Upgrade your tablescape with personalized marble tiles.

Don’t fret if you don’t have enough seating on hand for all of your guests: Scatter outdoor poufs and lay small rugs for a laid-back lounge area.

Web search: We’ve been here 15 years. My father-in-law found this house on the Web, and I think it’s unusual enough that people weren’t bidding on it. 

Art with a purpose: I started off in design and had my own greeting-card line at high-end stores, but I wanted to follow my own vision. I am an Asian-American woman and didn’t feel like my voice was really out there. My studio is in my home. 

It takes a village: This house, by architect Mahendra Parekh, was built on the principles of Hindu Temple architecture. The idea is big, open public spaces with large windows on the south side, and smaller windows and more private spaces on the north side. The idea is that a house is like a miniature village.

Shoptalk: A lot of what’s here is from Design Within Reach and Home on the Harbor and, occasionally, Ikea. I take Ikea stuff and rework it. The black sofas are by Bensen and were purchased at Full Upright Position.

Have a seat: We think the chairs are early Eames. They’re from my husband’s grandfather’s veterinary office.

Having a ball: The inspiration for the silver Chiasso balls, which were sourced by stylist Umbreen Khalidi, is the beaded screen by the late Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s “Untitled (Water)” in the BMA’s Contemporary Wing. I love the way they’re tactile. 

Seeing things: There are more things in here than I would like, but when my daughter, Lizzie, was little, she said, “I went to a friend’s house and they have all these knick-knacks. Why don’t we have any?” So I tried to acquire things with meaning.

Got a feeling: When we bought this house, we just went by karma. It seemed like a happy house.

Scaling back:
We got into this period of design when my husband and I moved into a
Federal Hill row house, and we couldn’t find furniture to fit, so we
started to look for mid-century modern pieces because the scale was
smaller. I got addicted at that point.

Please be seated: The first pieces we bought were these Arne Jacobsen chairs from a dealer in Chicago. The design is from the mid-’50s.

Table it:
The black marble table is a classic design made by Knoll, designed by
Eero Saarinen. We eat dinner as a family here every night and do craft
projects on it.

Feeling blue: Traditionally, red is a dining-room color, and I wanted to go in the opposite direction.

Sew nice: The curtain fabric is from IKEA. I got a sewing machine to make these. This was my first sewing project.

Dragon days:
I found the dragon at a local vintage shop (Denova in Hampden), which
is now closed. I liked the contrast of it against the blue wall and its
intricate silhouette adds interest to all the clean-lined furnishings.

Words to live by: Part of my rule before I buy something [for my store] is that I have to be willing to live with it in case it doesn’t sell.

Plain truth:
The biggest influence on my aesthetic is my father, who is an
architect. He is so modern and very minimal. We had no tchotchkes
growing up.