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How to Design a Screen-Free Playroom Your Family Will Actually Use
How to Design a Screen-Free Playroom Your Family Will Actually Use
One rug, a few toys out, and a real chair for the grown-up. Most screen-free playrooms fail for a boring reason. The room gets decorated before anyone decides how it... Read more...
The Patio Measurements Nobody Takes Until the Umbrella Arrives
The Patio Measurements Nobody Takes Until the Umbrella Arrives
Canopy size, sun angle, head clearance, base weight and wind: the five measurements that decide whether a patio umbrella actually shades your table. Read more...
Pro-Style Kitchen Design That Still Looks Like Home
Pro-Style Kitchen Design That Still Looks Like Home
A pro-style range set into painted cabinetry, with the refrigerator hidden behind matching panels. My mother is a master hostess, and the first thing I learned from watching her is... Read more...
How to Lay Out a Kids' Bedroom So Sleep, Study, and Play Each Have a Place
How to Lay Out a Kids' Bedroom So Sleep, Study, and Play Each Have a Place
A designer's approach to zoning a child's bedroom into sleep, study, and play areas using rugs, lighting, and furniture placement instead of walls. Read more...
Dining Room Rug Size: A Rug Maker's Guide
Dining Room Rug Size: A Rug Maker's Guide
The dining rug rule nobody actually follows: measure the table, add 48 inches, then round up. Sizes by table, why low pile wins, and when standard sizes stop working. Read more...
Granny Flat Floor Plans: Why the Plan Comes Before the Facade
Granny Flat Floor Plans: Why the Plan Comes Before the Facade
A one-bedroom flat with the long wall given over to windows. The plan decided that long before the facade did. Every older neighborhood in Atlanta has a few of them... Read more...
A Floor Plan That Fits How You Live, Not the Listing
A Floor Plan That Fits How You Live, Not the Listing
The rooms that do the real work of a house: a kitchen island that feeds the family, and a keeping room right beside it. Drive through any new subdivision on... Read more...
Bathroom Roller Shades: Materials That Handle Moisture
Bathroom Roller Shades: Materials That Handle Moisture
A matte roller shade in a soft green keeps a tub-side window private without swallowing the daylight. Bathrooms are where I see the most expensive window treatment mistakes on the... Read more...
7 Ways a Modular Sofa Makes a Living Room More Flexible
7 Ways a Modular Sofa Makes a Living Room More Flexible
A modular sofa pulled apart into two seating groups, which is the whole point of buying one. The sofa is the one piece of furniture I tell people to buy... Read more...
Choosing Shed Doors That Suit the House, Not the Catalog
Choosing Shed Doors That Suit the House, Not the Catalog
A shed door is the one detail on an outbuilding that everyone actually looks at, so it is the detail worth getting right. My grandmother had a rule about houses... Read more...
Designing Around Air Vents, Returns and Thermostats
Designing Around Air Vents, Returns and Thermostats
The vent is still there. It just stopped being the first thing you see. Every room has a few things in it that nobody chose. The thermostat on the best... Read more...
5 Reasons Garage Carpet Is Ideal for Turning Your Garage into a More Usable Space
5 Reasons Garage Carpet Is Ideal for Turning Your Garage into a More Usable Space
A garage that has stopped being a garage: carpet down, a proper chair, and a lamp instead of a bare bulb. The garage is the last honest room in most... Read more...
6 Entryway Design Ideas for a Beautiful First Impression
6 Entryway Design Ideas for a Beautiful First Impression
A front hall that does its job in the first five seconds: a runner underfoot, a mirror at eye level and one good lamp. People judge a house from the... Read more...
Matching Blinds and Curtains to Your Decorating Style
Matching Blinds and Curtains to Your Decorating Style
A designer's guide to choosing window treatments by room style: modern, traditional, coastal, eclectic and formal, and the rules that hold in every room. Read more...
How to Make a Room Feel New Without Renovating
How to Make a Room Feel New Without Renovating
A designer's order of operations for refreshing a room you already own: rearrange, fix the lighting, edit, then let one piece change the balance. Read more...
What Technology Actually Changed About Designing a Room
What Technology Actually Changed About Designing a Room
Visualization, AI and shared project platforms have changed how design decisions get made and when. What they have not changed is the judgment that decides which option is right. Read more...
The Measurements Nobody Takes Until Moving Day
The Measurements Nobody Takes Until Moving Day
The furniture you already own has to physically get into the new house. Here are the measurements that decide whether it does, and when to take them. Read more...
