Wow Home Idea

If walls could talk, they would speak volumes about your personality. Simon Watson Yellow You consider 10 AM to be the "middle of the day," and haven't needed an alarm clock since kindergarten. You really don't know why anyone wouldn't greet the sunrise daily: You just get so much more done in the wee hours. See also: Orange. Victoria Pearson White If a genie gave you three wishes, one of them would be "A good night's rest." Your bedroom is an escape, the room you immediately beeline it to after coming home from a never-ending day. You don't consider your walls to be bare. Instead, they create a blank space that helps you clear your mind. The tiniest hint of color might add interest, but not too much. Maura McEvoy Navy Blue You have an opinion about everything and are not shy about letting others know it. You have a taste for strong coffee (never with cream or sugar), your politics are partisan, and you do judge people on their book collectio...

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Getty Images 2015 Okay, so Christmas is still a week away, but the festivities have already started. Miley Cyrus, who hosted the 2015 Video Music Awards, attended the New York premiere of "A Very Murray Christmas" where she gave a stunning performance of "Silent Night." 2014 Now more than ever people just people love putting cute outfits on their pets for the holidays. You likely saw at least a few Christmas cards with Santa dogs in 2014. Disney 2013 Released in theaters in late November (right before the holiday season!), Frozen captured the hearts of every kid under 5. Okay, some were slightly older. Like 40, but there's a good reason why — we could not "Let It Go"! 2012 Yes, it's a seamless part of our vocabulary now, but it was just a few years ago that Time named "selfie" one of the top buzzwords of 2012. We bet almost half of the holiday family photos you see now are take...

Courtesy of Erris Langer Klapper When my daughter was born, my mother gave me a comb that my grandmother Ella (born Esther) had given her. That comb, it turned out, had great history attached to it. My mother first found the comb in my grandmother's jewelry box when she was a teenager, and her questions about it were answered quickly and clinically: She had kept the lice comb with her (and hidden from guards) in a Nazi slave labor camp.  While my grandmother maintained her secrets, the comb must've meant the world to her to have kept it and safeguarded it all those years later, a world away from ever needing it again.  Courtesy of Erris Langer Klapper When I hold the comb, which is made of bone, I'm transfixed to another time where there are so many more questions than answers. How did she survive that hell-on-earth? My grandmother was a beautiful 30-year-old with piercing blue eyes and dark hair. My mind wanders, and I speculate about ...

Kevin Sparkman When interior designer Stacey Cohen first saw the dark fireplace and oversized built-in cabinets in the family room of her clients's home, she knew she had her work cut out for her.  The fireplace sat at an awkward angle, but moving it could have resulted in mechanical complications, and the built-ins completely overwhelmed the space. Both fixtures left the room feeling disjointed and thrown together, far from a cohesive spot for the family to gather. The plan: To keep it simple and clean, Cohen says. "The goal for the room was to be sophisticated and timeless." Kevin Sparkman Cohen started the room's transformation by integrating a hand-sculpted silver leaf cabinet where the built-ins used to be, and covering the fireplace in a beautiful limestone by Maro Bianco.  Banana leaf wallpaper was added to the rest of the room to mimic the fireplace's new look, and furniture...

Photos via Corcoran The Grey Gardens estate in East Hampton looks nothing like it used to. Any reminders of its years of decay have been wiped away, and the mansion and grounds are the picture of perfection. Even so, the home will always be best remembered as the decrepit estate where the reclusive Edith Beale and her daughter of the same name lived in isolation and squalor. The cult classic 1975 documentary "Grey Gardens"  brought viewers into the eccentric lives of Big Edie and Little Edie, the aunt and cousin of Jackie O, as they lived together separated from the world in their formerly grand estate.  But after Big Edie's death, Little Edie was finally ready to fly the coop, and in 1979 she sold her infamous home to writer Sally Quinn and her husband, Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee. But there was one condition: The home could not be torn down, but instead restored to its former glory, ac...