Decor & Accessories Decorating

Name: Hali & Philip DurhamProfession: Architect – www.studiodurham.comLocation: Soulard — St. Louis, MOSize: overall building 9,600 square feet, Residence 5,400 square feetYears lived in: 7 — owned It never hurts to be an award-winning architect. Most people in Saint Louis pass decrepit warehouses for years, writing them off as mere evidence of urban blight.

A girlfriend of mine recently referred to her “fat mirror” (one that made her look wider and shorter) and her “skinny mirror” (one that elongated her frame). Is this a red flag for some major body image dysmorphia or is she on to something? For me, buying a mirror has always been about its frame and its shape. It never occurred to me that some mirrored reflections could be more accurate than others. And, really, who cares? What matters is what is on the inside, right?

Name: Annie and PaulLocation: Upper West Side — New York, New YorkSize: 390 square feet — 1 bedroom Years lived in: 2½ — rented “We both roll with the same taste,” explain Annie and Paul when I ask if it was hard to design their first home together. Architects who met while learning their trade, Annie and Paul had each lived, previously, with roommates whose priorities diverged from home making.

We spent a fair chunk of Labor Day weekend lazily stretched out on picnic blankets, engaged in imaginative cloud gazing with our son. There’s a hedgehog, a Lego guy, a banana. But yesterday we were in the mood for some more, and not a single patch of condensed water vapor to be seen. So we did the next best thing – we fashioned our own to hang indoors. They took literally minutes to put together, and the effect was surprisingly transporting.

This entry comes to you courtesy of the fact that I’ve heard this maybe-myth told to me more than once in the past few weeks my friends and complete strangers alike. My car’s keyless entry remote, for lack of a better word, sucks. I practically have to be next to the car to get it to work. Alas, plenty of the aforementioned people have given me the tip to hold the remote to my chin with my mouth slightly open to increase the range of the remote signal.