We go in search of 10 very different emporiums you might have overlooked.
All summer you gardened. And you mowed.
Then came fall, and there was the raking (and a little more mowing). Now winter is finally upon us, and with it, a chance to take a deep breath and evaluate what's inside our homes instead of outside of them.
For some of us, a trip to IKEA will do. For others, a trip back in time is the only way to go. If you love antiques, Baltimore's a great place to be,...
Going green for Christmas, harvesting for decorations, and winter houseplant triage.
Q: Our family has decided to get a live blue spruce for Christmas. We'll decorate it for the holidays and then plant it somewhere in our garden. Can you offer any advice on how to make this work?
A: When buying trees with root balls that are wrapped in burlap, the most important thing is to keep the entire root ball moist, but not soaked. Once you bring your tree home, let it sit outside as long...
10 favorite personal services that come to your home!
So you say you need an extra 8.7 hours in your average day just to get halfway down your to-do list? And that most of the personal services you need are hanging out the "closed" sign just when you're finally getting off work? No sweat: We went in search of all the myriad mobile services that do house calls, from tailors and personal chefs to pedicurists and personal trainers, and found a wealth...
Artist Elaine Hamilton's home reflects a lifetime of globetrotting adventure.
Elaine Hamilton O'Neal has bunked in a variety of places in her lifetime. She owned a 42-room chateau in France before downsizing to one with just 18 rooms. She and her husband, William O'Neal, lived in a converted mill near Birmingham, Alabama; she's lived in apartments in Florence and New York, in a tent at the Mount Everest base camp, and was once put up by the Houston, Texas, Rotary Club in...
Farm Fresh
Angie Moore had always envisioned retiring to a horse farm, but as a single mom raising four children in a modest home in Linthicum, her dream was a distant one. Then ironically, one of the darkest times in her life led to her dream becoming a reality. In 2003, her mother, Glenda Johnson, died unexpectedly. Johnson's life partner, Aris Melissaratos, who acted as a father to Angie and her brood,...
Primers on drying herbs and forcing paperwhites for the holidays.
Q: I love to decorate my home for the holidays, and forcing paperwhites is something I'd like to try. Does it take a lot of time and effort?
A: Paperwhites are hybridized narcissus. They are easily forced into bloom, but bloom only once, then the bulb is spent. It is important that you buy your bulbs while they are still firm. When shopping for these (they cost about $1 each), buy at least...
Three couples describe how they made the blending of their different design tastes (almost) fireworks-free.
Stacey Phinney's mother was an antiques dealer, so she grew up around old things—but without ever developing a love for them. For Phinney, they were simply the tools of her mother's trade, not pieces to be savored or treasured. So when she renovated her Canton home, she filled it with contemporary furniture, designed everything to have clean, modern lines, and detailed the kitchen with granite...
In projects large and small, these designers are known for their signature use of fabrics.
Textile designer Mark Pollack likes to tell the story of an interior designer who, while working on a restaurant, wanted to use one of his more expensive floral fabrics to upholster the seats and backs of otherwise prosaic chairs. But the woman's plan, says Pollack, a Baltimore native and cofounder of the Manhattan-based fabric company Pollack, would likely have quadrupled the cost of each chair...
One of the region's reigning green gurus, Rob Brennan, on how to make an environmentally friendly home.
You could say that Rob Brennan was interested in green architecture before it was cool. Even before Sarah Susanka's iconic book, The Not So Big House, changed the way Americans thought about the proportions of their living spaces, he was a proponent of that philosophy of design. He's active on numerous historic-preservation committees, declaring that, "The greenest thing you can do is reuse old...
High-end refrigerators come in endless styles—including nearly invisible—and can do just about anything (except carpool the kids).
When Vicki and Charles Spira set out to renovate their Pikesville kitchen, the goal was not to create a dramatic room for stirring up extravagant meals, but rather to ensure that the kitchen would blend seamlessly with the rest of the house. "I'm not a gourmet cook," says Vicki. "I wanted a room that we could live in." Taking visual emphasis away from the appliances was key. So when it came to...
