Wallpaper

I scanned graphic images using Adobe PhotoDeluxe and saved them as .jpg and .gif files on my ZIP discs. When I try to call them up, Microsoft Internet Explorer automatically pops up and part of the image runs off the screen. I use Netscape, never MS Explorer.Millions of Windows 98 users share your situation because the Microsoft Internet browser is set as the default program to run whenever the user clicks on a wide variety of picture file formats.Although it is possible to change the default to run the Netscape browser whenever you click a picture file icon, the quality of display will be no better and your pictures still won't fit the screen.

Look, up on the wall -- it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a hot-air balloon, it's Carrera marble, it's Cezanne ...In fact, it's wallpaper.Not so long ago a world of tiny pastel florals and subtle stripes, the realm of wallpaper today is dominated by saturated colors, texture, coordinates of prints, borders and fabrics, and faux finishes that, at $20 to $30 a roll, cost far less than hand-painted originals. There are novelty papers that look like shelves of books or botanical prints. Papers in purple, burgundy and forest green abound.

For James Van Praagh, rising to the top of the best-seller list was simply a matter of talking to some friends.Of course, it wouldn't have worked if his friends had been alive.Using a talent that he says became apparent after the glowing hand of God appeared to him as an 8-year-old, Van Praagh, 39, has spent the better part of his adult life as a conduit to the dead -- the real-life equivalent of the Whoopi Goldberg character in "Ghost." His book about those conversations, "Talking to Heaven" (Dutton, $22.95)

Baltimore Police Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier wants a photo mural of a former Police Department band removed from the lobby of the city's new $10.8 million police annex building because the photo lacks diversity.The group of white male officers in the black-and-white photo caught Frazier's eye earlier in the week, said Robert W. Weinhold Jr., a police spokesman. The photo -- hung as wallpaper -- was to serve as an anchor to an entry area where the department plans to create a police museum.

My kitchen has an empty corner, about 8-feet-by-8 feet, where I'd like to put a small table and four chairs. How can I make this area look both informal and inviting? Should I wallpaper the corner's walls while leaving the rest of the kitchen painted?It's going to be a squeeze to fit four people around a table in an 8-by-8-foot corner. You won't succeed with a standard rectangular table, but a circular bistro-size table, no more than 36 inches in diameter, might just allow you to include four armless chairs.

WHEN MY children were babies, their bedrooms looked as though Penelope Leach and Martha Stewart had been locked inside for a month. Stimulating colors and toys battled with handmade tributes to their birth.There were primary colors in the wallpaper and black-and-white patterned toys in the crib. There were also cross-stitched samplers and hand-crocheted blankets. Unisex decor and yellow sleepers. Classic children's books lovingly inscribed by me as well as a careful selection of toys designed for tactile stimulation and hand-eye coordination.

When Jack Nauert bought his Baltimore rowhouse in 1985, its best feature was perhaps the view. Across Shannon Drive in the Belair-Edison community was Herring Run Park."

THE TOWN HOUSE in Sykesville is getting a face lift, or at least a make-over. Some minor renovations and a good deal of cosmetic work have already begun in the town offices.Since 1968, the town offices have been in the historic house. Most town officials believe that was the last time work was done on the Town House.Town records date the house to 1883, when local architect J. H. Fowble built the residence for John McDonald. The house is an example of Colonial revival with Greek revival influences.

Don't you hate to get roses for an occasion like Valentine's Day and have their heads droop before they even open? But wait -- don't discard them yet. According to Rick Boblitz, owner of the Rotunda Flower Market, you can often revive droopy roses if their water supply has been cut off by an air bubble in the stem. Cut the stems on the diagonal under water and put them directly into water to prevent the problem in the first place. To revive them, cut the stems again higher up. You can also try wrapping the roses in a piece of newspaper and soaking them in water for a while.

I CAN'T RESIST house tours, including the one Sunday that will feature some of New Windsor's prettiest homes.I plan to be there, peeking into the living rooms, dining rooms and front porches of the residents who have been working around the clock to get their homes ready for inspection. The tour begins at noon, and tickets can be purchased for $10 at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on Main Street in New Windsor. Proceeds benefit New Windsor Heritage Committee, a group dedicated to preserving New Windsor's history and architecture.

From its new perch on the wall of an ornate State House meeting room, the recently unveiled portrait of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. can finally gaze down on the $37,500 rug he ordered in early 2006. The handmade custom piece from India - featuring an 8-foot-in-diameter replica of the Maryland seal - is one of several lush touches to a $10 million renovation receiving its de facto unveiling today. Less visible will be the rich red fabric that covers faded wallpaper in Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller's inner office - part of a separate $10,000 job paid for with Senate funds, according to Miller's chief of staff, Vicki Gruber.

