Holiday floral arrangement: pomegranates, orchids and berries

Pomegranates can add unexpected shape and color to a fall floral arrangement. (Photo courtesy POM Wonderful) In the weeks closer to Thanksgiving, it might be challenging to find pomegranates without scarring and suitable for placement in a lovely centerpiece arrangement.

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Holiday decorating: Pomegranate door swag of fruit and feathers

FESTIVE FALL DOOR SWAG

Pomegranates make a gorgeous holiday swag in this project from  POM Wonderful, the company behind farms that supply fresh pomegranates, pomegranate juice and jars of ready-to-eat arils, the juicy seeds nestled inside the pomegranate's thick husk.

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Restoring old windows: Save the charm but lose the chill

An Indow Window is a custom snap-in interior storm window.Old wooden windows often have lots of cracks and gaps that let cold air rush into a home while heated air escapes.

That means they usually aren’t very energy efficient. But old windows can be important design elements, particularly in historic homes. And there are ways to restore wooden windows while making them more energy efficient, experts say.

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Moms' on-time tips for avoiding the morning school rush

Here are the entries we're received so far from At Home readers hoping to win the Organizables brand weekday hanging bags for organizing a week's worth of school clothes and accessories. There's still time to enter the contest to win the pink set, so for a chance to win, e-mail win(at)athomenj.com by Oct. 26 and share your strategies for getting the kids to school on time. Also, check back for more tips, or just post your own in the comments area. You'll still need to e-mail to enter the contest, however.

My second-grader is naturally very competitive, so I make getting ready each morning a game.

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Sabrina Soto discusses new book, approach to home design

Sabrina Soto Home DesignSabrina Soto is a total-package type with the beauty, brains, presence and personality to make it in the competitive world of home design television. Her scrappy ability to create wow-factor spaces without a knock-out budget has made her a reliable expert as the host of HGTV's “Get it Sold, Real Estate Intervention” and “The High-Low Project.”

Soto, who also reaches a multitude of quality-conscious bargain hunters as Target's style expert for home, has a new book. In “Sabrina Soto Home Design,” she demystifies the do-it-yourself decorating process by breaking up a project into eight sequential layers. Starting with an evaluation of the space and what can't be changed about it – good or bad – Soto moves the reader through a discussion of color; surface treatments – walls, floors, countertops; storage and organization; furniture; textiles; lighting; and accents.

Soto, who lives in a small but luxurious Manhattan apartment took some time out of her schedule to answer my w questions about her approach to design in the following Q&A. Read on for more insight.

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