SOMETIMES THINGS LOOK, WELL, JUST MORE ELEGANT AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND. It’s an easy DIY project and instant update that involves little more than a can of spray paint, a scrap of fabric or a repurposing of things you already have at home.

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• Add visual import to household accessories, nature’s goodies and everyday items. Promote them to a simple thing of beauty by placing them in front of a blank dark canvas. Whether that’s a bulletin board sprayed black, a panel of fabric propped against a wall, or a tiny easel perched on a desk, you’ll look anew at a bundle of moss, a crocheted doily tea-stained with age, or a cancelled postage stamp steamed off an envelope.
• Choose a dark-hued tablecloth or leave that deep-toned wooden table bare for your next dinner party. Simple dinnerware and silver pops against the dark background, conveying a modern, clean feel that’s fresh.
• Transform an eyesore nook or hallway into an instant art gallery by painting it a rich, dark color and accessorizing it with sumptuous picture frames sprayed gold, silver or bronze. A little bit of gloss and sparkle will trick the eye making this once neglected spot a real gem.

I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED THE LOOK OF LUMINARIES, the traditional lanterns that illuminate walkways and paths for Southwest-style holiday celebrations. Modern re-interpretations use paper bags or Mason jars, weighted down with a layer of sand in the base and holding votive candles inside.

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Here’s a fresh twist that takes the luminary idea and improves upon it. The use of 7-Day Candles, also called altar candles, is brilliant. I first saw these Mexican chapel candles displayed by my artist-friend Kathy LaFleur. She lives in Southern California, where it’s easy to dine and entertain out-of-doors all year long. But even if you reside in cooler parts of the country, you can still borrow her idea!

White, red, blue or green wax is poured into an 8-inch-tall cylindrical glass container. “You can burn them 15 hours a day for a week,” Kathy says. “Imagine, 110 hours of candlelight for about one dollar!” You can often find them at Mexican grocery stores or 99-cent/Dollar Stores.

Kathy began decorating with these clean-and-simple altar candles after too many dinner parties where one-inch votives burned out before the evening was over. Her outdoor fireplace mantle is now lined with a row of the 7-Day candles, which glow and sparkle during her al fresco dinners. Kathy also groups three or four candles inside a large, glass vase for impact. She uses a few inches of dry black beans or orange lentils in the base as a stabilizer. Try a variation of your own and you’ll enjoy hours of romantic flickering candlelight.

As for displaying 7-Day candles outdoors, such as on a porch, patio or front walkway, don’t worry that they’ll blow out, Kathy says: “They come with their own little hurricane lamp.”

LET’S FACE IT, ALMOST EVERYTHING LOOKS BETTER ON A PEDESTAL: us women, our food, even soap and baubles. Take another look at those cake stands, vintage pottery, antique silver pieces and small pedestals shoved away in the cupboard, and consider them in a new light:

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• Even something as simple as crackers can be an elegant addition to the table when marched neatly in a row on a simple raised tray.
• Fruit and veggies look like a still life when kept on the counter or kitchen island on a pretty tall tray. Purchase all of one kind, say apples fresh from this season’s harvest or simple lemons, for an especially sophisticated look.
• Earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces will be worn more often when you see their dazzle in a sweet pedestal at the vanity or bedside.
• Bar soap next to the sink in a gorgeous little raised dish adds ritual to the washing, making it a pure little pleasure of the day.
• Even the day’s mail can cause pause when one passes by it shining from a sparkling silver tray on the entry table

In the words of the U2 song “Elevation” (be forewarned: gratuitous hyperlink to funny/lame/campy U2 Angelina Jolie music video), so many household items just seem to scream, “Elevate me!”

THE IMAGE OF A CIRCLE pleases the eye. In the garden, shapes that are rounded, organic, and sensual resonate as “good design.” They are visually satisfying, emotionally seductive and artistically whole.

Circles also appear tidy, if that sort of thing matters to you. They can be formal, but circular shapes are also very contemporary-looking.

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For a fresh statement in the landscape, think about how you can apply or incorporate a rounded feature. With all the squarish blocks of architecture that occupy one’s life, the circle is a nice, soft antidote.

Anyone who enjoys touring gardens, going to design lectures and amassing volumes about the subject of landscape design may, like me, have an instinct about the reason curves, rounded forms, orbs and spherical shapes are successful in the garden. Here’s what the authors of my college design textbook write:

“Among the many and varied forms we see in the world around us, the circle stands out as being unique. Due to its simplicity and completeness, the circle has often been described as the most pure or perfect form.”

“. . . lines and edges which form a 90-degree relationship to a circle’s circumference are more stable looking than compositions that lack this relationship.”

“. . . any line or form that directs the eye to a circle’s center will create a visually harmonious relationship with the circle.”

(From “Residential Landscape Architecture”, by Norman K. Booth and James E. Hiss,

the textbook used by the late Bud Merrill, my design professor.)

