Sharon Stangenes

Ever wish you could ask an interior designer why a room was designed in a specific way? Curious consumers have the opportunity to do just that during tours of the...

The temperatures may have been sweltering, but shoppers at the recently opened Waccamaw store in Skokie could prepare for Christmas. Spode China Christmas plates and other holiday-motif items were sprinkled...

Wall painting, an activity tailor-made for pre-schoolers, kicked off a three-week ''Exploring the Arts'' workshop at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. ''It`s a reindeer with horns,'' said...

Chicago shoppers will be the first to see a new retail prototype when Banana Republic opens in this fall on the site of the former Evans store, 744 N. Michigan...

Soft windows were the hottest topic at the three-day Window Fashions Expo, which ended Saturday at the Chicago Hilton and Towers. Interior design-speak for windows decorated with curtains, draperies and...

Talk about pulling it out of the bag. John Loring, the alert design director of Tiffany & Co., last week won lots of partisan applause from Chicago Bulls fans for...

Why not make putting together a sofa as much fun as putting together building blocks? That`s the intriguing idea Italian designer Paolo Piva showed last week for the first time...

NEOCON started on a brisk, but soggy, step last week when a band of hardy hikers did a quick 45-minute opening-day lap around the Loop. Heading up the group of...

Winner or loser? Taurus or Edsel? That`s the question about the first collection shown by Lineage Home Furnishings last week in High Point, N.C. The furniture equivalent of the new...

Paul Hawken, founder and president of Smith & Hawken, a specialty gardening-supply retailer, is winner of the 1991 Business Award given by Chicago-based American Center for Design. Hawken, named for...