It won't be long before my kitchen walls are alive with the sound of music. About a month ago, I wandered into a wallpaper store in downtown Catonsville, killing time while my son took a music lesson across the street. I figured it was a nice warm shop in which I could browse without ever feeling compelled to buy anything. After all, there are no impulse-shoppers in the wallpaper category - who pops into a wallpaper store on a whim and comes out with 15 double rolls? When it comes to wallpaper, people typically look, look some more, and finally return to the store to look some more.

In the small foyer of Deni Miller and Chris Morrone's Canton rowhouse, it is impossible to take in the scene all at once. Lemon-yellow walls pop under bright, recessed lighting. Several mirrors reflect photographs on the walls opposite them. Shadow boxes and curio cabinets filled with treasures create the appearance of a well-organized, high-end second-hand shop. It is clear the house has taken on the lightheartedness of its occupants, who are eager to show it off. Miller and Morrone are the third owners of the two-story, 12-foot-by-40-foot brick house, which they purchased in 2001 for $97,500.

Las Vegas Wallpaper City Guide Phaidon Press, $8.95 These chic "anti-guides" for "anti-tourists" are slim and stylish enough to consult on the run while concealing the fact that you are just an out-of-it out-of-towner. Created by the editors of Wallpaper magazine, which is devoted to international design and lifestyle, these discreet directories employ classy photographs lightly seasoned with savvy suggestions. The Las Vegas version opens with a fold-out shot of the Strip and a photo gallery of Vegas landmarks, followed by a tour of top hotels, a sampler of top restaurants, and a whirlwind, 24-hour itinerary (breakfast at Wynn Buffet, gawking at Graceland Wedding Chapel, slots at Bellagio, drinks at Onda and burlesque at Forty Deuce)

Everyone out there who wants to decorate a room by putting up some trendy wallpaper, please, reconsider. And by "reconsider," I mean come to my place and help me strip some 10-year-old wallpaper off the kitchen walls first. The thing about wallpaper is, it's glued to the wall. To my knowledge, the folks at 3M have not yet developed a Post-it wallpaper. Nor is there any Velcro wallpaper. What is wrong with America? Why is it that we can inhabit a space station for months on end doing important yet largely unintelligible research on the behavior of flames, fluids, metals and protein crystals in space, and yet we cannot come up with an easily removable wallpaper here on planet earth?

I think wallpaper will really make a few of my rooms gorgeous. Can you tell me how to hang it? What are some of the most important steps when hanging wallpaper? Are there special tools one uses? I will get you started, but I urge you to look around for books, videos or DVDs that really explain the wallpapering process. You will need these basic tools: Assemble a tape measure, a 4-foot level, a 4-inch flexible putty knife, a paint roller and roller pan, a 2-inch paintbrush, a stepladder, a snap-blade razor knife, a smoothing brush and a large table or flat working surface.

A monthly feature exploring the stores, restaurants and sights of Maryland neighborhoods. Catonsville's shopping district is already known for its splendid hodgepodge of possibilities for artisans and musicians. It's easy to get lost in the corridor's sensory pleasures, from looking at bolts of mesmerizing batiks at Seminole Sampler to listening as a customer tries out a 12-string guitar at Bill's Music Store. Proclaimed "Music City Maryland" by the state legislature in 2002, Catonsville has long drawn musicians from afar to its cluster of music shops.

I've come across a floral wallpaper that I'd like to use in my traditionally styled, 15-by-18-foot living room, which includes four tall windows and a fireplace. The wallpaper comes with fabrics in the same colors and pattern. Large-scale, repeating images of roses, leaves and birds are set against a cream background. Would it look all right to accompany the wallpaper with coordinated draperies and upholstery? Or is that too much of one pattern and one color scheme? The do-your-own-thing school of interior design would simply tell you to take whatever approach you personally prefer.

NEW YORK -- -- John Ferber is wound up tighter than a terrier, lording over a laptop set up on a cocktail table in the middle of the room. Above him, a disco ball turns slowly. Behind him, the open bar. He zips through pages of his PowerPoint presentation, pausing briefly to sip from a Captain and Coke. In roughly half an hour, he's holding a coming-out party - a "media launch" - for his latest company. It's an advertising-supported, free social-networking site, called Cellware, that helps people create and distribute personalized ringtones and other mobile phone content, like screen wallpaper (Ferber's girlfriend is so far the most downloaded)

We're enlarging an attached garage to create a mudroom for our kids' sports equipment and foul-weather gear. It snows a lot where we live. I want this new space, which will connect to the kitchen, to be more a part of the house than the garage. But my husband says the inevitable mess in the mudroom will spill into the kitchen, wrecking its floor and wallpaper, unless the two spaces are strictly separated. What do you think? Your kids' personal habits and their actual use of the mudroom will probably matter more than the physical location of your house.