Décor Score by Rose Bennett Gilbert

Q: What should I do with a really big fireplace that doesn't actually work? I keep it full of dried flowers in the summer, but would like a change for the holidays, something besides a pile of logs, please.

A: Easy as rolling off a log — pun intentional — here's an instant decorating lesson from two of the best, Benjamin Bradley and David Thiergartner (BradleyThiergartnerInteriors.com). They drew the opening number, so to speak, in this year's Holiday House, a rather spectacular Manhattan mansion built in l921 and metamorphosed in 2011 into a show-house fundraiser (Susan G. Komen for The Cure), in conjunction with Traditional Home magazine.

The grand house has a grand entrance: marble floors, soaring ceilings and a classic stone fireplace one could almost walk into. It, like yours, couldn't hold an actual fire. Instead, the design team, Bradley and Thiergartner, filled it with light, hiding its source behind a cluster of potted white poinsettias on one side and balancing them with a trio of Renaissance-scaled candleholders on the other.

They draped the mantel with a garland of equally heroic proportions, made from magnolia leaves and faux fruits sprayed and then dusted with sparkle "Everything in sight got covered with sparkle!" Bradley and Thiergartner reported. Other mantel accessories had to be scaled up, proportionate to such grand gestures: a large painting, lit up and framed in gold; an even larger artwork propped against the wall then balanced by a fawn-sized deer sculpture.

The fireplace commands the center of attention, of course, but there are other, elegant little accents to savor up-close, should you get to see the Holiday House (holidayhousenyc.com/designers-2/2011) before it disappears on Dec.

8. My favorite: Bradley's beaded Christmas tree, his handmade mini-holiday miracle preserved under a traditional glass dome.

Q: I don't like decorating that's cliched, but I have occasionally been accused of being a rebel without a cause, meaning, I guess, that I've gone too far — as my ex-husband used to say about my all-black bathroom. How do you know when not to go over the top?

A: One clue: When people question your "cause." Another, when you feel inspired to write in for decorating advice.

Is it that you're losing the courage of your convictions? Or are you just facing up to the fact that good taste still trumps most wild cards? I'd be the last to put a damper on anyone's creativity (a black bath sounds interesting). After all, this is your home you're decorating, and you should fit it to your personality.

Still, like gravity, certain design immutables still apply, even to offbeat ideas. For example, designer Felicia Zwebner deliberately mismatched the classic velvet dining chairs she pulled up to two round tables in the dining room she designed for Holiday House. Think ice blue, claret, green, plum, pumpkin and wheat. All of them different, all of them delicious and altogether unorthodox. (See more at feliciazwebner.com.)

Then there was James Rixner's Holiday House room, done up for Valentine's without a touch of red. He worked in dark chocolate instead. Good for the heart; great anti-cliche. (See more at jamesrixner.com).

(SET CAPTIN) Off-duty but still the center of attention, this large fireplace is lavished with light, garlands and scaled-up works of art. (END CAPTION)

Photo: Philip Ennis (end caption).

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design. 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 2011 CREATORS.COM