Amazing Idea Houses; Parkview Dining Room

Jazz up your more formal rooms with creative touches and design techniques.

Throughout the house, interior designer Mary Margarett Nevin went out of her way not to match all the furniture and accessories, which gives the house a casual, unstuffy attitude.

In the dining room (shown here), she arranged different pairs of chairs -- some leather and some fabric-covered ones. "Dining rooms are more difficult to make interesting," she says. "My secret is that I never use all the same chairs -- never ever."