Interior Design

Marjorie F. Katzen, a Baltimore interior designer and longtime Pikesville resident, died of a heart attack caused by an infection Nov. 25 at Sinai Hospital. She was 53. Ms. Katzen was born in Baltimore and raised in Northwest Baltimore and Pikesville. She was a 1973 graduate of Pikesville High School and earned a bachelor's degree in interior design from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1977. Ms. Katzen began her career working as an interior designer at Grand Rapids Furniture.

Aria Real, a student at Aberdeen High School, was the winner of a Toyota Camry donated by Jones Junction for the school's recent after prom party. Aberdeen High PTSA president, Keith Bruso worked with Jones Junction to secure the donation. Aria is an honor student who has been accepted into High Point University for the coming fall semester with the class of 2017 to study Vocal Performance and Interior Design. She said in a press release she is blessed to have received this car, because it is one less thing to worry about as she transitions to North Carolina.

This fall, as leaves begin to change their hues, another metamorphosis will be happening in Harford County.On the crest of a hill in the heart of Bel Air, the Homestead, a stately three-story house of granite and slate that has been home to some of the county's most prominent families, is being transformed by a volunteer team of professional interior designers.The designers are preparing the Homestead to be the 1994 Decorator Show House in a home tour to benefit the Harford County chapter of the AMC Cancer Research Center.

This year's Baltimore Symphony Decorators' Show House offers not only a look at the latest interior design trends but also a peek into the Timonium home of quarterback great Johnny Unitas. Unitas lived in the five-bedroom house on Timonium Road from 1971, when the he led the Colts to an AFC title match against the Miami Dolphins, until 1988, when he moved to a farm in northern Baltimore County. Unitas died in 2002. His widow, Sandy; daughter, Paige; and son, Chad, and other members of his family, will cut the ribbon to open the show house on April 28, giving visitors the chance see rooms decorated by some of the region's premier designers.

Carol Ann Denick, an interior designer and longtime Reisterstown resident, died of cancer Monday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. She was 47. She was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville. She was a 1975 graduate of St. Timothy's School and earned a bachelor's degree in interior design from Ohio University in 1979. After spending a year in Israel volunteering and studying, she returned to Baltimore in the early 1980s and established Paper Hang Up, a wallpaper and interior design store.

Lately, for Maryl Harshey good things have been coming in bunches.Not only is her interior design studio, Maryl Interiors in Westminster, the first in Carroll County to become licensed under a new state law, but the owner has been inducted as a professional into the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID)."I've been waiting for this for so long," Ms. Harshey said.For several years, ASID pushed Maryland's legislators to license designers and hold them to a professional standard, as is done with hair stylists, Ms. Harshey said.

Donald Craig Arenth, 57, a highly regarded interior designer who created spaces as diverse as the Center Club when it was at 1 Charles Center, the Kuwaiti Sheraton Hotel and the Foreign Affairs Building of Brunei, in Southeast Asia, died yesterday after a long illness.Mr. Arenth, of Bolton Hill, died at the Kingsville home of a friend, Frederick C. Petrich, a voice teacher with whom he had studied. He had been a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital from Oct. 22 until Monday.A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Feb. 10 at Memorial Episcopal Church, Bolton Hill.

J.H.L. Chambers II, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the H. Chambers Co., one of Maryland's largest interior design companies, died Wednesday at his home in the Bahamas after a three-year battle with cancer.Affectionately referred to by friends as the last "great English gentleman," the 66-year-old Baltimore native was a man of impeccable appearance and manners and a member of the national Lacrosse Hall of Fame."He was the consummate gentleman," said H. Mebane Turner, president of the University of Baltimore, who met Mr. Chambers while playing squash about 25 years ago."

There's an interior design firm that has developed a near-infallibleresearch technique for finding out what people really like.Admittedly, the procedure is an ancient one, a low-tech way of doing business generally overlooked by most people in this computer-driven information age of ours, but it can be surprisingly effective.The technique, known as talking to people, is one that the proprietors of the Annapolis-based Bishopsgate R & R, Richard Garis and RicAltemus, an interior design and antique retail firm, say works very well for them.

Daniele J. Fleischer, owner of a Harford County interior design firm, died Monday of a stroke at her Bel Air home. She was 66. Daniele Jeanne Lemarie was born in St. Maur, France, and raised in Paris. She studied art and design in France. In 1958, she married Pete Thrasher. The marriage ended in divorce. She came to Baltimore in 1963, returned to France for several years, then returned to the city in 1966. She was a designer for Shaivitz Furniture from 1975 to 1985 and then was design director for DGI, a design firm, for a year.

