Isabel Molster

Ashley Whittaker wrapped this little boy’s Upper East Side bedroom in a sophisticated navy stripe, punctuated with red trim and playful airplane prints. Because child-friendly can be magazine-worthy, too. Children’s rooms are where good design gets to have a little fun, but that doesn’t mean they need to look like playrooms.

The gracious open-air porch on this newly built Georgian-style home in northern California designed by Dan Fink is furnished with comfortably cushioned seating in shades of white and pale gray so that the surrounding landscape takes center stage. Designers show how to create open-air spaces that feel like an extension of your home. S ome of the best rooms in a home have no walls at all.

View Gallery Designer Nick Olsen enlisted decorative painter Agustin Hurtado to create faux drapery on the walls (and chest of drawers and even a vinyl roller shade) of the exuberantly decorated guest bedroom of his former weekend house in Dutchess County, New York. These stylish examples prove curtained walls—real or faux—are always a chic move.