Coffee Tables for a Leather Sofa
I reach for my coffee table roughly fourteen times a day. I know that number because I counted for a week last spring, out of boredom, while I was supposed…
Nesting Tables: When Three Beat One
Nesting tables have a reputation problem, and it’s mostly this: people think of them as the furniture equivalent of a shrug. You buy a nesting set when you can’t commit…
Styling a Bedroom Dresser Top
I once spent forty one dollars on a “vignette.” That’s the word the caption used, some interiors account showing a dresser with a leaning round mirror, three ceramic objects, a…
Small Coffee Table: Making a Little Surface Work Hard
Small coffee tables have a reputation for being the consolation prize of furniture, the thing you buy when you couldn’t fit the real coffee table, the one with the ottoman…
Glass Display Cabinet Ideas
Glass display cabinets have a reputation problem, and I get it. Say the phrase out loud and most people picture their grandmother’s dining room, a locked cabinet full of Hummel…
Dressing Table Drawer Organization
I counted for a week, actual tally, little tick marks on a Post it stuck to my mirror. Fourteen times a day, on average, I open the top drawer of…
Wide Mouth Vase Ideas
I counted last week. Got the little step stool out, pulled everything down off the top closet shelf where I apparently store vases like other people store Tupperware they’re afraid…
What Goes in a Bowl on a Coffee Table
Renata walked into my apartment two weekends ago, stopped dead in front of the coffee table, and said, “Chloe. Is that a bowl of rocks.” Not a question really. More…
Flowers to Mix With Peonies in a Vase
I was standing at the kitchen sink on a Sunday morning with the water running too hot, snipping the ends off a five dollar bunch of grocery store carnations because…
Colors That Pair With Light Gray Bathroom Tile
My mom stood in my bathroom doorway, took one look at the tile job I’d just finished grouting myself, and said, “It’s very… hospital.” Not mean, exactly. She followed it…