Interior Design

When Bob Zealor was growing up in Overlea, he would go into the woods near his home and collect greens to make a wreath for his mother. You can imagine his delight when he discovered Colonial Williamsburg, where all the holiday decorations come from nature. All these years later, the interior designer and his wife Maureen make regular Christmas pilgrimages to Williamsburg, Va., which has become the inspiration for his holiday decorating. "It is homey. It is real. The greens, the fruit.

Richard D. Pickens, owner of a Crofton interior design firm who lived in Union Square, where he served as president of the Friends of the H.L. Mencken House, died Tuesday of stomach cancer at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 50. "I was dumbfounded when I got the news about Richard's death. It was like a bolt out of the blue," said Harry R. Lord, a retired partner in the Baltimore law firm of Piper & Marbury. "Richard was really the lifeblood of the Mencken House for all these years.

There is plenty of material to choose from when creating a kitchen backsplash. Glass, tile, embossed concrete, punched tin, stainless steel, curved glass, subway tiles, marble, natural stone. Designer Laura Kimball of LCK Interiors offers some advice for those planning a kitchen backsplash and how to coordinate it with your countertop. Granite counters will always get a "wow!" reaction, but often the marriage of counter and backsplash ends in irreconcilable differences. A few concepts to consider before making lasting and expensive mismatches: •Granite or composite stone counters can stand on their own; no need for the 4-inch matching backsplash if you are adding a full tile or stone backsplash.

I am planning to purchase a new roasting pan for cooking my Thanksgiving turkey. Should I buy stainless steel or nonstick? The folks at All-Clad tell us that stainless steel reflects the heat in the oven back on the bird and helps to create the crispy outside of the bird while maintaining the moisture inside. "That's the advantage of using a great, shiny pan that was specifically designed for roasting poultry," said Anya Edwards, director of marketing and communications. Nonstick is better for an everyday roaster, where easy cleanup might be a priority.

Janet Browne, a retired designer who outfitted the interiors of colleges and banks during a lengthy career collaborating with her architect husband, died of congestive heart failure Oct. 12 at the Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. The longtime Guilford resident was 91. Born Janet Augusta Biedler in Baltimore and raised on Calvert Street in Charles Village, she attended Friends School and was a 1939 Western High School graduate. She then earned a degree in design from the Maryland Institute College of Art . She later earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University.

Other than paint, what are some things that I can do to give my home a fall makeover? Throws are a wonderful way of making your home cozy and warm for the fall. We are loving chunky woven knits and amazing faux fur throws from Fabulous Furs — we have several in the store plus all of the samples. Along with the chilly fall weather I look forward to adding extra layers to my beds. Stuffing your duvet covers with heavier weight down inserts and adding a soft matelasse over your sheet makes it hard to get out of bed in the morning.

I am thinking about refreshing the paint colors in my house this fall, especially in the kitchen and in the bedroom. What kind of new color palette are you seeing right now, particularly for those rooms? While there are always new color trends emerging in interior design, when refreshing the color palette in your home, the focus should be on the way you combine colors so you can get a fresh new look without abandoning the hues that appeal to your own taste. In the kitchen, where there is generally minimal wall space and appliances are white, black or stainless-steel, adding bursts of color to the walls can make a statement without overpowering the room.

From the bucolic setting of her country home in Monkton to the gentle hum of the palm leaf paddles on the ceiling fans in her covered porch, Kim Eastburn's philosophy of decorating is apparent. "The focus of my design practice ... is to elevate interior design beyond just the esoteric," she said. "I think there is a huge opportunity to expand the conversation of overall wellness by bringing mindfulness to where we live. " Eastburn, who blogs as The Interior Design Shrink (theinteriordesignshrink.com)

It is a match made in heaven, or at least in that part of heaven where the hip and young creatives types hang out. For its 2012 DreamHome, the Washington Design Center asked a handful of young interior designers to take inspiration for residential spaces from works of craft. Not just from any crafters, but a group of artists whose works are set to be showcased this summer in a Smithsonian exhibition, "40 Under 40: Craft Futures. " What the room decors and the craft creations have in common is that their authors all began their careers after 9/11, and they brought with them a new, more earnest sensibility.

As Salvatore Romano, the closeted art director at the turbulent Sterling Cooper ad agency in the TV series "Mad Men," Bryan Batt struck out — his character, cruelly compromised by a client, was fired partway through the third season of the much-admired cable show in 2009. But as an interior designer and author, Batt has enjoyed steady success, and that brings him this week to Baltimore, hometown of the fictional Sal. Batt will be the featured speaker at a reception Tuesday for the 36th annual American Craft Council Show that opens the next day. He'll talk about his recent book, "Big, Easy Style: Creating Rooms You Love to Live In. " "I haven't been to Baltimore in ages," Batt said, "and I have never been to the Craft Council Show, so I'm really looking forward to this.