Foam, Spring or Hybrid: Where I Landed
I was on my hands and knees in the back bedroom, wrestling a fitted sheet over a corner that had somehow lost its elastic entirely, when the mattress underneath made…
Do You Need a Topper, or Is It a Bandage?
I was stripping the bed on a Sunday, good sheets in one hand, a sock I’d apparently lost since April in the other, when I got as far as the…
Soft, Medium or Firm: How I Would Choose
I complain about my mattress, out loud, probably four nights out of seven. Not really to my husband, more in his general direction, since he’s usually asleep by the time…
A Carpet Cleaner and a Mattress: Tempting, but Wait
Every fall, right around the time the Rug Doctor rental machines start reappearing by the door at my hardware store, someone on my street posts in the neighborhood group asking…
Light Switches in Bathrooms: Why All the Fuss?
I was brushing my teeth in the dark last Tuesday. Not because the power was out, not because I’m going through some sort of aesthetic phase involving candles, but because…
End Table With No Lamp: What to Put There Instead
I counted the actual number one Tuesday in February, out of boredom, because the heat was doing that thing where it clunks on but doesn’t actually arrive anywhere near the…
Wall Colors for Rooms With Light Brown Furniture
Someone told me once that light brown furniture is the beige of the wood world, safe, forgettable, impossible to actually mess up because it goes with everything and therefore goes…
What Goes in a Clear Glass Vase
I have three clear glass vases in steady rotation and one of them has not been properly empty since the end of September. That is close to two months, which…
Coffee Tables for a Room Full of Black Furniture
My friend Marguerite walked into my living room in October, looked at the black leather sofa, the black bookshelf, the black metal lamp I’d been very pleased with myself for…
Bathroom Vanity Colors for Dark Floors
I was on my hands and knees at quarter to seven in the morning, in a towel, holding a fan of paint chips against the bathroom floor because that was…