FREE! Download & Decorate

Dress up a boring computer screen with beautiful electronic wallpaper that's custom designed by Marlene Sezni, Home's deputy art director. Just click on the link for your screen resolution. Once you see the full image, right-click on it and select Set as Background or Set as Wallpaper. Or download the free PDF to your computer.

Check back soon for more patterns—all exclusive to homemag.com and inspired by ideas in the magazine.

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New Stores Galore

With so many shop openings over the past few months, we haven't been able to fit them all into Home's pages (although we'd love to!) Here are a few that certainly merit a shout-out.

1. Being a packrat with a penchant for vintage goods and contemporary design, I was thrilled that Sharone Einhorn and Honey Wolters came to their senses and reopened posh shop Ruby Beets. Expect everything from traditional upholstered furniture by English company George Sherlock to modern accessories to framed photography by Joseph Sheer. Ruby Beets Old and New, 25 Washington Street (Main Street), Sag Harbor, New York; 631-899-3275.

2. For Windy City fans of handmade design, Haus (FYI, that's Dutch, German, and Bavarian for "house") stocks one-of-a-kind crafts, ceramics, and handblown glass goods, most created by local artists. Owner Greg Steffens, formerly a potter himself, established the store as an alternative to art fairs (In essence, Haus is a fair that you can experience everyday!). Haus, 5405 N. Clark St., Chicago; 773-769-4000.

Pink Gadgets Raise Breast Cancer Awareness, Funds

October is breast cancer awareness month, and now you can support the cause and flaunt the latest tech gear. Numerous electronics manufacturers are launching pink-colored gizmos to back research for the disease, which affects more than 200,000 American women a year. Here are our picks of the crop.

Polaroid I533P Digital Camera
This 5.1-megapixel cutie with a 3x optical zoom features a 2.5-inch LCD screen and 16 megabytes of internal memory. $129, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Available through Target, target.com.

Gadgets To Get You Through an Emergency

1. Black & Decker's Electromate 400 offers portable power without a plug. Use its 120-volt charger to juice up laptops, cell phones, and radios, while its air compressor function can inflate tires and sports equipment. Leave your car lights on all night? The gadget can also jump-start your battery. $120. 800-544-6986, blackanddecker.com.

2. The ReadyFreddy Emergency Preparedness Kit is a red backpack stuffed with more than 100 items to get your through a power outage. The goods have been separated into five waterproof, labeled pouches; the Light/Power/Communications bag, for example, includes a shake-to-operate flashlight, a hand-crank cell phone charger, a 48-hour candle, and waterproof matches. Other goodies include a three-day supply of food and water for one, a breathing mask, blankets, and playing cards to get your mind off your not-so-desirable situation. $149. 800-731-2860, readyfreddy.com.

Can Small Houses Bring Us Together?

Did you know a new, single-family American house is now nearly 240 percent larger than it was in 1950? According to the National Association of Home Builders, an industry group, in 2004—the most recent year for which data is available—a single-family home measured 2,349 square feet; in 1950, it was 983 square feet.

Yet as our houses grow, Americans have become increasingly insular. Sure, the latest home-oriented trend is hiving—using your home as a base but making forays into the larger world—and there has been an increase in the number of porches, patios, and other places that link public and private. But real community involvement is still lacking. Membership in church, political, and social groups is down, voting rates are scraping the ground, and books like Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone and Richard Sennett's The Fall of Public Man detail and decry our atomized society.

How can we fix the alienation? Author Shay Salomon has a suggestion: Build smaller houses. In her book Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities (Lyons Press), Salomon, a carpenter and construction manager, takes us through a practical and personal examination of how we use our homes and what they symbolize to us. Questioning whether we really require media rooms, suite-like master bedrooms, music rooms, and wine cellars, she concentrates on methods to maximize the area we've got, plus ways to use communal spaces, such as parks, gardens, and playgrounds, to connect with others.

Home Grown

Click here to see a gallery of where the Home editors grew up.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Home blog—a multifaceted compendium of the latest and greatest tips, personalities, and products in the home design and retail arenas that goes far beyond what is covered in the pages of the magazine. In reading it, you’ll not only get a ton of fabulous solutions and info, but you’ll also get to know the Home editors a lot better. That’s because they’ll be the ones bringing you all this added insight—in their own unique voices. These folks are entertaining, totally in the know, and they love sharing their finds and ideas—in fact, they’re all but obsessed with the subject of home. I mean, why else would they walk around with pictures of their childhood homes in their wallets? (Well, okay, not all of ’em do, but they’re all willing to write about the same stuff they cover for the magazine, which is lots more work—and why on earth would they do that if they weren’t fixated?) I don’t carry a house photo on me, but I do have a shot of the place I moved into back in 1965 hanging on my bulletin board. I can trace my personal preoccupation with the topic of home to that period.