Selling a house is rarely easy and quick, but the transaction for the three-story end-of-group brick rowhouse at 200 Warren Ave.e in Federal Hill was just that. The property listed and sold simultaneously, closing for $950,000 after being offered at $995,000. Little wonder. The home was built just five years ago in the same architectural style and detail as the older homes around it. Additionally, it is within walking distance to the Inner Harbor and shops and restaurants on Light and Charles streets.

The jeans are too gray, Toby Schermerhorn is on the phone saying. They need to be bluer, she tells the person handling the jeans. Prints of this collage - dozens of overlapping blue jean-clad bottoms - are going to grace guest room bathrooms in a new Renaissance hotel in Alberta, Canada. The rendering is an homage to the Levi's manufacturing that used to take place nearby. Hundreds of details like this, the precise color of jean butts, get honed to perfection in Frederick County by Schermerhorn and her husband, Rob Laschever, who run a four-person company that dictates the look and feel of hotel interiors.

Stephanie Bradshaw Inc., the Baltimore-based design company, is moving into the Clipper Mill area of the city from its current Cockeysville location, which was home to the firm for two years. "I'm excited to bring my business into the city and to be a part of its growing design community," said Stephanie Bradshaw, founder and creative director of the company. The firm includes wedding and event design and planning, interior design and personal styling. "I feel like Baltimore is definitely finding its place," she said.

They may look like simple iron candlesticks, tall and thin. But for interior designer Elizabeth Cross-Beard Marsh, they were more than just a decoration or a lighting accessory. They were an inspiration, for a room of soft beiges and abstract art. "I just fell in love with those candlesticks," says Marsh, one of 11 designers from the Mid-Atlantic whose works - each inspired by a unique piece of craftsmanship - will be on display at the Baltimore Convention Center next weekend as part of the 37th annual American Craft Council Show.

Ever stay at a wonderful hotel and dream of replicating that style at home? Travelers often covet the fluffy bedding, chic furnishings, deep soaking tubs and fancy showerheads that are standard these days at many hotels. With Valentine's Day fast approaching, there's no better time to evoke a cozy, romantic bed-and-breakfast or a luxe hotel feel right within your own abode. "The home is a sacred place. You share it with those that you care about and love the most," says Amanda Austin, owner of the eponymous Baltimore interior design firm.

Anne D. Bendann, a retired interior designer and community volunteer who was active in women's issues and church affairs, died Jan. 4 from pancreatic cancer at her Homeland residence. She was 65. The former Anne Duffy, the daughter of an investment banker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. After graduating in 1965 from the Beaumont School in Cleveland, she earned a degree from Marymount College in Arlington, Va., where she studied art and design.

Question: If the '70s was the decade of minimalism in interior design and the '80s the decade of decorating indulgence, how )) are the '90s shaping up?Answer: In a word, eclectic.Interior design in the '90s means more mix and less match."There's a trend away from ensembles and matched sets," says Bill McGee, an interior designer with Alexander Baer Associates in Baltimore. "Eclecticism is a popular aspect of all decorating -- architectural, fabrics, furnishings, floor coverings, the whole thing."

Glamorous you might call it, this child's playroom tucked under the eaves in a grand old house, full of wonderful toys.The room's perky candy-apple red trim and painted floor, complete with a board game, makes it a dream for children.What the casual viewer doesn't know is it took more than 200 hours for four Harford Community College interior design students to create this wonderland room, called "Happy Hands Hideaway," in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's decorator show house.The show house opened April 26 and closes May 24."

Daniel Reed's flair for decorating and interior design - especially during the holiday season - is immediately evident at the front door of his very modern duplex in Baltimore's Clipper Mill development. To visit this home is to slip into a winter wonderland; a fantasy in light, color and motion. "Wait until you get inside," said the 44-year-old president of his own design firm. "I love decorating for Christmas. " He doesn't exaggerate. Imagine seeing the most beautifully embellished department store window and being able to walk through the glass and become a part of that other-worldly tableau.

It's that time of year when the world falls in love with a color. Typically deemed the "color of the year," the hue depends on whom you ask. For example, Sherwin-Williams has chosen a midcentury-tinged blue called "Aloe" as its top color. Benjamin Moore, meanwhile, chose Lemon Sorbet. But the juggernaut of color forecasting, Pantone, announced that emerald green will be the color of 2013. And so it shall be. We asked a local stylist to offer some quick ways that people can incorporate that color into their home decor: 1. Paint.