Room

I n Jim Slayton's and Rob Hradsky's living room, a verse has been painted in flowing script over the camel-back sofa. It reads: "Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." For the two men, that simple saying is indicative of their life's work, joy and sacred pledge to the care of their four adopted children and the reason for their move into a 6,500-square-foot Colonial-style home in Woodstock, Md. "We have a commitment to adopting," said Slayton, a nurse in the Howard County Public School System.

Q: Our bedroom is fairly formal, with traditional mahogany furniture and a canopied bed. My question is about the floor: I have two small Oriental rugs in there now, but the room doesn't feel cozy. In fact, it's cold in winter. My husband wants to put down wall-to-wall carpeting, but I'm afraid that will look too contemporary. Will you settle this, please!A: You do have a point. Wall-to-wall carpeting is a relatively modern idea. You won't find it in authentic rooms from the 18th and 19th centuries, but then, you wouldn't find electric lights or central heating, either.

ST. MICHAELS -- A couple attends a Valentine's Day murder-mystery weekend on the Eastern Shore, and soon after watching the play's groom get poisoned, the husband winds up dead, set on fire in his hotel room, and his wife is charged with murder.Offer this as a movie synopsis, and it sounds too cliched, too much like a bad television rerun. Yet the death of 35-year-old Stephen Michael Hricko of Laurel was decidedly real, and its intrigue has catapulted a community to national fame.And what a perfect America-in-the-'90s ordeal it is: The local author of the play is seeking movie offers through a Hollywood agent.

From a table on their deck, Greg Grenier and his partner John Heizer can sit and admire the beautifully landscaped garden below them. Amid tall oak and maple trees that shield like an umbrella, the outdoor room is enveloped and protected from the summer sun. "It's almost like living in the country," said Grenier, 65, who works for the Foreign Service. While the feel is delightfully bucolic, the location is the Reservoir Hill neighborhood in Baltimore. Grenier and Heizer, the 61-year-old director of music at Zion Lutheran, purchased the townhome for $240,000, an excellent deal given the fact that it was previously and impeccably restored by the prior owner, who worked in the Smithsonian Institution's American Furniture Restoration Department.

Q: I have lived for several years in a stately old home with a wood-paneled dining room. As much as I have enjoyed this sedate setting, it's time to give the space a new look. Pulling out the panels, which extend about two-thirds of the way up the walls, is unthinkable to me, but I'm prepared to replace theheavy oak furniture. How can this room be made more appropriate for contemporary furnishings?A: Lots of people would love to have your problem. Wood paneling is usually considered a great asset in a room, giving it a certain masculine air because of the color, weight, detailing and texture of old carved oak. Still, I can readily sympathize with your desire to achieve a lighter, less somber look.

On our 25th wedding anniversary, we decided to splurge and stay at a luxury hotel in Paris. Unfortunately, we were given a room next to a building under construction. The hammering and drilling began at 7 a.m. and lasted all day. A hotel manager offered to move us to another room the next day. This made no sense because we were leaving the next day, so we suggested he adjust the bill or buy our dinner in the hotel restaurant. He said no. We were paying $1,000 a night. What should we have done?

Q: We recently bought an old Victorian-style house. Its living room ceiling is 12 feet high with crown moldings, and the windows are tall and narrow. What little furniture we brought along seems too low-slung for such a space. We're going to buy some new furnishings as well as wallpaper and window coverings, but we need your help in making the right choices.A: Let's start with the walls and window treatments. Right off, I suggest you paint the crown molding and baseboards in a color contrasting to the rest of the wall.

Q: We are thinking about opening up the wall between the living and dining rooms in this old house we've been remodeling. I'd like some way to separate the spaces without actually dividing them physically -- the dining room is not very large. What would you suggest?A: One smashing answer would be a free-standing fireplace like the one we show here. Designer Marilynn Lundy of Environmental Images in New York has used a two-sided fireplace as a room-divider par excellence. Not only does it define the space without closing it off, but the fireplace warms the room both literally and emotionally.

The rooms in Stephen Sills and James Huniford's new decorating book are full of flaws. Low ceilings, plain-jane windows, odd corners, awkward beams -- you name it, these rooms have it. But Sills and Huniford, being truly great decorators, have made all these flaws magically disappear. And you can watch them do it in Dwellings: Living With Great Style (Bullfinch Press, $30). One of their favorite magic wands is a monochromatic scheme. With subtle shades of a single color -- golden beige, silvery blue or even warm pink or coral -- they blur many a flaw and, in the process, create serene and seductive spaces.

Dressing a house may seem a far more complicated matter than dressing oneself, but both require equal parts imagination and common sense, says Michele Drury. She is Drury Lane Interiors, and as an active preservationist is design co-chair for this year's annual decorator show house that benefits Historic Ellicott City. For the transformation of Mount Hebron, a 19th-century manor house, she will set her talents to the music room."I'm doing it without color and limited accessories. I told my show partner I have to get some clothes in cream shades.