If your home feels darker or smaller than you’d like, you’re not alone. Many spaces lose their brightness over time, whether due to layout choices, heavy furniture, or outdated décor. The good news? You don’t need a full renovation to transform the look and feel of your space. With a few thoughtful adjustments, you can make your home appear bigger, lighter, and far more inviting.
Here’s where to start. Continue reading Making Your Home Look Bigger and Brighter
Photo By Gail
The paintings of Fernand Leger (1881 – 1955) often celebrate machine-made objects and modern city life. However, in the late 1920s, he began to include natural forms in his work. The curving line down the left-hand side of his 1927 painting Leaves and Shell softens the underlying geometric structure of horizontal and vertical lines. It also acts as a link to the organic shapes of leaves and a shell. These naturalistic elements, with their streamlined shapes, are closely connected to the abstract parts of the image.
Photographed in the Tate Modern Museum in London.
Photo By Gail
In this glowing portrait, the American impressionist painter Lilla Cabot Perry (1848 – 1933) renders, in loose and expressive brush strokes, a fashionable young woman sipping a cup of tea. Initially trained in an academic style, Perry traveled to France in 1887, first to Paris and then to Giverny, where she forged the close friendship with Claude Monet. Her technical and aesthetic approach was further informed by three years in Japan, where she met Okakura Kakuzo (1863 – 1913), a cofounder of the imperial art school, who exhibited her work in Tokyo.
Photographed in the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA)
There comes a point when it feels right to update your home, whether to refresh its look, improve how it functions, or simply make it feel new again. When that moment arrives, having a clear sense of how to approach the process can make all the difference. Even small, thoughtful changes can breathe new life into familiar spaces, and there are plenty of worthwhile options to consider. In this post, we’ll explore a few practical and inspiring ways to give your home a renewed sense of purpose and appeal.
Continue reading Giving Your Home A New Lease On Life
All Photos By Gail
While wandering through the Museum of Modern Art last week, I noticed something unexpected in the gift shop: a new collectible Barbie inspired by what is arguably Vincent van Gogh’s most famous painting, The Starry Night. The doll felt perfectly placed, considering the original painting hangs just upstairs as part of MoMA’s permanent collection.
Continue reading Yes, It Exists: Starry Night Barbie