Beyond Decor: The Details That Give a Home Personality
Beyond Decor: The Details That Give a Home Personality
The things that give a house personality are rarely the decorative ones. Objects in use, scent, light and small rituals do more for a room than anything bought to be... Read more...
Embroidery at Home: Monograms, Cushions and Table Linen
Embroidery at Home: Monograms, Cushions and Table Linen
Monogrammed linen and embroidered cushions are having a moment. What the technique actually does to a room, where it belongs, and what it takes to do it at home. Read more...
From Home Office to Commute: A Cohesive Leather Work Kit
From Home Office to Commute: A Cohesive Leather Work Kit
How to build a leather work kit that reads as one considered set, from the laptop bag down to the passport cover, and why proportion and patina do most of... Read more...
Renovating for Wellbeing: What to Fix First
Renovating for Wellbeing: What to Fix First
A renovation is the best chance most people get to change the air, light and quiet they live in. Here is the order of operations that gets you there, and... Read more...
The Best Outdoor Lighting Ideas in Omaha
The Best Outdoor Lighting Ideas in Omaha
Six outdoor lighting approaches that work on Omaha properties, from tree uplighting and architectural facade light to permanent roofline systems, patio layers, path lighting and smart controls. Read more...
Why the Rough-In Measurement Decides Your Smart Toilet, Not the Feature List
Why the Rough-In Measurement Decides Your Smart Toilet, Not the Feature List
Rough-in is one number, taken in thirty seconds, and it rules out more smart toilets than budget does. Where it comes from and what to check before ordering. Read more...
The Specification Choices That Make a Room Mold-Prone
The Specification Choices That Make a Room Mold-Prone
Mold is usually discussed as an accident. In a designed room it is more often a decision: a paint, a wall covering, a joinery detail, a floor build-up. Read more...
Keeping Drapery Consistent Across a Whole-House Project
Keeping Drapery Consistent Across a Whole-House Project
Whole-house drapery almost never fails on install day. It fails in phase two, when the new panels come back a shade off. A specification checklist. Read more...
What Running an Interior Design Business in New York Actually Involves
What Running an Interior Design Business in New York Actually Involves
The building, the board, and the filing rules decide more about a New York design project than the mood board does. A look at how the business actually runs. Read more...
Designing an Outdoor Room Around the View You Already Have
Designing an Outdoor Room Around the View You Already Have
Most outdoor spaces are decorated. The good ones are composed around something: a view, a tree, a line of sight the furniture was arranged to protect. Read more...
Reclaimed Oak Flooring: Why Old Wood Wins
Reclaimed Oak Flooring: Why Old Wood Wins
Reclaimed oak flooring brings density, patina and character that new timber cannot fake. What to know about sourcing, milling and living with an antique oak floor. Read more...
Easy-to-Clean Decor That Still Looks Designed
Easy-to-Clean Decor That Still Looks Designed
Choosing fabrics, rugs and surfaces for how they clean, not just how they photograph. A designer's guide to easy-to-clean home decor that still looks considered. Read more...
Dorm Desk Setup: A Designer's Guide
Dorm Desk Setup: A Designer's Guide
How to set up a dorm desk that works: zoning a shared room, vertical storage, lighting, and the cable problem. Small-space design principles applied to a study corner. Read more...
Designing a Home That Protects Itself: Security Without Sacrificing Style
Designing a Home That Protects Itself: Security Without Sacrificing Style
For years, home security and good design were at odds. Alarm panels were beige plastic boxes screwed to the prettiest wall in the entryway, cameras looked like industrial hardware, and... Read more...
How to Hide an AC Unit Without Ruining the Elevation
How to Hide an AC Unit Without Ruining the Elevation
Wall-mounted AC units get blamed for ugly facades. The placement is the problem. Here is how to hide an AC unit so the elevation reads as designed. Read more...
Air Vent Placement for Rooms That Still Look Designed
Air Vent Placement for Rooms That Still Look Designed
Vents are the one fixture in a room nobody designs. Where they go, and what covers them, decides whether a finished room reads as considered or as builder-grade. Read more...
Detached Steel Garage Design That Suits the House
Detached Steel Garage Design That Suits the House
A steel garage will outlast a wood one and go up in a fraction of the time. Whether it looks like a warehouse or a carriage house is entirely a... Read more...
