Elaine Markoutsas

There are many variables in decorating and much depends on your personal likes and dislikes. We asked Chicago designer Richard Menna for his Top 10 decorating tips. This is what...

Most hardwood floors are treated with a stain, a sealer and a top coat. Most floors installed today have water-based, moisture-cured or oil-modified urethane finishes and acid-cured finishes, which are...

Few homeowners are in a position to decorate from scratch. Mark Winstanley, design manager for Laura Ashley, offers some tips on how to make the new work with the old:...

Charlotte Peters and Jo Anna Duensing like to get down and dirty. The Chicago-area women are landscape designers, gardeners extraordinaire who transform average yards into plant-filled paradises. From early spring...

Here are some tips from Nancy Lindemeyer, editor of Victoria, on how to make your home more romantic. - Bedrooms: Four poster beds with canopies or swathed in fabrics are...

In an article in New York Woman magazine, ophthalmologist Alan J. Friedman said that plaid is a complicated pattern for the brain to interpret. ''It may cause some degree of...

For several years, Claudia Skylar has taught courses in residential rehabbing and renovation. Although there are many variables that make it difficult to generalize, here are some of her basic...

Showcase houses-residences that have been ''taken over'' and redecorated by teams of designers, then opened for public tours for some worthy cause-typically are homes that are for sale. But this...

The first balmy breezes beckon most folks outdoors for weekend activities, whether it`s playing a little catch, golfing, gardening or barbecuing. America`s love affair with the outdoors has profoundly affected...

From the front, beyond dense woods and 6-foot-tall weeds, the house was painfully plain. But that didn`t faze the prospective homeowners. Sited on an otherwise lovely three-acre property in Harbert,...