Dining Room

Q: I have inherited some dining-room furniture that is a high-quality reproduction of both Hepplewhite and Sheraton styles. Now I'm puzzled about how to treat the dining room itself. It's a fairly large space with a 9-foot ceiling and two narrow but not-so-tall windows.Any suggestions?A: I assume that you want the room to look elegant and relatively formal.That shouldn't be too difficult to achieve, though you will have to sort through a number of choices relating to your taste, budget and the availability of certain items.

You still have time to plan a Mother's Day brunch. But you might not have to bother. According to a new survey, your mother might prefer to make the plans herself. The survey, published by Open Table Inc., says that 65 percent of surveyed mothers intend to make Mother's Day reservations themselves. Fifty-eight percent of the Open Table members surveyed said they were planning to dine out for brunch on Mother's Day, but a surprising 39 percent said they were going out for dinner instead and about 25 percent said they'd be going out for more than one meal.

Q: I'm looking for some comfortable dining-room furniture that doesn't need constant care even though it will be used by a young family. The pieces are to accompany Oriental rugs and a mixture of antique and contemporary furnishings. I also prefer that the dining room ensemble not go out of style as soon as the latest fad passes. One possibility, I'm told, is "art or architect's furniture." Where can it be seen?A: You should start with the understanding that "art furniture" and "architect's furniture" are not synonymous.

There is a small area in Northwest Baltimore where, beyond an imposing wrought-iron gate, a narrow lane provides access to 18 homes of different sizes and styles. Color abounds here, by way of a variety of flowers, bushes and trees showing on the front and back lawns of each house. Ashley Long's home is a two-story, Victorian-style structure, with six large columns on a stone front porch and a symmetry of door and windows that is reminiscent of a gentleman farmer's home. Inside, a series of arches extending beyond the front door to the end of the 74-foot-deep home, along with a heavily molded, squared-off entrance to the living room and dining room, suggests a Southern warmth and gentility emblematic of Long's Tennessee heritage.

Now that our kitchen restoration is finished, my wife and I have moved on to the next phase of such a project, namely second-guessing ourselves. Figuring out what we did right and wrong. It is amazing how quickly you move from enjoying a comfortable and well-functioning space, to entertaining nagging doubts about how you restored it. In our case, a once-dark and narrow ground-floor kitchen was transformed into a large, airy, combination kitchen and sitting room. Daylight now streams through windows that we barely noticed before.

Always, there were those lovely old country estates and gracious manor taverns with roaring fireplaces, but in the old days fine dining was associated with the city. Not so anymore. Now, there are more compelling reasons than ever for diners to cross county lines for a good meal. The 50 best county restaurants in Howard County, Anne Arundel County and Baltimore County is a mix of the old and the new, destinations for special occasions and joints for Monday night suppers, the chef-driven and crowd-pleasing.

When Baltimoreans turn on the TV and see Donna Hamilton, they see a comfortable, familiar face — someone they probably think they know, someone they might want to sit down with for a cup of tea. Her home, it turns out, has the same feel. The longtime anchor for WBAL-TV has spent years working to create a home that feels effortless. Lived in for 30 years now, the Baltimore house, a cottage really, is the sort of place with a cozy, lived-in aesthetic. Altogether underdesigned — by design.

Perhaps they should be called spas for the spirit, these guest houses that provide a serene setting for self-renewal and direction. By any name, retreat centers are welcoming oases for the harried.Wisdom House in Litchfield, Conn., about 80 miles north of New York City on 58 acres of wooded hills, opened in the 1970s. Formerly a novitiate, it strives to provide "hospitality and an environment of peace conducive to reflection, conversation and prayer."Though the interfaith center is run by the Daughters of Wisdom, a Catholic order, it has a decidedly feminist stance, with both approach and programs geared to women and artists.

Our large, old dining room has a high, wood-beamed ceiling. The doors, window frames and moldings are in a medium-stained oak. All this wood produces a dark and heavy feeling. Do you think that painting the woodwork will help produce a lighter, more informal look? We're also considering a more general redesign -- something along the lines of country French.Painted woodwork can work nicely, and in a traditional setting, it might look better if it were also antiqued and glazed.However, once the deed is done there's no going back to the natural finish without a great deal of mess and expense.

Q: I would like your opinion as to the most sensible way of giving my dining room a more dramatic look. It's currently filled with mahogany pieces, including a 7-foot-wide breakfront.A: The photo will give you an idea of how great a transformation can be wrought in an entire room by altering the appearance of its single most important element.In this instance, designer Celeste Cooper singled out a breakfront for unusual treatment. The piece was painted in a faux tortoise-shell pattern with white accents that look like ivory inlays.