I guess the most powerful argument for using a circle is its wholeness. When we see round shapes, curved lines, concentric circles, spirals, spheres, orbs and balls, the scene feels balanced and complete. Whether miniscule in size or with planetary proportions, there’s a lot of power in the perfect circle.

THE FARMHOUSE: I KNOW IT WELL. I grew up with it, I live in it, I get it. It’s second nature to me, ingrained in my soul. My grandparents lived on the family farm. A good deal of my childhood was spent there. Truly some of my happiest days were with my grandmother. I’m sure I became a stylist and a designer because of her and that farm. To this day, Benham Lane remains my favorite place.

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But you don’t have to grow up with a farmhouse to create one of your own. These five elements can help yours stand the test of time:

• White paint. Above all, the quintessential farmhouse is white. Use it liberally. It’s fresh and clean and it will never go out of style.
• Tongue-and-groove paneling. Add it as wainscoting, or panel an entire room with it. It’s great on ceilings and as backing for bookcases, cupboards and cabinets.
• Wood floors. Left natural or painted, with or without rugs, wood floors in a farmhouse tell a story. The worn look of well-used stairs and thresholds add character and charm.
• Simple, utilitarian fabrics. Think blue-and-white mattress ticking, burlap, hemp, canvas, worn linen grain sacks and unbleached muslin. Keep it simple.
• Anything galvanized. From buckets to washtubs, watering cans to planters, you can’t go wrong when you bring in these hard-working basics. Put them to use in creative and unexpected ways.

When I remodeled my own home, the family farm oozed out of me. I’m sure I was guided by my grandmother’s hand. When a client says to me, “I want that Farmhouse Feel,” I close my eyes and just imagine myself down home.

LOSING THE LAWN DOES NOT MEAN you will be shunned by your neighbors. In fact, the “anti-lawn” is a hip and sustainable alternative to the resource-gobbling ritual of daily irrigation and frequent applications of fertilizer.

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It’s hard to break off our emotional connection to lawns, but there are healthy ― and beautiful ― alternatives. While you wean yourself (or your spouse) from green turf, you’ll discover an exciting array of groundcovers and no-grass (or less-grass) design solutions.

Here are five ideas to try:

• Grow an “eco-lawn,” such as a custom-blended seed mix that fits the conditions for your region. For example, Portland, Ore.-based Hobbs & Hopkins Ltd. developed “Fleur de Lawn,” a meadow-like mix of small flowers and low-growing clover combined with a specialty variety of dwarf perennial rye grass. Once established, it is naturally self-fertilizing, requires no watering and needs infrequent mowing.
• Learn to live with “golden.” Allow your lawn to go dormant in the summer. When cooler weather and seasonal showers return in the fall, the grass will revive and turn a brilliant green, irrigated naturally by rain.
• Adjust your watering practices. Lawns require more water than other plants, so separate the lawn-watering system from trees, shrubs and flowerbeds.
• Shrink the green. Gradually reduce the size of your lawn, replacing sections of grass with native ornamentals or low-water plants like succulents. You can satisfy your urge for green with alternatives such as thyme, which is visually appealing, aromatic and even edible.
• Replace grass with gravel. I ripped out all of the lawn in my backyard and created a Mediterranean-inspired gravel garden. The warm gold gravel covers all the pathways that surround planted beds, borders and islands. The gravel is permeable, uses no water and is weed-free (thanks to a hidden layer of landscape cloth underneath it).

DO YOU WISH YOU HAD A LITTLE MORE SPACE in your home? Not much really, just a quiet place to sit and read, perhaps a corner to pay bills and organize your household papers. That’s not asking much, is it?

Recently I found myself asking these same questions. In my case, I dream about a spot to sew: a place to be creative, have my bits and pieces of fabrics around me, my sewing notions organized, a table my sewing machine could sit on instead of always having to be put away, a sunny window with beautiful natural light. Dream on … right?

No. Don’t dream, re-imagine.

Do you have rooms that sit unused for months? Dining rooms that see little action except during the holidays, a guest room that sits quietly awaiting occasional visitors? A living room that sees little living or a porch that catches nothing more than kicked off shoes and coats?

With a little creativity and planning, some savvy organizing and a bit of vision, you CAN carve out your little bit of heaven.

Here’s my secret:  Make a room inside of a room.

For example, an unorganized or underutilized closet makes a great office. I’ve run my business out of a closet for the past 18 years (OK, I did have a window installed) — an easy fix for such a valuable space.

A dining room makes a great library, and vice-versa! Imagine candlelit dinners where bookcases live next to china cabinets and lamps quietly illuminate the space instead of an overhead chandelier. A couple of upholstered chairs pulled up to the ends of a table make it cozy for dining and reading.

As for my sewing spot? I have a certain college freshman who just may spend the summer away from home — bingo!

