Wallpaper

I've just moved to a new house and have taken along most of the furniture from my old place. The dining-room pieces, which are in an 18th-century style, don't look so great in the new setting. The floor is dark oak, and the walls and woodwork have been painted white. How can I give the room some character and warmth?The room will look better if you add pattern and color. The best way to achieve that in a setting filled with 18th-century-style furniture is by applying a decorative wallpaper above chair-rail height.

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.

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.

If you read about language, grammar, and usage, you're as likely to come across rubbish and codswallop as anything else. Thus there is joy at the arrival of a new voice of sense and informed judgment. Stan Carey of Sentence First heralded the arrival last week of Caxton , a new blog on language. Today's post at Caxton includes a reminder about the rules of language that rule-mongers would do well to keep in mind. And it is not novel information, coming from the pen of John Colet, humanist of the English Renaissance and dean of St. Paul's (d. 1519)

One-on-one: Watch a behind-the-scenes video of Ripken reflecting on his career and answering fans' questions during a Sun photo session. Photo galleries: A complete multimedia look at the most important moments of Ripken's career. Desktop wallpaper: Download wallpaper created from Sun photos. In the stands: Orioles fans share their favorite stories about Ripken. BALTIMORESUN.COM/RIPKEN

If your daughter celebrates a spring birthday, turn your home into a millinery for this year's party. Guests will love making and decorating their own charming flowery bonnets.You'll need leftover sheets of pretty prepasted wallpaper; an 8-ounce whipped topping container or a small mixing bowl; one strong rubber band; fabric scraps; silk flowers; tissue; lace; ribbons and paper streamers; and household glue.Cut the wallpaper in two large squares, approximately 20 inches by 20 inches each.

Five decades after purchasing Brooklandwood, St. Paul's School is upgrading the historic mansion while preserving its architectural character and history. Brooklandwood is a Georgian mansion built on a hill on the west side of Falls Road, on the St. Paul's campus in Brooklandville. In 1793, Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, built the estate as a summer residence for his daughter, Mary, and her husband, Richard Caton. Carroll was known for living and entertaining in grand style and wanted his children to have a place in which to do the same.

With some paint and glazes, a few tools and a little time, a plain, functional front door can become a home's welcoming statement, with the rich colors and grains of oak or mahogany. A concrete column can look like marble, a ceiling can become a cloud-dappled sky and old cabinets can get new life. To get those looks and more, all homeowners have to do is go to school. The Faux School, founded in Frederick by artist Ron Layman, 41, offers classes on decorative painting techniques to amateurs and professionals alike.

Eighteen rolls of wallpaper, a can of white paint, two cans of paste, 19 pieces of new furniture and a weekend of intensive volunteer labor transformed a drab and dreary 20-by-20-foot room into a teachers' mecca at Mount Airy Elementary School.The project was done as a surprise for National Teacher Appreciation Week by the school's Parent Teacher Association tTC executive board and principal BoAnn Bohman.Work began when a crew of five volunteers with brushes, buckets and a bevy of other decorating tools moved into the windowless, monochromatic teachers' lounge at 6 p.m. last Friday.

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.