There's a lot of love at Nora's Kabob. Brothers Sevi and Raymond Sinanian, who opened the Ellicott City restaurant last month, are quick to profess their affection for the flavors of their youth, including the almighty pomegranate, and for their mother, for whom Nora's is named. Fortunately, the duo is more than just talk; their devotion to flavorful Middle Eastern cuisine shines through in their food. Though the service isn't perfect, the Sinanians' appreciation for their customers is clear.

Mount Washington Tavern , which was gutted by a two-alarm fire last Halloween, expects to reopen by the middle of autumn, co-owner Rob Frisch said last week. Meanwhile, the Baltimore City Fire Department has listed the cause of the fire as "not fully ascertainable. " That official listing does not suggest foul play. "It simply implies the damages and destruction was too great, which made it difficult and unsafe for investigators to narrow the cause to one specific source," said Chief Kevin Cartwright, Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman.

Regi's in Federal Hill was hit by an electrical fire on Tuesday morning. The fire, according to owner Alan Morstein began in an outside walk-in refrigerator and spread into the restaurant's back dining room.  The main dining room and bar were unaffected by smoke and water, Morstein said. "Had it not been for our neighbors who alerted Engine Company #2 on Light Street at the first signs of the fire, we would be rubble," Morstein wrote in an email to his customers.

Bob Sleeper is a man who cannot be fenced in. While many of his friends are city dwellers, he craves the great outdoors. For this reason, he and his wife, Marian, left a large home in suburban Marriottsville in favor of an old — and much smaller — farmhouse in Westminster. Sleeper's first love has always been the land — 5 acres in this instance, with a two-story, 2,700-square-foot bank barn on a knoll. "We downsized the house but upsized the property," said Sleeper, a 60-year-old employee of Constellation Energy.

Often when an old home is in the final stages of an interior renovation, the grandeur of new molding, flooring and light fixtures stands out like a masterfully worked canvas awaiting the addition of the primary subject. Such is the story unfolding behind the new windows of the Alice and Mike Gosse's circa 1920 East Baltimore rowhouse, where the scarcity of furniture draws full attention to the quality of the detailed work completed. Just inside the front door, off a narrow hall, the entire first floor is open, extending little more than 15 feet wide and 65 feet long to the back wall of the home.

The building at the corner of Belair and Mountain Roads in Fallston has a reputation as one of those spots where no restaurant seems able to survive. Tony Ashe, owner and general manager of the Mallet, the newest restaurant at the location, hopes to change all that with his combination fine dining/crab house/martini lounge/tiki bar establishment. In the dining room, tasty if traditional steak and seafood dishes and friendly service suggest the Mallet might be the restaurant that breaks through on this corner.

Q: For the last 20 years my dining room has included a glass-and-chrome table, matching leather chairs and a beige wall-to-wall carpet. I want to soften the look and make it more interesting, but I can't afford to replace everything at once. Where do I start?A: My initial reaction is to urge you to break up the matching dining set, but on reflection, I think you should start with a plan. First decide on the colors and design direction you prefer.Since you have to proceed on a piecemeal basis, the easiest way to create a soft and interesting look is by assembling a mixture of furnishing styles that will form a coherent whole.

We have been casting around for a new watering hole with decent food since two of our former favorites, McCabe's and Alonso's, began experiencing culinary hiccups. So it was a pleasure to find Shannon's in Ellicott City - a popular, easygoing saloon with good food. Shannon's, which has been around for close to 20 years, expanded and redecorated recently, and the newness shows. Tucked into one of the small, innocuous strip centers along Route 40, the restaurant has a fresh polish and subdued gleam.

Calle's Cucina is a place with potential. Chef-owner Carl "Calle" Vahl has the experience to run a show-stopping restaurant, with both formal and on-the-job training in Italy and New York. Philosophically, Vahl is in the right place, too. He uses fresh, local ingredients to create authentic Italian dishes and is committed to becoming an integral part of the Charles Village community. All great things. Unfortunately, both the food and the atmosphere at Calle's Cucina need some tweaking, and it's not completely clear where the restaurant falls on the casual-to-fine-dining scale.

Chip Olsen and his wife, Linda, grew up on Long Island. Their memories, reflected in framed photographs on the walls of their home, are of long afternoons sitting on sandy beaches or idly dangling their feet from one of the many piers along the shore. Little wonder, then, that they would end up living in a home on a pier jutting 500 feet into Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Chip Olsen's job as senior managing director at CB Richard Ellis required travel and relocation, taking the couple from Charlotte to Atlanta.