SHARON STONE WASN’T THE FIRST Hollywood star to wear a man’s white dress shirt and look glamorous, but perhaps she’s the most recent. Katharine Hepburn and Lauren Bacall appropriated the iconic style decades ago, knotting the shirttails at the waist, rolling up the sleeves and wearing “his” shirt with tailored slacks or a waist-enhancing skirt.

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I love wearing my husband’s shirts. Crisp and clean, the 100-percent-cotton shirting feels cool and pleasant against my arms and shoulders. Basic white looks classic; Oxford stripes are preppy and playful; chambray exudes weekend casual. Add pearls and you’re ready for a night on the town.

The men’s dress shirt — for her — will never go out of style.

Fashion designers often reinterpret the dress shirt to fit a woman’s silhouette. Recently, I discovered the work of Seattle designer Farinaz Taghavi. Her fascination with the dress shirt, cut for the female body, is expressed in luxurious fabrics and colors, interpreted with self-tie belts, sexy waistlines and wider collars and cuffs. Yet that tailored, classic element is still present in Farinaz’s designs.

On her website she explains: Women “can keep the sleeves open, pull them up, put their collar down or style (the shirt) differently throughout the day. I want women to make their own statements — my shirt is meant to support them, not dominate them.”

It’s brilliant to see how Farinaz has tapped into women’s love for tailored shirts, either the original guy’s button-down or the feminized gal’s shirt. We wear them to make a personal statement rather than follow a prescribed fashion trend-of-the-moment.

And if we manage to add a touch of old Hollywood glamour while doing so, it’s even better.

IF YOU’VE EVER BEEN TO TUSCANY, you may have come home with romantic photos of bright red geraniums spilling from a window box or over the rim of a terra-cotta flowerpot. There’s something irresistible about this cheery red flower. It’s the quintessential summer bloom, reminding us of sunshine, warmth, meals eaten al fresco-style, and the good life.

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Except this flower isn’t really a geranium.

Often called a “zonal geranium,” the true name of the popular red, coral, white or pink summer flower is Pelargonium x hortorum. These plants have fleshy stems that bear full clusters of blooms; the leaves are often ruffled, adding to their charming appearance. Pelargoniums hail from South Africa, so they prefer hot, dry environments and therefore will not thrive year-round in areas where winters are wet and cold. For the summer container or flower bed, though, nothing beats this plant. It will bloom almost continuously until the first frost. I especially love the fancy-leafed and scented varieties (with velvety leaves that smell like apple, chocolate, peppermint, lemon and more).

The true geranium, often called a “hardy geranium” or cranesbill, is a hardy perennial that will usually survive cold winters and then leaf out and bloom the following spring. Geraniums have smaller leaves and tinier flowers than showy pelargoniums, but they make up for their quieter demeanor by serving as the garden’s soft embroidery. As these plants grow, their small, roundish leaves and short stems with open-faced flowers knit together with nearby plants, filling in the garden’s bare spots with a carefree abandon. Two of my favorite cultivars include ‘Rozanne’, which produces almost iridescent purple-blue flowers, and ‘Ann Folkard’, admired for its chartreuse foliage and magenta-purple blooms.

The best news is that you don’t have to choose between pelargoniums and geraniums. Enjoy them both!

IN 2006, WHEN I MOVED from Seattle to Los Angeles, I met Cristi Walden and was invited to join her small group on the first of what I call Cristi’s “Design Field Trips.”

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Through this lively and curious woman, I’ve had a personal education in architecture, design, decorative arts and the cultural history of Los Angeles. We’ve gone off the beaten track to places I never would have discovered on my own, including the just-restored Marion Davies beach house in Malibu and a pitch-perfect Tiki Bar in the basement of a shy but gifted animator. We met tile makers who are keeping alive the art of the past and toured the ancient warehouse where reproduction Bauer pottery is being manufactured.

With a twinkle in her eye, Cristi has a knack for gathering like-minded people, heading out for a day and creating an unforgettable excursion. She calls us the “Merry Band of Archivists.”

Here are some of Cristi’s tricks for pulling together a design-filled day:

• Keep your ears open and just ask. Her contagious enthusiasm opens doors and, frankly, I think people are flattered to be asked to share their home or give a behind-the-scenes tour to kindred spirits.
• Invite participants. Armed with driving directions or a map, we head out to visit an obscure county museum with an amazing art exhibit or an incredible Arts & Crafts house filled with a stunning vintage pottery collection. Camaraderie, discovery and adventure make us nearly giddy with excitement.
• Add food. Cristi makes sure we eat, perhaps at a Mexican cantina, a barbecue spot or a diner. The restaurants seem to fit the theme of the tour, but maybe that’s a coincidence.

After the trip, armed with the email addresses of new friends, I return home with photographs, stories and a much better appreciation of the place where I now live.