Pairing Floor Lamps: Matched or Mixed?
I was vacuuming around the arc lamp in my living room on a Sunday afternoon, the kind of Sunday where you tell yourself you’re just tidying and then four hours…
Outdoor Cushions Living Outdoors: Is the Label Telling the Truth?
Outdoor cushions have a reputation, and it’s not a good one. Everyone I know treats the word “outdoor” on a cushion tag the way you’d treat a stranger’s promise to…
Fire Pit Under an Awning: Heat Goes Straight Up
My sister Marnie walked onto my back porch two winters ago, took one look at the little steel fire bowl I’d hauled up from the yard sale on Wheaton Street,…
Switch Inside the Bathroom or Outside the Door?
I’ve got eleven pull cord switches sitting in a coffee can in my garage right now. Not installed anywhere. Not waiting for a project. Just sitting there, ceramic and bakelite…
A Pergola Over a Fire Pit: Pretty and Pushing Your Luck
I bought a solid roof pergola for my patio in April, before I’d even ordered the fire pit, because I saw a photo of one online and decided the two…
An Open Fire Pit in the Backyard: Who Decides?
Okay so backyard fire pits have this reputation of being the easiest, most “just go outside and do it” purchase in the whole outdoor category. You see one on someone’s…
A Mirror in the Bedroom: Superstition Versus Sense
I was on my knees in my own bedroom last Tuesday with a stud finder running along the wall behind where my bed sits, trying to figure out where I…
Pendant Lights and Low Ceilings: The Head Bump Test
I bought a pendant light for my dining nook that looked exactly right in the photo. Black metal, this big sculptural cage shape, hanging low over a little round table…
Gazebo Fire Pit Debate: Does a Roof Change Everything?
My friend Dana sent me a photo at eleven at night of her brand new ten by twelve gazebo with a fire pit table already glowing away underneath it, captioned…
Two Floor Lamps in the Living Room
I bought one floor lamp in 2011, decided it looked lonely on its own next to the armchair, and solved the problem by buying a second one three years later…