By Design

by Patricia Cove Some of us are techno geeks. Some of us are not. In fact, when it comes to technology, I usually take the slow lane. It’s not that I don’t like technology, it is that it doesn’t like me. But it certainly is a fact of life these days, and a fact that […]

By Patricia Cove It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was writing an article titled “Designing for the New Millennium,” and all of a sudden it is 20 years later, and the design world seems to be headed in a different direction. I came to this realization last week, when I was visiting two […]

by Patricia Cove You may have heard that Pantone’s Classic Blue has been named the Color of the Year for 2020. Where do I begin? There is so much to say about a color. How is it that Classic Blue happened to become color of the year? What is your reaction to Classic Blue? Will […]

by Patricia Cove Very recently, the New York Times published an article entitled, “When the Prince of Wales Is Your Landlord.” Knowing that the news these days is heavy with royal intrigue, I was compelled to pull from my library shelf a book I had purchased way back in 1989. It was titled “A Vision […]

By Patricia Cove Georgian, Federal, Tudor, Queen Ann — the numerous architecturally designed buildings throughout Philadelphia, and especially Chestnut Hill, provide us all with masterpieces seldom found in such abundance or proximity. And because we are surrounded by them, it is easy to stop seeing their materials, design and magnificent stature and rarely consider how […]

by Patricia Cove With the start of the new decade, there is no shortage of prognostication about where the future of design is headed. Much of it has been focused on the technological aspects of design and how it has allowed, and even encouraged,  a new and different approach to the design processes: The Do […]

by Patricia Cove As the holidays approach, we all begin to formulate our holiday decorating plan. Most of us take a mental inventory of decorations past, remember the broken lights and lost ornaments of last year and make a last minute dash to replenish our stock. With that, our decorating is complete. May I suggest […]

by Patricia Cove A room is composed of many things: floors made of wood, ceilings of plaster, walls of raised panels. Most people experience a space by visually absorbing what may be hung on those walls, the styles of the furnishings resting on those floors, or the lighting fixtures hung from the ceiling. There are […]

by Patricia Cove With the holidays approaching, it is a natural time to start thinking about gift-giving, and the idea of shopping for those gifts. A lot of us remember a time when purchasing items involved a trip to the main street of town, or a small strip of stores along a highway, or, starting […]

by Patricia Cove Modern. Traditional. Contemporary. Transitional. These are some of the words used to describe interior design over the past decades. We have seen a pendulum swing from historically accurate interiors to sleek, minimal spaces, and there are legions of style supporters on both ends. When one style is popular, the other falls out […]