August 2, 2010

Making Eco-Friendly Flooring Choices

Homes

One of the most appealing products I’ve found in doing my flooring research is a new 100% Reclaimed American Oak floor from HomerWood Premium Hardwood Flooring. Not only is it a sustainable choice—it’s made of slow-growth timber, which came from forests in the Appalachian Mountain region and was used to construct barns across areas of Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania in the early 1800s—it’s also beautiful and filled with character, including nail holes, cracks, mineral streaks and saw kerfs. The flooring is also offered with a natural oil finish in brown, whitewash, natural and slate-colored options. This kind of finish gives … Read Post

July 30, 2010

Designing a Home in Accord with Vastu

Projects & Tips

When my husband, Anil, and I visited our family in India last October, we were invited to the home of friends in a village in the hills near Pune, about 2½ hours by car from Bombay. There was an exceptionally serene quality about this home and I learned from our friends that it was designed with the input of an expert in vastu, a 5,000-year-old Vedic system of architectural planning that enables houses and buildings to be situated and constructed in harmony with nature and unseen energies. The system combines science with spirituality and was the precursor to feng shui, … Read Post

July 28, 2010

Color Trends in the Home for 2011

Interiors

My choices in color for the home are rarely driven by trends, but I always love observing them anyway. They often reflect economic or global trends that help you see design within a larger context. And integrating a new color is one of the easiest ways to make a space look fresh. Since I’m in color consideration mode, I recently talked with Jackie Jordon, director of color marketing for Sherwin-Williams, to get her take on the colors she sees coming into the fore next year. Here’s part of our conversation: Jean: Which colors or color combinations do you see emerging in … Read Post

July 26, 2010

Getting Estimates on Refinishing or Installing a Wood Floor

Homes

After asking for referrals and scoping out various online sites that list pre-screened flooring contractors, I found four contractors who came to our home last week to give me estimates on refinishing or replacing our mildly water-damaged wood floors. Interestingly, they all had different opinions on what could or should be done, and all offered very different quotes on fixing our floors. Here’s a summary of what I found: Experts often disagree. Two of the contractors said it wouldn’t be worthwhile to refinish the floors. Two of them said it would be no problem. You don’t always have to pay … Read Post

July 22, 2010

Using Color to Create Character in a Room

Interiors

Since I’m on the verge of repainting several rooms in my home, I’ve been thinking a lot about color lately. I’ve also been talking to a lot of color experts to get their insights on how they use it to create a mood and enhance the character of a room. When designer Nestor Santa Cruz showed me this room in a home he designed in Washington D.C., which appeared in Elle Décor last year and was just republished in a Portuguese magazine called Casa Claudia, I asked him to share his thoughts on how the color scheme evolved. Here’s a … Read Post

July 21, 2010

Cleaning Hardwood Floors Without Lifting a Finger

Interiors

The wood floors in my home may be water damaged but at least they’re clean. When Swiffers came along, keeping them that way got a whole lot easier. But a new device called Mint promises to make cleaning wood and other hard floors even simpler. So simple in fact that you just have to switch it on and it does all the cleaning for you. Developed by Evolution Robotics in collaboration with renowned industrial designer Yves Behar, Mint is a sleek robotic appliance that relies on internal sensors and advanced navigation technologies to circulate around and into every nook and … Read Post

July 19, 2010

Cooking for a Crowd: A Simple Summer Meal

Epicure

I have to confess that there are times when my ambitions exceed my abilities—or at least the hours in a day I have available to achieve them. Such was the case, alas, with my plans to serve an Indian-inspired meal to my friends at a party I hosted with my husband, Anil, this past weekend. After entreating a talented Indian chef, Kuntal Kumar, to supply me with a menu for the gathering (see my 6/21/10 post Healthy Organic Gourmet Food), I put forth the effort to test drive the recipes during the previous week and found to my delight that they … Read Post

July 16, 2010

Understanding the Emotional Impact of Color

Projects & Tips

Everybody has a visceral response to color. We tend to either like a color or we don’t. Lots of studies have been done to document the physiological effects that color elicits in humans. Red, for example, has been shown to increase the heart rate, while deep shades of blue, like the sky at dusk, can make people feel drowsy. Yet little research has been done to evaluate the emotional impact of color. To find out more about how color can influence emotions, I recently spoke with Catherine Poole, a medical intuitive and former spokesperson for Home Depot’s Fresh Aire Choice paint. Catherine … Read Post

July 15, 2010

Beautiful Eco-Friendly Baby Bedding

Interiors

When I saw Serena & Lily’s new summer catalog, I knew instantly where I’d be shopping for a shower gift for my niece when her baby is due this fall. Started by designer Serena Dugan and philanthropist and entrepreneur Lily Kanter, this California-based catalog company and its complementary online store offers the prettiest bedding and bedroom furniture not just for nurseries, but for children’s, guest and master bedrooms, too. For babies, Serena & Lily offers a wide range of bedding collections for boys and girls, including sheets, skirts and bumpers. For each collection the Web site also offers extra design … Read Post

July 13, 2010

Coping with a Hoarder

Interiors

Shortly after I wrote my post Clearing Clutter on 6/2, I received a comment from my friend Jo Maeder, who doesn’t believe I have issues with clutter. Compared to the home of her mother, who was a hoarder, Jo says my home is the picture of neatness. Jo wrote a memoir called When I Married My Mother: A Daughter’s Search for What Really Matters and How She Found It Caring for Mama Jo (Da Capo Press), which chronicles her experience of caring for her mother through the final years of her life, including the episode of clearing out years of … Read Post