Anyone with a background in design will tell you that layering light is essential when planning out a room. Effectively combining the big three—ambient, task, and accent lighting—creates depth and dimension, giving your home a balanced feel without harsh glares or spooky shadows. Layering light also makes it easy to transition your space from day to night: with just the flick of a switch, a bright office transforms into a moody, entertaining area. From iconic lamps to modern chandeliers, these 15 editor’s picks will light the way to a well-designed home. Table Lamps YAMAGIWA | Jakobsson Table ..read more

It takes a special place to draw New Yorkers away from the city. For Lisa and Howard Salzberg, it was a seaside property in Falmouth that convinced them to take the leap and relocate permanently. They aren’t exactly strangers to Maine, having summered in Maine since the early 1990s, but with a push from the state pandemic (plus some egging on from their teenage son), the Salzbergs recently traded in their apartment for this 5,000-square-foot four-bedroom waterfront residence, originally built in the late nineteenth century and then expanded in 2012. “The house ticked all the boxes, with great ..read more

The path that led Brad and Hannah Blymier to their newly built home in North Yarmouth was paved with oyster shells and hockey pucks. The couple met at a wedding in northern California, where Hannah was managing a Sonoma tasting room and bar; Brad was based in Maryland, where he ran War Shore Trading Company, growing and distributing Chesapeake Bay oysters. After a few years of marriage in the mid-Atlantic region, the couple moved with their two young boys, Jett and Jack, to Hannah’s home state of Maine to be closer to her family (adding Maine’s delicious oysters to War Shore’s roster was a nic ..read more

The owner of Back Cove Books reached out with one requirement: the mural had to take inspiration from Wes Anderson films. Naturally, I went down a wormhole and watched several of his movies, which are absolutely beautiful. What I love about his style is the color blocking and how his palettes are always either super saturated or kind of muted, alternative versions of colors, which I really wanted to play with. I’m a quilter too, so I was looking for an opportunity to lean into traditional quilt patterning and blocks, and I was also playing around with the idea of incorporating botanical momen ..read more

The postmodern movement of the 1980s threw classic design theories out the window: why abide by “less is more” when color, pattern, materials, and motifs carry meaning and expression? During this time, architects and designers began adding decoration purely for aesthetic effect while blending high and low materials, bucking the “form follows function” trend of the early twentieth century. But, like any craze, the often-misunderstood postmodern style isn’t for everyone. The 21 contemporary interiors featured in Rebecca L. Gross’s Ornament Is Not a Crime (Thames and Hudson, 2024) were not desig ..read more

As director of the Portland Art Gallery, Emma Wilson is responsible for curating the gallery’s artist roster and working with clients to identify new pieces for their collections. What goes into pairing fine art with architecture? The whole process is about discovery, so the architecture and style preferences of a client are such a great starting point. They’ve already made these really informative decisions, like the architecture of their home, the location of their residence, and their identity with the space. The furnishings are another aspect that we take into account because the general s ..read more

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