Recently I was asked to be a judge, alongside Michael Payne (of HGTV’s Designing for the Sexes) for a the design event “Serving Up Style” here in Portland.  In this competition designers are given a blank space to convert into dining room.

These days, mirrors can be found throughout most every home in the world, but they were not always as accessible to the masses. Mirrors date back as to the ancient Greeks and Romans. These first mirrors were simply highly polished disk of bronze, silver or copper. These mirrors would be small, usually with a decorative [...]

Since the beginning of time, humans have collected things of interest to them. Many of these collectibles such as precious stones and metals later were used for trade. As far back as the Renaissance (14th to 17th century), there have been documented collections of items such as books, art, and Greek and Roman antiquities. In [...]

After recently finding out that four of my readers are pregnant, I started thinking about some nursery ideas. Although no one quite knows when the first nursery was designed, as with most design, it was most likely commissioned for royalty. In addition to the newborn child, the nurse or nursemaid would sleep in the room [...]

The Baroque period is commonly attributed to the years between 1600 and 1750. The period of design before Baroque, Mannerism, relied heavily on proportion, straight lines and classical detail. The actual meaning of the word Baroque is believed to be from the Portuguese word for ‘rough or irregular pearl,’ and was commonly used in the [...]

We live in a world where we are bombarded with too much information. There are signs telling us where to go, where to shop, what to buy, what to eat, what to wear, where to live, what to drive, who to be, how to communicate, what doctor to see, what pills to take, what gym [...]