Home Improvement

Home-decorating TV shows and glossy shelter magazines have many homeowners embracing the bold, unexpected use of color that cutting-edge designers love. But creative color can be tricky. Three experts offer advice on doing it right.

Often the need to get more use out of a space arises when an elderly parent joins the household or a grown child returns home.

If you own a home in an area of the country where you get cold and snowy winters, then you've probably already experienced ice dams. If, on the other hand, you are a first-time homeowner or a new transplant who has just purchased a home in a region of the country with harsh winters, then you may be unfamiliar with ice dams. If you fall into one of these two latter types of homeowner categories, then it's important that you become familiar with ice dams and know how to resolve them quickly.

When we decorate our homes, we express ourselves through the furniture we buy and the colors we select. But perhaps no element of decorating says more about us than the personal photographs we display.

By Susan Zevon On the leafy street where I grew up, spring brought blazing forsythia and a canopy of fresh green blooms. But for me,...

You probably didn’t realize, when you put an ornate old picture frame next to the sleek Pottery Barn sofa in your living room, that you had your finger on the pulse of America’s design culture.

Landlords often want their white walls to stay white. Many won’t let you do even the most minor construction. Some even ask renters not to nail anything to the walls.

Whisper-soft, ultra-pale shades of pink — described by designers as “blush tones” — are back. But the ’80s haven’t returned, at least not entirely, said designer Brian Patrick Flynn.

Think ballet- and watercolor-inspired pastels; soft fabrics and sheer window treatments; and curvy furniture, often in traditional shapes but updated with modern fabrics and pattern.

Whatever a person’s taste, “I think almost everybody wants to maximize the light in their living space,” said HGTV host Genevieve Gorder.