Q: I have always been a lousy sleeper. Now, we've rented an apartment where the bedroom has a wall-to-wall sliding glass door that looks out on a park.

It's nice during the day, but at night the streetlights keep me awake.

What can I put on wide windows to block the light? Regular curtains aren't doing it.

A: Sleep studies have proven that three key conditions lie behind a good night's sleep. No. 1: Quiet. Your bedroom should be situated away from or insulated against disturbing noise. No. 2: Cool. Snuggling is more soporific than struggling with too-hot covers. No. 3: Dark. Absolute dark, not even the LEDs on your bedside clock should be allowed to show.

Obviously, you can't sleep with light leaking through or around your windows. Solutions are as close as the nearest window treatment store. There, you'll find curtains that are lined and interlined with light-blocking materials; the thick type you find in hotel rooms, especially in areas where sun and heat are problems.

Besides regular curtains, you will also discover other styles of light-blocking window coverings, including the window shades in the pictured room. Actually, they're called window shadings by the manufacturer Hunter Douglas (www.hunterdouglas.com) — a new name for the latest way to reduce light and ensure a good night's sleep.

You're looking at "Pirouette" shadings, which resemble Roman shades but feature a unique construction: Horizontal fabric vanes that open and close like a blind. When the vanes are shut tight, they effectively keep out the light so, as Shakespeare promised, you can more easily sink into the "sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care."

PS: Keep shadings in mind if you're ever doing a media room.

Q: Are the presidential candidates showing their true colors?

A: The pundits at Benjamin Moore Paints think so. They've been speculating over the palettes that would make the White House feel more like home to the McCains and the Obamas.

If McCain triumphs, look for a repeat of the earthy desert tones in his Arizona home, says Benjamin Moore's Eileen McComb. That is, a traditional Federalist color scheme with references to historical traditional and to painter Georgia O'Keeffe's Western way with colors.

If Obama wins, expect to see Michelle's "fashion penchant for purple and other strong colors" invigorate the public parts of the White House. The family's private living quarters might be done in "de-stressing" historic colors like moss green, violet and silver, McComb prophesies.

Meanwhile, it's all about the red, white and blue, she says.

Q: Is it true that Calvin Klein is now designing furniture?

A: True. I have seen it at a previewing in New York, before the new collections — there are two — make their official bow at this month's Furniture Market in High Point, N.C.

What are they like? Think of a Calvin Klein black dress: simple, elegant, more minimal than minimal with squared silhouettes and dramatic contrasts between dark/light materials — walnut and whitewashed oak, bronzed metals and travertine marble or parchment-pale leathers and ebonized woods.

As one wag observed, "It's so Calvin."

Very expensive, too, no surprise. It is $2,600 for the ebonized canopy bed, and that's the less pricey line that will be sold at Macy's nationwide.

The China-made furniture items are all beautiful. Calvin, it's said, drove too hard a bargain for domestic manufacturers — one reason the collections have been waiting on the drawing board for more than a decade, which is a shame. If Calvin Klein Home had debuted back in l995 before the glut of mid-century modern showed up everywhere, its clean-lined minimalism would have looked new and exciting.

Now it's just "so-so Calvin."

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Hampton Style" and associate editor of Country Decorating Ideas. To find out more about Rose Bennett Gilbert and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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