"Spring cleaning" gets an awful lot of buzz, but the rest of the year often gets neglected. It shouldn't. As the weather starts to chill, it's the perfect opportunity to do some preparation for winter - some mild winterizing. A good, full-on house-cleaning is a great idea at this time of year, when...

When I was a kid, Sundays in the fall meant one thing: Redskins football. My dad and brother are diehard fans, so every week that they didn't make it to the stadium, they turned our living room into their own private, encosed tailgate. My mom would cook soup or chili, so the whole house smelled great...

I like to think of this ideabook as a guide to making a home "manageably masculine." A lot of the design I notice in shelter mags and online has a distinctly feminine touch. Even if the rooms aren't all ruffles and cotton candy pink, they've got a girly vibe that's hard to deny. They're pretty rooms...

The other night, while out to dinner, I spent some time looking very carefully around the restaurant. It was a small chain and had obviously been carefully designed to evoke a certain feeling and to make the most of diner experiences (also, I'm guessing, to make the most MONEY off diner experiences)....

Thanks to the snowstorm of historic proportions (aka snowpacolypse, snowmaggedon, SNOMG, and my favorite, Snowtorious B.I.G.), a lot of people who usually work in an office have had to work from home this week. As a result, a lot of people are probably also rethinking their current home office situation. Working...

It's almost Valentine's Day...and that means chocolate. Lots and lots of red heart-boxed chocolate. Chocolate is delicious in the box, and it's amazing in the home, too. It's a rich color, with depth and sophistication, and works in a lot of ways. As an aside, several of these rooms were designed...