DECORATING ADVICE : Glass-Front Cabinets Are Old Enough to Be In Again

Question: I have old-fashioned glass-front kitchen cabinets that I’m considering replacing when I modernize my kitchen this year. What do you think?

--Colleen Gray

Answer: Why remove your glass-front kitchen cabinets when they are very much in style today? Keep those cabinets and install glass shelves and lights inside to wash a handsome glow on your glassware and china. I don’t even mind having cereal boxes show through the cabinets.

Q: My very small bathroom has light mint-green tile halfway up the walls. The fixtures are white. I would like a cozy and cheerful look; my taste is Early American. What colors would you suggest for upper walls, floor, curtains, shower curtain and towels?

--Merill Humphrey

A: Find a vinyl wall-covering with a two-inch check in mint green and bright white. Don’t use a curtain at your small window. Instead hang bright-white painted louvered shutters with brass pulls. The shower curtain can be bright-white cotton with a plastic liner behind it.

Sew onto your shower curtain a two-inch-wide mint-green ribbon and a two-inch wide apricot ribbon down the front edge and along the bottom edge. Be sure to leave at least a one-inch space between the ribbons. Towels can be mint green and apricot. Floor covering might be a white brick vinyl tile. Use an apricot throw rug on the floor.

Authors notes: Pine paneling is a versatile wall covering that looks right in just about any room of the house, be it the living room, kitchen, master bedroom or library.

When planning your living room, consider panels of a warm, light pine with a waxed finish. Have a millwork company plan the layout of the panels: how they’ll look on the walls, over the doors, etc.

Get a drawing of your paneling from the contractor before you start to avoid unpleasant surprises. Make sure you get a firm price for the paneling and installation. Also ask about finishing work for the doors.

Paneling can be a super touch in the dining room also, particularly as wainscotting. If you extend your paneling into the dining room, consider painting the space above the chair rail a soft color such as rose.