Maryalice Huggins, besides having a beautiful name, loves the artisanal and sumptuous quality of fine antiques and priceless heirlooms. And the heirlooms don’t just have to come from your family! Maryalice loves to mix and match from a variety of contemporary and historical artifacts and time periods, and we can do a lot to learn from her. Thank you, NYTimes.com, for bringing once again a refreshing mix of the old and the new to home and garden styling!

What if you want to recreate the aesthetic of Maryalice Huggin’s home? I suggest we start with a base layer of neutral, contemporary objects. Some standard white walls and solid colored rugs, some geometric sofas and glossy tables. From there, let’s look at some antique, rusted, inspired pieces to give your home a kick. Good objects to look for are mirrors, lamps, and table sculptures. Let’s take a look:

First, the base contemporary layer:

Zuo 900231 Fortress Sofa White: $1,322.00

And the antique lovely to set it off just right:

Uttermost 12525 Hesper Wall Art w/Etched, Antique Mirrors and Pewter Finish: $144.00

Find more contemporary style home decor at Smarter.com.

Canopy Swing Stand: On sale from $800 to $590, this beautifully built and organically curved structure will make you feel alive!

3400 Series Wood Chair: $114.99 Brings you back to memories of the old school house with this lovely, basic wood chair.

Shop for discount wooden furniture at Smarter.com.

So what do you do to recreate the 70’s charm? Take a look at these options I found on Smarter.com. Hope it helps! With Halloween coming up this weekend, why not put your whole house in costume?

Retro Modern Chair: $290.99

Momeni Shag Comfort Rug from Walmart.com: $59.00-819.00

Shop for more vintage style furniture and vintage style rugs.

Meridith Baer was featured in a NYTimes.com article in the home & garden section because she knows how to be selective in her designs without shirking her responsibilities to sell the lifestyle of a home.

What does Meridith Baer recommend? Think about the story of the person who you want to buy this house. Is it a young family? A heiress? An older couple who just wants a snug home that can fit a Christmas tree in the door for the grandkids?

She also is a big fan of strong, clean white lines and stone decorative objects to make the home feel filled, but not filled with miscellaneous objects.

Recommendations for how to make your home a fairytale:

LC White Leather Sofa: $740.99

Chic and elegant, this is the perfect base layer for a clean, fashionable home.

Dale Tiffany Marble Vase: $162.00

Stunning piece that captures the light and brightens a room. Imagine it in a dining room or on top of the fireplace–gorgeous!

Shop for affordable sofas and discount vases at Smarter.com.

Let’s take a look at the Paul Taylor shingle-style home decor:

The Staircase: (what we can take from this: Dark wood, dark green accents, picture frames and bright airy windows without a lot of grid)

The Homemaker Image: (what we can take from this: Paul Taylor is an eccentric guy that fits the bill for this house. He likes worn wood and stone fireplaces, benches to sit on and beaded antique lamps. Green, again, is a very important accent color)

How you can recreate your own look:

Rustic Adirondack Log Pole Bench: $59.99

Walnut Bench with Storage: $121.05 (marked down from $225.00!)

Jubilee Green Lamp: $404.80 (you save 12%)

What to take away from Grant K. Gibson: Luxury, antiques, brass, cool white and gold lighting and light fixtures, and sumptuous carpets and walls. Here’s how to get a start on luxury:

Glass Candle Sleeve: $12.00-$16.00

Buffalo China Dinnerware Set: $30.00-$60.00

Henry suggests thinking about the five senses when you are designing a home, so that it is emotionally comfortable and stimulating. He suggests lavender candles for smell and fireplaces for warm and touch, and a little loose tea with necessary equipment for a soothing taste.

Top picks by Robert Henry to make all your soothing dreams come true:

Lavender Candle set from Sabbonnyc.com: $18.00

Tea Stick Infuser from Momastore.org: $24.00

Here are some products from Smarter.com that compliment some of Mr. Henry’s suggestions!

Teapot from Wasserstrom.com: $39.90

Waterfall Showerhead in Chrome: $119.02

Shop for more home decor at Smarter.com.

Here’s how!

By using Smarter.com’s comparison shopping engine, I was able to find similar products to India Hick’s designs that are more affordable! Check out some of them here:

Muse Metal Chandelier: $565.00

Michael Kors Bali Queen Comforter: $299.99 (the price has been nearly cut in half!)

Young America by Stanley Surfer’s Chase Cloakroom Bookcase in Natural Cherry: $799.00

My favorite place for house touring: Cape May, New Jersey!

Offered by the Cape May Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts , the tour boasts numerous renovated Victorians and modern functionality to broaden your mind and options of house decorating for your own home! This year’s Designer Show House is the newly renovated Carpenter Cottage on 511 Franklin Street. Open until January 3, 2010, this is a showcase you don’t want to miss, with package deals on top restaurants and luncheons available through the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts website.

Once the home of lighthouse keepers, the Carpenter Cottage has been renovated with decor and household designs to look fresh, summery and clean, with simple lines and designs.

Tips and tricks to make your house into a Cottage oasis:

1. White accents, but not a White main course. Basically to make everything fresh, you want to pick a primary color ( a nice blue or red) and then accent it with tons of white. White chandeliers, white candlesticks, white curtains, white bed skirt, white white white. Don’t try to compliment a color with another color, even a more subdued one. Make it fresh and classic.

2. Modernize the bathroom! Make sure the appliances are nice and curious. You want clean lines and simplicity, but also some modern twists: maybe an interesting pewter faucet? A column-styled stand-alone sink? An antique mirror? Give it class.

3. Artwork on the wall is an absolute must. But don’t go for modernist paintings or your children’s artwork (though that is always a nice family touch). Think about rustic farm images or weather-beaten wood frames. You want the house to look timeless, but also aged. Think about how you can recreate that with art. The potential is limitless!

The designs, for the exterior, are clean, compact, and a little bit austere. With metal paneling, the house looks well-insulated, but also a bit too modernist and edgy to fit in the standard suburban landscape. It works for the Hamptons, of course, because anything works in the Hamptons if you have the money for it.

For the interior, you want hardwood floors, tall ceilings and white walls for the canvas. The designs should be sleek and un-ornamented. Think basic wood and metal designs with straight lines, all-white sofas and maybe a leather back chair with wood legs, some sparks of color here and there but mostly in the range of white, dark brown and black with metal accents in the shape of lamps and table tops.

The perfect accents for a modernist house: Modernist paintings and photographs, and tall white candles on glass candlesticks. Both bring a different light and energy to the house, which washes over the more basic and plain sofas, walls and colors described above.

How do you transform your home into a Modernist goddess? Here are some thoughts and suggestions:

Candice Olson “Delray” Floor Lamp - 7461FL: $358.00

Bubble Couch Chair by Kartell: $700.40


Clear/Silver Pillar Glass Candleholder: $25.08