Take away the glossy paper and lavish images that have long been key components of home-design magazines, and you may well ask what is left.
The high-tech, computer-screen world of on-line services would seem a distinctly inhospitable environment. But about a dozen shelter magazines are currently available on the World Wide Web or America Online.
Print and cyberspace are, of course, very different. The most successful on-line efforts skillfully blend new data with material transferred from print, or they offer something entirely different. The result is an abundance of how-to guides, decorating tips, resource lists and chat lines, and a scarcity of house-tour articles.
Visiting the on-line sites can be frustrating and time-consuming if you don’t have a sophisticated browser such as like Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer, and the sites also exude a certain sameness, with their reader bulletin boards and blatant subscription promotions. But they can be useful and fun. Here is a sampling.
– Better Homes and Gardens. Though thin on interior design, this magazine’s businesslike Web site offers a guide to Internet sites in 11 areas, such as interior design, building and remodeling. Compiled by the magazine’s editors, entries describe sites that promote products and dispense advice (the Carpet and Rug Institute offers stain-removal pointers). The site also provides a Home Improvement Encyclopedia, with basic information on subjects like decks and plumbing (address: http://www.bhglive.com).
– Country Sampler. Stocked with Middle America-style do-it-yourself tips, Country Sampler’s Decorating Ideas translates smoothly to screen. The site presents easy-to-follow projects (how to make an outdoor party tent) and techniques (how to stencil and spatter tiles) from current and back issues. Features change every two months, but the nimble Idea Exchange provides daily decorating advice from readers and, though less often, editors (http://www.sampler.com).
– Hearst Homearts. This megasite offers home-related material–recipes, gardening advice, fashion tips–culled from Hearst publications, including Good Housekeeping and Marie Claire. The site’s hefty shelter section supplements new material with past articles from magazines such as Country Living and Bob Vila’s American Home, but at present there is nothing more visually appealing than an interactive question-and-answer column from House Beautiful.
You can spend hours here. Articles come with copious sidebars and illustrations, including sequential pictures and even voiceovers to lead you through an article. Features cover collecting, resources and news (editors from House Beautiful, Country Living and Colonial Homes weigh in on the High Point, N.C., furniture fair). The best feature: “How to Dress a Naked Room,” which presents design ideas with floor plans, but it needs more updates (http://www.homearts.com).
– Home. Introduced two years ago and one of the earliest magazine sites, Home’s site, on America Online, is the genre’s obvious prototype. It features listings for new and old articles from the magazine, a bulletin board for buying and selling and a chat room. The best feature: the blueprint archive, which allows readers to browse through 20 or so popular floor plans. Click plan No. 8477, for example, and up comes a rendering of a two-story neo-Victorian, with information on square footage and architectural style. A floor plan can be downloaded at no charge–or a set of blueprints may be ordered for $310. The weakest feature: the search, which is designed to find articles on a chosen subject. I typed in “color schemes for rooms” and received articles on gardening and eating in diners, but nothing of use (America Online; go to Newsstand).
– Living Home. This 2-year-old site exists only on the Web, and it understands the medium. Information is simple, practical and direct. Graphics are colorful and witty, as is the name of the house tour, Hot House. And if the writing is a bit loose and unfocused, well, so is the Web. The best features include the Gardening Guys, who answer questions (how to force bulbs, how to start a vineyard) and whose past advice is easy to access, and the interactive Tool Chest, which estimates the amount of paint, wallpaper or grass seed needed for a project. I was told to buy two gallons of paint for a 21-by-13-foot room (http://www.livinghome.com).
– Metropolitan Home. Metropolitan Home’s site, on America Online, consisting mostly of old and new material, was almost canceled last year because of a lack of user interest. But usage increased after America Online initiated its $19.95 flat monthly fee (America Online; go to Newsstand).
– This Old House. This site nicely repackages home-improvement material from the magazine and PBS show of the same name. The most valuable feature: Encyclopedia, a smartly illustrated index, with practical information on building techniques, landscaping, materials and tools (http://www.pathfinder.com–click Living and then This Old House).
