Once again this season I’m simplifying my holiday giving for everyone, from baby to grandma, by focusing on gifts made of American hardwood. There’s an enormous selection out there, ranging from the sleekly sophisticated to the charmingly rustic—and everything in...

I was talking to a friend about a new generation of artisans that are keeping the tradition of handcrafted hardwood furniture alive throughout the United States, when she alerted me to Skana Design, a one-man woodshop in Spencer, Massachusetts, that epitomizes the...

I was at my family’s lakeside cottage in Upstate New York this summer, having breakfast on the porch, enjoying the view of the water and trees, when I was shaken out of my reverie by an alarming news report on NPR’s Morning Edition.   “There's a voracious little...

    Medium-dark walnut is not a hardwood I generally associate with beach houses—until I saw a new two-story weekend cottage in the Hamptons, New York’s favorite seaside resort. The project’s Manhattan-based designer, Laura Bohn, makes extensive use of the...

Hardwood barn doors moved out of the farmyard and into the house a long time ago. But I’ve noticed that recently they’ve become an even more popular—and useful—feature in residential design. Here are three projects involving barn doors that I think are particularly...

My friend, Rebecca Ascher of New York–based Ascher Davis Architects, recently completed the interior design of a house in Atherton, California. I love the project, which uses hardwood to bring a touch of New England to the West Coast, so I thought I’d share a few...

One of my favorite small art museums, and one in which hardwood plays a crucial role, is the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. It's home to this country's finest collection of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings—major works by Cézanne, Van Gogh,...