I could stop myself from expressing ignorance of something I should really know, I asked her, “What’s a keeping room?” She said, with a laugh, “It’s the [...]
Several years ago, after driving over the weed whacker as I pulled my car into the garage, flinging the door open smack into the lawnmower, and tripping over a bike on my way into the house, we decided it might be time for change. Sure, some of these mishaps may have been due to haste or bad [...]
The art of “porch sitting” may be a fading Southern tradition, but not at Shadowland, the Troutville home of Flo and Bill Fahrbach, where creating a welcoming porch environment and using it to its fullest potential is a tradition that goes back three generations. “It’s always been this way,” says Flo, explaining that she grew [...]
Roses are a little bit like celebrities. Both have a reputation for being mysterious, elusive and a little bit fussy, and yet somehow they are available everywhere—even in the grocery store checkout line. But take a closer look at this age-old flower. Roses have a lot more to offer than fodder for tabloids; they have [...]
You know what they say about first impressions: You get one chance to make a good one. Your home’s foyer presents the perfect opportunity to give your guests a good impression about the rest of your home and the experience they’ll have visiting you. This space is often overlooked, however, because either we don’t use [...]
I don’t know about you, but I’m always on the prowl for some tidbit of information that will make life better, easier, more efficient or fun—whether it’s a crowd-pleasing recipe, a chore-changing dish soap, or, particularly at this time of year, a great gift idea. So this holiday season, I thought I’d seek tips from none other than [...]
