June 2, 2010

Clearing Clutter

Interiors

I consider myself to be a relatively neat person, but my husband, Anil, has a different view of my organizing skills. He told me recently that if I could get organized he’d give me a crown. I don’t care about the crown, but who can’t benefit from a little more order in life? So, I invited Lisa Zaslow to my home for an organization consultation. Lisa is the CEO and founder of Gotham Organizers, a New York-based firm that specializes in helping people clear their clutter at home and at work. I hoped she could offer me some advice on … Read Post

May 23, 2010

Affordable Organic Cotton Towels

Interiors

It’s still the middle of spring, I know, but after going to a preview of new bath and bedding products from Lands’ End recently, I’m already looking forward to fall, when the Wisconsin-based company’s new velvet quilt and all-season Portuguese flannel sheets will be available. In the meantime, I’m happily enjoying its new certified organic cotton towels, which come in a dozen colors and are longer, wider and thicker than the average towel to provide extra coverage. They also feature zero-twist cotton loops at an ample 600 grams per square inch, which make them softer, fluffier and more absorbent. And, … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Warming Up Modern Rooms

Interiors

I love the work of Nestor Santa-Cruz, a Cuban designer who’s a design principal with the Washington D.C.-based firm Gensler. He has a wonderful way of bringing warmth and personality to modern spaces. I asked him recently to share his thoughts on how he generates positive feelings in a room. He told me that as a designer, he tries “to make spaces that have a soul and therefore bring an certain ‘interior’ joy to the inhabitants of the rooms.” He said he likes to find or create a personality in a room by developing a point of view that somehow … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Flowers as Anti-Depressants

Interiors

I went to a fun media event last week sponsored by the Society of American Florists. Intuitively, I’ve alwa ys understood the power of flowers to chase the blues away. Whenever I feel low, I go for a walk to get a lift from the abundance of flowers in the lovely park in my neighborhood. But representatives from the Society introduced me to some research that’s been done by top universities across the country on the happiness-inducing effects of flowers that quantifies their positive impact on the human psyche. A Harvard research team, for example, investigated the effects of flowers … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Finding the Perfect Mattress

Interiors

Like Goldilocks, I am in search of, among other things, the perfect mattress—one that feels just right. A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to test out a couple of options from Sealy’s new Embody line of mattresses, which will be available in select retail stores this spring. The sleek, new innovative mattresses come in two models: a Visco/Memory foam mattress for people who like the feeling of sinking into their bed and a latex foam mattress for people who prefer the feeling of lying on their bed. I preferred the latex model, and found that there was much … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Creating a Window Shade that Blocks Light

Interiors

After rough-housing the shade on our bedroom window for the past 10 years or so, my husband, Anil, told me recently that we’re ready for a new one. The existing shade is fraying at the hem and although it’s a made of a plain ivory cotton fabric, it has also faded unevenly from exposure to the sun. Furthermore, the blackout roller shade that used to be mounted behind it has fallen down, so my husband needs to wear a mask when he sleeps to keep the early-morning light from waking him before he’s gotten a full night’s sleep. I went … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Speed Decorating

Interiors

When it comes to decorating with individuality and imagination, it’s hard beat the incredibly gracious and wonderfully versatile New York designer Jamie Drake, who has decorated the homes of notable clients such as Madonna and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. Jamie’s ideas on speed decorating were recently profiled in the New York Times, and riffing on this theme, I recently asked him for one of his favorite ways to quickly brighten up a room. He told me that the quality of a room’s light is one of the most important factors in creating warmth and charm. “If your lampshades are … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Inspiring Indoor-Outdoor Rugs and Pillows

Interiors

The inventiveness of certain product designers never ceases to amaze me. Take the Israeli-born designer Liora Manne, for example, who developed the patented Lamontage technique, which she uses to create her amazing indoor/outdoor rugs and pillows. She recently invited me to her showroom in the Chelsea district of Manhattan to show me how the process works—and how it allows her to create a wide range of subtle effects in her products, many of which look like hand-painted works of art. The technique involves overlapping swaths of polyester fibers in different colors to create a unique design and then merging them … Read Post

May 16, 2010

Decorating Ideas for Small Rooms

Interiors

Just because a room is small, doesn’t mean there’s a limit to how happy it can be. Libby Langdon, the super-bubbly designer and talented expert on HGTV’s program “Small Space, Big Style,” knows a lot about how to make a small room live large. I talked to her a few weeks ago, shortly after she’d appeared as a guest on the Rachel Ray show, and asked her for her thoughts on how to amp up the happiness factor in small spaces. While her ideas are great for compact rooms, they could work just as easily in medium and large rooms, … Read Post