Susan Fornoff does a lighting roundup ("Turn down the lights ... Oh, but which ones?"), and her best pick is this striking 7-foot floor lamp, The Branch Environ.

For his monthly Saturday design profile ("Interior design goes onstage"), Zahid Sardar selects set designer Erik Flatmo, a young Columbia- and Yale-trained architect who is building a reputation for feats of uncanny realism. Flatmo's research process often leads him into his large collection of vintage shelter mags.

(Maybe he wants ours?)