A Look at What Decorators Do Behind Their Own Closed Doors

Wouldn’t it be fun to peek inside the homes of home decorators? After all, it’s one thing to see professionals’ handiwork in clients’ abodes, but what do they do in their own sanctuaries?

This is the question posed by author Claire Whitcomb and the editors of Victoria magazine in “Designers in Residence” (Hearst Books), published this month. The book looks inside the homes of 18 decorators, all of them women. Among those featured is Californian Rachel Ashwell, author of “The Shabby Chic Home” (Regan Books) and host of E! Style Network’s “Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic” series. The 175-page hardback not only offers the expected beautiful photos but also a good dose of each designer’s philosophy and decorating hints.

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Show some style this Valentine’s Day. Send a diamond set not in gold, not platinum, but paper. We’re serious. So is Montblanc. The luxury brand company designed three fanciful cards for lovers as part of its Royal stationery collection.

At the top of one card is a golden heart with a tiny diamond chip embedded in it. Another has a golden cupid with a tiny diamond in his arrow. The third is two lovers with stars overhead--one star contains an itsy-bitsy diamond.

Each handprinted, handpainted card costs $39, but that includes a matching ivory-toned envelope lined inside with golden tissue. On the back of the card is printed “genuine full-cut diamond.”

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Filling 6,000 square feet of space with pottery--most of it for sale--the Los Angeles Pottery Show hits town Feb. 24-25. The show will feature American works from 1800 to 1960, including California pieces. Forty-five dealers will be on hand, as well as an appraiser who will give verbal assessments Feb. 25 for $3 per object, with a limit of three per person.

Hours for the event at the Pasaena Elks Lodge, 400 W. Colorado Blvd., are 10. a.m.-5 p.m. on Feb. 24 and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Feb. 25. Information: (909) 864-1304 or https://www.lapotteryshow.com.

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The pioneer spirit is infectious. Catch it on “Save Our History: Frontier Homes,” a one-hour TV special Friday night starting at 10 p.m. on the History Channel.

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Candace Wedlan can be reached at candace.wedlan@latimes.com