Choosing a Home Office Chair That Looks Like Furniture
Choosing a Home Office Chair That Looks Like Furniture
The home office chair is the one piece most rooms get wrong twice: it hurts by mid-afternoon and it looks like a rental. How to choose one that solves both. Read more...
Hands measuring a custom lumbar pillow cover
Size Inserts 1–2 Inches: Custom Pillow Sizes by Kevin O'Gara
Kevin O'Gara pairs size charts with ordering steps and designer rules, including sizing inserts 1–2 inches larger to ensure a plush, hotel-quality fit. Read more...
Close detail of pleated lampshade folds
Match Pleats to Fabric, Frame and Rug with Pleated Lampshade Styles
See how knife, box, cartridge and pin pleats change light, fabric choice, and lamp proportion, with designer notes on pairing shades to rugs. Read more...
How Designers Plan Outdoor Lighting Before the Hardscape Goes In
How Designers Plan Outdoor Lighting Before the Hardscape Goes In
Designers plan outdoor lighting at the point of ordering the hardscape or landscape, because that is the only time conduit, transformers, and fixture locations can be buried cleanly under patios,... Read more...
Shared Dorm Room Layout: How Two Roommates Get a Room That Works for Both
Shared Dorm Room Layout: How Two Roommates Get a Room That Works for Both
How to lay out a shared dorm room so both roommates get sleep, a desk and a side of their own: bed height, the sleep line, a rug as the... Read more...
Rooftop Terrace Design: The Details That Decide Whether It Gets Used
Rooftop Terrace Design: The Details That Decide Whether It Gets Used
The rooftop terrace details that decide whether anyone sits there: shade that follows the sun, windbreaks, seating clusters, bins on the walking line, layered light. Read more...
Hands fitting oversized pillow insert into cover
Designer Rules for Pillow Inserts: Size Up 2 Inches
Get designer rules for choosing pillow inserts, the right fill for each room, when to size up 2 inches, and care tips to keep pillows crisp. Read more...
How to Turn a Garage Into a Flex Space Without Converting It
How to Turn a Garage Into a Flex Space Without Converting It
Turn an underused garage into a flex space with a rug, real seating, layered lighting and a few old pieces. No permits, no full conversion required. Read more...
Designer measuring a lamp shade rim
Measure First, Avoid Returns: Kevin O'Gara on Lamp Shade Sizes
Measure top, bottom, and slant. Use the two thirds rule and 1.5 to 2 times base width. Designer Kevin O'Gara's tips to get a perfect fit. Read more...
Dark Exterior Colors on a Steel Home: What Changes When the Siding Is Steel
Dark Exterior Colors on a Steel Home: What Changes When the Siding Is Steel
Dark exterior colors behave differently on a steel-framed house. The color is a coating spec chosen months early, and it has to answer for heat, glare and rippling. Read more...
The Best Shades for the Poldina Pro (and How to Actually Dress a Cordless Lamp)
The Best Shades for the Poldina Pro (and How to Actually Dress a Cordless Lamp)
A designer ranks every real way to dress a Poldina Pro cordless lamp, from Zafferano's own shades to hand-marbled and block-printed slip-on covers, with styling notes for each. Read more...
Gingham wallpapered luxury powder room
Turn a Powder Room Into a Wallpaper Jewel Box: 3 Gingham Looks
A practical, design-forward guide to wallpapering a powder room: materials, installation, care, and three Austen Gingham colorways to sample before you buy. Read more...
How to Furnish a Balcony That's Barely Big Enough for Two Chairs
How to Furnish a Balcony That's Barely Big Enough for Two Chairs
A designer's approach to furnishing a small balcony or condo terrace: what to buy, what to skip, and how to make a narrow outdoor space genuinely usable. Read more...
Designing a Cafe Counter: What the Display Case Does to the Room
Designing a Cafe Counter: What the Display Case Does to the Room
A designer's view of the cafe display case: how glass, lighting, sightlines, and placement decide whether the counter reads as considered or as equipment. Read more...
Why Your Open-Plan Room Is So Loud
Why Your Open-Plan Room Is So Loud
Everything in this room that makes it quiet is also what makes it look finished. That is not a coincidence. People describe the problem to me in a dozen different... Read more...
Flooring and Rugs Over Underfloor Heating
Flooring and Rugs Over Underfloor Heating
Underfloor heating changes what you can put on the floor. That is a decision made months before the floor is chosen, and usually by somebody who is not thinking about... Read more...