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The art of showcasing a home’s best features is to use the architecture of the space as a guide. As in traditional design, the foundation principle of redesign is “form follows function.” However, in redesign you never sacrifice the use of the room in order to make it look pretty. The redesign process “thinks outside the box” to creatively assess alternative uses for various pieces of furniture and accessories.

Redesign’s goal and philosophy is to achieve a stylish, comfortable room at little or no cost, valuing placement over purchase. In a well-redesigned room you will not...

What’s in a name? If you own a retail establishment, almost everything. Whether overtly descriptive, cutely whimsical, or a clever play on words, the name you choose can be a major clue to your identity.

So what, then, is up with Hey Jhonny, the name given to two of Albuquerque’s most spirited home accessory and furniture shops? Its meaning isn’t obvious and it can’t be puzzled out. You have to ask. But in asking, you get not only meaning, but also a great story. The name (their spelling) is an homage to co-owner Tom Ford’s late father, a man who spent his life serving the public as a Long...

Author Sallie Bingham is known for her novels, short story collections, and memoirs. She has also had a career in the theater that began with backyard reworkings of Shakespeare’s classics at her Louisville, Kentucky, home. She dragooned her fourth grade class girl friends to perform in these productions while she wrote, directed, and acted the leads herself. Sallie heard an adult member of the audience whisper the following: “Shakespeare would turn over in his grave.” Not understanding the phrase, Sallie intuited that it was not high praise. By the sixth grade, her friends rebelled...

Two new books offer revealing glimpses into the world of haute couture. One celebrates the great post-war decade and the other exposes couture’s decline, from a tradition of quality and superlative workmanship to the mass marketing of inferior products under designer labels. They both help point to Santa Fe as a mecca for beautiful, handcrafted clothing that reflect artisan-made standards of excellence.

In April 1970, famed fashion photographer Cecil Beaton received a note from Baroness Alain de Rothschild: “Let me know when you do come to Paris and I will show you what I have!...

Call it pragmatism. Social responsibility. Call it an excuse to get out of the classroom and meet your neighbors. Enter service learning, an education model that answers to all of the above. Also called social learning or youth development, the model makes use of experiential learning to foster volunteerism and community engagement. What does that mean? It means taking kids out to plant a tree and restore the Santa Fe River. Right there you’ve connected biology, soil erosion, native species and geometry. Don’t forget social skills—teamwork and communication are building blocks here. Why...

College is one of the most amazing experiences in a person’s life. A variety of classes are available to broaden your academic horizon, amazing friendships are made, and most importantly, you begin the processes of discovery both about yourself and the world. However, the college admissions process is time consuming and difficult, and often takes a team greater than one. Having recently completed this process, I have come up with a few guidelines to help you along the way.

Be Proactive. Deciding where to go to college will be one of the biggest decisions of your life. Despite the help and...

Now in its 11th season, ARTfeast is heralded as one of the most inspired reasons for a getaway. The weekend of festivities celebrates the City Different’s world-class chefs and restaurants, an international array of vintners, original designer fashions and unique homes, along with nationally and regionally prominent artists represented by members of the Santa Fe Gallery Association.

All of this fun and food helps young people develop the skills needed to creatively respond to life.

I am often asked by those seeking to own or build a special Santa Fe home, why it costs just a bit more for your Santa Fe dream home. Once you hear the reasons, you'll know that Santa Fe is well worth the extra. Having designed and built many Santa Fe homes for over thirty years, I give careful guidance in achieving a fine home with all of the special qualities that our city's rare architecture can offer.

Numero uno among reasons why you just may experience a moment of gentle heart failure when you learn what home's fetch in Santa Fe is the fact that almost any home that meets the...

In a recent interview with co-founders Argos MacCallum and Ron Mier, I discovered that the “umbrella” in the Santa Fe’s Teatro Paraguas’s (TP) name is two-fold in nature. One aspect of the term “paraguas” is an attempt to be inclusive in terms of subject material and audience: to reflect the Spanish and Latin traditions, the Chicano experience, of Northern New Mexico as it interacts with the Anglo and Native American cultures. It also refers to the goal of the company to be a collective of individuals who are provided with the opportunity to develop artistically.

Two new museum shows that juxtapose the seemingly innocent or beautiful with deeper chords of meaning will be on exhibit in early February.

Marsden Hartley and the West: The Search for American Modernism opens January 25th at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Organized by Heather Hole, O’Keeffe’s assistant curator, the exhibition repositions Hartley’s work in New Mexico as pivotal in his career and in the development of American Modernism.

Hartley painted New Mexico repeatedly from 1918 – 1924, first living in Taos and Santa Fe, then returning from New York and, once again, Europe. Hartley’s...