It seems as if it's not just average citizens like you and me who are being affected by the real estate crisis. Celebrities aren't immune to the downturn either, and some are having to sell their multimillion dollar mansions for significant losses. A recent Forbes article outlines the biggest losers in the celebrity real estate game.

Denise Richards, the 36-year-old mother of two and former Bond girl, sold her five-bedroom home in Hidden Hills, Calif., located just north of Los Angeles, for $3.8 million in November 2007, after listing it the previous March for $4.5 million. The actress took at least a $200,000 loss on the home.

For more pictures of the home she sold, as well as a few of the other celebs affected by the treacherous housing market, just read more

Have you stopped by your local Pier 1 store lately? If not, you're in for a treat. The new Spring catalog has a great selection of stylish new products, as well as quite a number of steals. Each of these four Pier 1 lamps qualify as steals. The Teal Drum Lamp (upper left, $29, marked down from $50) is my personal favorite, though I'm also partial to the Buri Hanging Lantern (upper right, $49, marked down from $75). The Paiden Lamp (lower right, $29, marked down from $40) would look lovely in a room furnished in subdued earth tones, and the Floral Blaze Lamp ($39, marked down from $75) would be perfect in a bedroom dressed with John Robshaw linens. Check out the entire selection of lamps at Pier 1 here.

After 25 years of designing hotel, corporate, and residential interiors, RJ Thornburg, a self-declared “antidecorator,” continues to create distinctive spaces with a refreshingly innovative approach to style, color, and scale, bringing attention to art rather than using it merely for decorative purposes. RJ hopes that the eclectic environments he creates "help people have fun with their interiors and take the design process a little less serious." His recent work includes a midcentury modern home renovation, the Stonewall Country Club in Lancaster, Penn., and the Uwishunu Guest Room at Philadelphia’s Westin Hotel. After opening a home-design store showcasing his own designs as well as those of local Philadelphia artists and craftsmen, he partnered with Warren Muller, a self-proclaimed luminary who creates fantastic lighting sculptures from found, recycled, and salvaged objects, to open Bahdeebahdu, a lighting and design studio. To see a gallery of his work, read more

One of my favorite designers, Robert Austin Gonzalez, who we highlighted in a recent Designer Spotlight, has a piece featured on this month's cover of California Home + Design.

The 4Lcombo dining table from his Grace Collection can be spotted on the cover of their current issue. Also shown in the accompanying magazine story is Gonzalez's T/Sgothic stool and side table in oak. These limited-edition pieces were sold through Five Ten Studios, a gallery in Oakland, Calif. Architect Michael Logue selected the dining table as a statement piece in his penthouse loft design.

To see a gallery of some of Gonzalez's other work, just read more

If you want to spruce up your Love Shack this month, but you're not the type of decorator who digs pink hearts and red Valentine's Day cards, then you might compromise with some of these low-key art pieces that communicate your love of good design and art, but your reluctance to play this holiday over the top.

For my fave heart art finds, just read more