Décor Score by Rose Bennett Gilbert

Q: We are thinking about buying a grand old townhouse that dates to the mid-l9th century. It will need some restoration but the architecture (plaster moldings, ceiling medallions and floors) is in surprisingly good shape. We have a few antiques, but most of our furniture is contemporary, so we're looking to blend periods — old and now — and need advice.

A: If pictures are really worth a thousand words, here's all the advice you need, summed up in this photo of a splendid, old, big-city, row house that has been beautifully reclaimed by architects Katarina Edlund and Scott Slarsky.

According to Michael Lassell, who wrote the book, "Glamour," from which we've borrowed this photo, the house was built in l868 with all the attention that era lavished on architectural details like the crown moldings, center-ceiling medallion and carved fireplace with its handsome over-mantel mirror.

Ditto Edlund and Slarsky nearly a century and a half later.

"They treated the architectural details with respect but introduced a modern sensibility in the simple window treatments and a neutral palette," the Lassell writes. Uber-modern updates include the high-gloss, black-painted floor, the lean contemporary sofa upholstered in white leather, and the room-making dramatic fabric on the traditional armchairs.

This is a room Henry James' "Heiress" would come home to and fling her cashmere coat across the couch while she checked her iPad for RSVPs for cocktails tonight, don't you think?

Q: We have a first-floor powder room that is so drab I hate to send anyone but family in there.

It's small, about 5 x 5, and my mother-in-law says we should paint it a light color to make it look bigger or hang wallpaper with a tiny pattern. We're not changing the plumbing — maybe the lighting. What else can we do to make it more attractive?

A: Start by (quietly) ignoring your mother-in-law's advice. She means well, but she's passing along old-think information based on outdated notions about small-space decorating.

Yes, conventional wisdom holds that light colors make spaces look larger.

Yes, it s also a "rule" that patterns should be proportionate to room size, therefore, small rooms get small-patterned wallpaper.

But nowhere is it written that you can't wax brave and throw caution to the winds of change! Many professional interior designers go in the exact opposite direction, making big design statements in small rooms by using deep or bright paint colors and/or dramatically over-scaled patterns on wallpaper.

The room may be tiny, they reason, but why make it insignificant?

While you're enlivening this little space, consider wallpapering the ceiling, too, or painting it the same color as the walls. If there's room, bring in a dressy table lamp or add wall sconces on either side of the mirror, which you should also change if it's dull or utilitarian looking. Then toss a nice little Oriental rug on the floor and your ugly duckling will look quite ducky, indeed!

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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.

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