Ask a Designer: style in a small outdoor space

Design magazines and home decorating catalogs tend to feature sprawling backyards with big wooden decks and room for everything from decorative fountains to artificial ponds.

Make a room your own with custom fabric, wallpaper

When Renee Pedro bought a house with mid-century décor, she decided to embrace the look.

At Home: A Look Back at Lessons Learned, Part 1

As has become tradition, the last two weeks of the year I glance back at the 50 cathartic home columns I’ve written, and pull one takeaway tidbit of scenario-wrapped advice from each month, and re-share them here.

At Home: What Color Is Your Future?

In the same way many of us can sense a cold coming on or a storm in the offing, some tuned-in types can spot a hot (or cool) color trend long before it arrives. These color forecasters go around with divining rods implanted in their foreheads.

At Home: When young love meets a good house, much is possible

Young love is a state unto itself — full of starry-eyed possibilities, idealism, passion, and a hefty dose of delusion. Young house love is exactly the same.

At Home: With gifts, it's what's on the outside that counts

In my constant endeavor to live more graciously, haste is my undoing. I am often whirling through life on extended credit from the time bank, and it shows — especially in my gift wrapping.

At Home: This Christmas, make a scene

Whenever I visit a holiday tree festival where top designers deck the halls (and trees), I come away feeling as dull as a bureaucrat from Buffalo.

At Home: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – and staying!

Those who’ve managed to keep tabs on the coordinates of my far-flung family know I have a husband in Colorado, a daughter with me in Florida and another daughter in Texas allegedly attending college.

At Home: Rats! One Pest Problem Spawns Another

“YEEP!” I text my oldest daughter at college.

At Home: Three hurricanes, one homeowner's horror, and some heroes

So you think you've had contractor nightmares. I know I have. But I guarantee ours wither like flowers by the fire compared to what Linda Lipofsky's been through.

At Home: Making the world better, one napkin at a time

If I have pounded one message into my kids’ heads it’s this: Your job is to figure out your gifts and use them to make the world a better place. I try to model that behavior. And I am going to do that today beginning with — cocktail napkins.

At Home: Design questions from readers

As long as I live, I will have more questions than answers. In fact, I’ve built this column on my endless design and home improvement quandaries. I run my problems by experts, and report my findings to you.

Modernize your home’s interior in a few simple steps

Once upon a time, you loved the look of your living space, but now it feels so last-century. If this sounds like you, consider injecting new energy into your home by making a few high-impact changes without a high-roller budget.

At Home: A design challenge to help Habitat

You will find this hard to believe. You will wonder how this could be. I did.

At Home: Design rules made for breaking

I’m not a fan of rules. Give me a rule, and my inner rebel asks why and looks for an exception. While I get that rules have their place in society — kids should stay in school; drivers going the same direction should drive on the same side of the road; everyone should turn off his cell phone…

Tile with style: Tips for making the right choice

Choosing tile for your home once meant picking from among a handful of pastel ceramic squares. Would it be dusty pink or dusty blue? If you were feeling bold, maybe mint green or pale yellow?

At Home: Go to the dark side

I am in the dark about a lot of subjects, and light is one of them. But the dark is a great place to start when seeking enlightenment on lighting, says at least one lighting expert.