Both functional and decorative, floor lamps illuminate a space while finishing the look of a room. Tall and narrow, they can be tucked behind a sofa or hidden in a corner.

Parsons bone tile floor lamp, available at West Elm.

Tripod floor lamp, by E. F. Chapman for Visual Comfort & Co., available at KDR Designer Showrooms.

Counter weight floor lamp, available at Holt Lighting Depot.

Offering the finest European gold-rimmed porcelain, custom or in-house designed hand lettering and a fresh take on sustainable commodities, Sasha Nicholas isn’t your grandmama’s china shop.

Patti Porter designs custom floral arrangements that reflect your personality and style for any space in your home. With the holidays around the corner, floral arrangements add an extra touch of something special for your holiday guests.

SLHL: What spaces in a home work best for an arrangement?
Patti: Start with the front door and foyer table, and then move to the dining-room table, mantel and kitchen table. A small piece in a powder room is nice, but it could also be a single stem in a small mercury glass container on the nightstand.

John Perkins’ path to becoming a chef and restaurateur was as winding as it was unconventional. “I was late to the game,” taking his first restaurant job at age 30, says Perkins, chef-owner of Juniper in the Central West End. He also considered a number of other careers, including photography, writing and graphic design, and he earned a master’s degree in divinity.

Neal Thompson and John Wallace love to entertain during the holidays. Each year, the couple hosts a party for more than 100 family and friends. Taking in the festive décor that cheerfully fills their three-story Soulard home, first-time guests would never guess that Neal and John tore the place down to the studs and have spent more than 24 years renovating the home from the ground up.

Jim and Ashley Souers collect Santas. Not the traditional variety immortalized by Clement Clarke Moore. Instead, one-of-a-kind figures of all sizes, each hand-crafted and uniquely portrayed by artisans the couple has discovered during their extensive travels. 

For this engaging duo, the winter holidays are a highpoint of the year, and decorating their magnificent residence in Ladue for the season is an art form that takes weeks of preparation.