Yeah, yeah, yeah, there is ordinary old biennial Rudbeckia that is 2 feet tall and for sale in any nursery, but then there is the long-living giant coneflower. If you would like to be the talk of your gardening friends, provide the latter a place to accent your border or meadow. Missouri Botanical Garden Botanical… Continue reading Fantastic Design Plant: Giant Coneflower, a Authentic Exclamation Point

I’ve long admired the work of the husband and wife architect team of Stuart Cohen and Julie Hacker. Like this other great architect on Chicago’s North Shore, Howard Van Doren Shaw, Cohen and Hacker have assembled some remarkable houses in Chicago and its environs. While the majority of these houses have been large manor houses,… Continue reading Modern Marries Conventional at a Chicago'Shotgun' Home

As part of its annual design to support local neighborhood associations, The Junior League of Palo Alto•Mid Peninsula, California, decked out four family homes in the San Francisco Bay Area in fresh seasonal exhibits to showcase the work of local designers. From bay leaf garland wrapped around a stair handrail into hot-pink acrylic plastic name… Continue reading 4 Home Tour Dazzlers Give Holiday Decor Inspiration

Maybe you have a houseful of hand-me-down furniture, or else you’re a devoted thrift store shopper. Maybe you found just one piece you could not resist in the design store. Or maybe you simply don’t like”matchy-poo” sets (as one design maven I know calls them). No matter the reason, you’ve ended up having an odd… Continue reading How to Pull Off Mismatched Nightstands

This 100-acre land in Chester County, Pennsylvania, provides an abundance of opportunities for adventure and is steeped in historical significance. It was here in the lush grasslands where Texas cattle ranchers found relief to their herds in the drought-scorched pastures of the Southwest. The property is full of woods of climbable hardwood trees where wild… Continue reading A Tepee in the Trees Defies the Ordinary