A smart, sophisticated apartment remodel

The last time the century-old apartment in the heart of downtown Chicago had been updated was in the 1970s. "It wasn't exactly a dump, but it needed a lot of work," says interior designer Eva Quateman, Read more about this remodel in Traditional Home Magazine.

Dining room before:

Dining room after:

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after:

Breakfast room before:

Breakfast room after:

Master bedroom before:

Master bedroom after:

Make it flow.

That's Eva's No. 1 rule in decorating. "One room should flow into the next unobtrusively. The design should sing the same song as it progresses along from space to space," she insists. Even houses with a lot of different colors in the palette should have continuity. "If green and orange are in one room, then maybe it's green and red in the next. The idea is that some elements of color should segue from one room to the next so the spaces flow."

Photos and information from Tradtional Home Magazine.

President Obama's vacation home: Blue Heron Farm

Barack Obama rented this $20 million house on Martha's Vineyard.

He and his family probably had a wonderful time at this 28 acre farm complete with an apple orchard, private beach, pool and basketball court. Take an exclusive look at the beautiful Blue Heron Farm.

Photography Courtesy Richard Keith Langham

See more of the pictures in Architectural Digest.

A kitchen makeover

My friend Nooria asked me if I couldn't post some pictures from my own home. I have had many homes and they have all been remodeling projects. And I have never had enough money to do everything I wanted, so I had to come up with my own solutions...

This is the kitchen makeover we did when we lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It's 9 years ago, so I would have done it differently today, but all inn all I think we did a pretty good job.

We bought our dream home on the golf course, that needed a lot of work. Of course we had spent way too much money just buying it, so we didn't have a big budget for remodeling. We had to do most of the work ourselves. My least favorite room in the house was the kitchen. It was dark, dull, had old appliances, hideous wallpaper and a lowered ceiling. There were no windows. We chose to spend our money on newer appliances and granite tiles. The house was a rustic flagstone house, so I had to take that into consideration.

This is what we did:

I stripped the varnish off the kitchen cabinets. Then I painted them inside and outside with 3 coats of white paint. I put on a layer of grey glaze that I rubbed off and finished with a matt lacquer. It was a tremendous amount of work, but they looked good when we finished.

New wallpaper (I probably wouldn't have picked this one today, but okay...)

My best tip is: if you cannot afford granite-slab countertops, buy granite tiles. We put them down tightly with a minimum of grout both on the countertops as well as the backsplash. At the end of the counter we put a decorative stone tile to finish it off. It actually looked very good and many people didn't even notice that these were tiles not slab. I would definitely do this again.

The end result:

And here are a few pictures of my dining room before and after:

It's a little bit dark, but I have this wonderful diningroom that I inherited from my grandfather. It was built to match the woodbeams in his house in the 1930s. The art is from my parents. (I'm fortunate to have a summerhouse where I can play with a lighter New England style.)

Well, this was a little bit of personal information. I hope you enjoyed it!