NOTHING LOST IN TRANSLATION
A: As an accounting pro whom the math-challenged run to, you, in turn, should feel totally easy calling on professional designers for help with this project. Especially when you're buying new things anyway, many furniture and department stores will provide designer services at no extra charge.
At the very least, the in-house experts can look at the floor plan of your mom's apartment and steer you to the right proportions in furniture and a pattern/color scheme.
Failing that, you still have a logical starting point: your Mom's "French" chair. Extrapolate its "Frenchness" all over the room, and you might end up with a setting as comely and comfy as the room we show here. Everything comes from Pierre Deux ( www.pierredeux.com; 888-743-7732), perhaps the ne plus ultra of Country French design in this country.
Study the photo and you see how all the patterns and colors interrelate so they can coexist compatibly without making a racket. That's because designer Hedwige Cointreau de Bouteville carefully repeats colors and restates patterns, such as the Provencal medallion that reappears on the chair (in blue) and on the curtains (in yellow).
Throughout the space, blue, yellows and whites, plus traditional motifs like thistles and checks serve to "organize" the furnishings into a cohesive whole that is warm, welcoming and familiar - all extra important for someone who is giving up her longtime home, and dealing with a distressing disease.
NESTING INSTINCT
According to a straw poll of professional designer friends who travel constantly in their business, six out of eight confess to rearranging hotel rooms the moment the bellboy bows out. They move furniture, hide offenders in the closet, whip out travel companions that remind them of home, such as family photos, favorite bed throws, often a beloved pillow from their own bed.
The nesting instinct hasn't gone unnoticed in the hospitality industry. At least one hotel, the elegant Athenaeum Apartments in London, is trying to match their guests with decor that feels personal.
Call for a reservation and you can expect more questions than "queen or king, smoking or non." The clerk will quiz you closely on your taste: cool and contemporary? Family-friendly? Sumptuously seductive? By which he or she means a tad over the top with leopard prints and deep fringes.
The 30 one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments that occupy a row of Edwardian town houses connected to the hotel have been done up by such British design stalwarts as Colefax and Fowler, Osbourne & Little, and Nina Campbell. They've put something in the mix for every design taste, says Jonathan Critchard, manager.
For more information, go to www.athenaeumhotel.com.
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