Q: My fiance is an emergency room doctor. His workday is all about stress and pressure, and matters of life and death, literally. We're buying a little place in the country, a funky old cottage. How should we furnish and decorate it so his weekends will be all about peace and quiet?

A: Vivid colors, extroverted prints, hard edges and sharp contrasts can stir up a cacophony of visual noise. I suggest serene colors, quiet patterns, uncluttered spaces and deep, comfortable seating. That about sums up my Rx for an environment that embodies peace and quiet.

Consider an all-over color scheme of white, or soft cream and gray. I still remember stepping into a friend's half-rehabbed farmhouse where she'd painted all the walls white, the floors, gray, and slip-covered all the second-hand furniture in plain white duck. It was instant relief from the harsh world outside.

For inspiration, check out Terry John Woods' new book, "Farmhouse Modern." As the title implies, the designer/author has superimposed the modernists' "less-is-more" mantra on the country-rustic bones of an old New England farmhouse: Less furniture gives way to more space, breathing room and, therefore, serenity.

As my friend did, John has painted all walls a soft white, as well as the old wood floors. But it's what he hasn't done that makes both his house and book so refreshing: He hasn't glommed up the space with calicos and quilts. You will look in vain for more than one teddy bear in the book's 224 pages. Yes, there are a couple of Staffordshire porcelain dogs, but they, too, are white.

What little color he's added comes from the jackets of books on a shelf or a work of art, such as the painting behind the camelback sofa in the photo we show here. The painting stands on an early English blanket box between two tall pillars in this quiet, perfectly balanced arrangement — a visual lesson in how symmetry automatically conjures a feeling of calm.

The Greeks figured this out centuries ago, and it's still a fail-proof formula for infusing a space with a sense that everything is in order, under control and life-affirming — the best antidote I know to an ER's pressure-cooker atmosphere.

Q: Ready for the weird and wonder-filled?

A: Not since the Victorians have we been so into the offbeat, odd and downright macabre. They filled their homes with curiosities like peacock feathers and exotic butterflies pinned up as artworks. The recent High Point (furniture) Market was fraught with natural un-beauties like metallic vases covered with scary spines and preserved sea urchins painted gold and mounted like eyes on an underwater-like blue background.

Barry Dixon designed a bronze-finished side table that stands on three pan-like hind legs. Jewelry designer Shannon Koszyk made edgy chandeliers for Currey and Company of precious/semiprecious stones, white bones, black onyx and crystal that could brighten the Addams Family's foyer. Christopher Marley framed preserved snakes, beetles and bugs like the brilliant artworks they are.

In the midst of such free-wheeling repurposing of Mother Nature, it was a relief to step into the Phillips Collection and find a standing screen made of recycled bicycle wheels. Bespoke art, indeed.

"Symmetrical balance and uncluttered space evoke peace and calm punctuated only by modern art. Photo: Kindra Clineff."

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website and www.creators.com.