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An Open-and-Shut Case For Dressing Doors Differently
Q: Our sun porch has six windows plus a French door that leads out to the patio. My furniture is mostly traditional, so I'm thinking of using pleated draperies on the windows. But what should I do with the door? It opens into the room, so more …Read more.
Ask Michelangelo: To Wallpaper a Ceiling, it Helps to be an Artist
Q: We have a quirky room, a sun porch with six, large arched windows and a cove ceiling — lots of different angles. I would like to wallpaper the ceiling, too, but I don't know how to handle the curves. Any helpful hints?
A: Wallpapering …Read more.
Wood You Believe? Yesterday's Timber Leads a Second Life
Q: Our son and his two young children are moving in with us after his divorce. We had planned to move ourselves, but now we'll stay put and add a great room for the kids. Our house is Tudor-style, so we want the new room to blend with the old things,…Read more.
Treat Windows with Accordion Shades to Gain Privacy
Q: I don't have a clue about what to do with the six windows in our dining room alcove. We are right on the street corner, so we need something for privacy, but I refuse to keep the windows covered all the time. Suggestions, please!
A: You have a …Read more.
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Designer Gloria Vanderbilt Reconstructs Her 1940s Childhood RoomQ: Did I read that Gloria Vanderbilt had become an interior designer? Last I heard, she was making jeans. A: I don't think Ms. Vanderbilt has given up her day job — being one of the world's wealthiest women — but you are partially correct. She did try her hand at interior design again when she created a room at this spring's famous Kips Bay Show House in New York. I should say "recreated" a room. Now 85, Vanderbilt was inspired by a room that was originally designed by her aunt, Gertrude Whitney, the relative who actually raised the famously "poor little rich girl" back in the 1940s. With its silver leaf wallpaper, Swedish grandfather clock circa 1857 and headboard covered in moire faille, the room looks very sophisticated for the 16-year-old who once lived in it. But that was in the glam days before World War II, remember? Decorator Matthew Patrick Smyth certainly remembers. It was his idea, in fact, that Vanderbilt join the lineup of interior designers who created fantasy rooms in the Manhattan mansion, which served as this year's show house. Open through May 17, this designer show house raises funds for the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Clubs (www.kipsbay.org). Smyth and Vanderbilt worked together on recreating her girlhood room until it was "faithful in spirit, if not in every detail," as reporter Eric Konigsberg put it in a newspaper review. One detail that is Vanderbilt's exclusively: a quote she painted on one wall, taken from a memoir she wrote in 1985 about her tumultuous childhood. It reads, "I fell in love with this room and forever tried to recapture it ..." At one point during her long creative life, Vanderbilt started a home furnishings business. Now, she's proving that one can go home again — almost — given enough silver leaf, chandelier crystals and the expert help of a professional designer like Matthew Smyth (www.matthewsmyth.com). Q: Guess who's cooking up dining tables? A: The Emmy-winning, folksy talking, world's most down-home cook herself, Paula Deen. Debuting at Universal Furniture (www.universalfurniture.com) during the recent High Point Furniture Market, her new collection of "put your feet up on it" furniture includes several dining tables — no surprise. But what is newsy: A couple of the tables are tall and square; they not only double as extra workspace in the kitchen, they also "let you really lock eyes with the person you're eating with," as Deen puts it. Including bedroom pieces (there's a "Steel Magnolia" bed), TV cabinets and sideboards aimed at convivial dining rooms, the Universal collection is based on the furniture in Deen's own Savannah, Ga., home. "Only in the last few years have I been able to afford good furniture like antiques," Deen confided to admirers, who thronged the Universal showroom to sip sweet tea and compliment the cook. "Seeing this furniture makes me emotional," she told them. "It does just what I wanted. It kinda puts its arms around you and says, 'Come on in!'"
Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Hampton Style" and associate editor of Country Decorating Ideas. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2009 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC. 
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