Traditional style anchors home

Diana Pierce, a reporter and news anchor at KARE 11 TV, has lived in her Plymouth home since 1991. Despite its soft contemporary exterior, Pierce has decorated the much-remodeled house in a traditional style.

Pierce and her husband, Dennis Babcock, recently completed a remodel that turned four smaller bedrooms on the upper level into three larger ones. Soon, the roof and gutters will be replaced. (Casualties of the recent hailstorms.) Daughter Chelsea had one request for her senior year in high school this fall: a reprieve from remodeling until she graduates.

Q How many TVs does a newscaster have in her home?

A When you're around TVs all day long, I don't need to be around them much at home. We have two, including a 52-inch big-screen that we use mostly to watch movies.

Q Tell us how you hide your big TV.

A The front of the two pocket doors that hide the TV look like they're an extension of the library wall. We sawed off book spines with a band saw and had them glued to the pocket doors. We got the idea from the Charles Dickens house in England, which camouflaged a door with book spines.

Q Speaking of England, many of your furnishings would look quite at home in an English manor. What gives?

A My husband and I love England. Our honeymoon was in the Tower House in Bath. Dennis [a theater producer] collects letters and photographs of English and French actors or writers such as Charles Dickens, Edmund Kean, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Alastair Sim and Sarah Bernhardt.

Q Your dining room is very formal. Does it ever get used?

A Oh, yes. During the school year, my daughter and I have daily devotions while we wait for her school bus. My husband has a men's Bible study group that meets there on Tuesdays.

Q When you want to relax, which room do you use?

A It depends on the season. This time of year, we're apt to be sitting on the deck in the backyard, looking out at Bass Lake, refreshments in hand.

Q Do you kick back much on the weekends?

A From 5:30 to 7 a.m. Dennis and I are running 5 to 10 miles, or biking or spending time on the treadmill. Later in the day I may cozy up with a book.

Q Your home is full of mementos of your family, travels to Europe, but your kitchen is remarkably free of knickknacks. Is the kitchen your domain or your husband's?

A When it's clean, it's usually mine. When Dennis cooks, every pot and pan are brought out.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633

Home base: A soft contemporary home in Plymouth.

A favorite indulgence: A large walk-in closet off the master bedroom, with windows. "Julie Nelson [KARE's 6 p.m. anchor] would kill for this," Pierce joked.

Cool design feature: The master bath has a vanity that looks like an English cabinet. The curved front features a painting of the inn in Bath, England (get it?), where Pierce and Babcock spent their honeymoon.

Sentimental treasures: The piano that she used to create her daughter Chelsea's lullaby. (Pierce has put out three albums.) Also, a bronze sculpture of a horseman on an Arabian, left. She has owned three Arabian horses.