Wall Sconces: Bulbs, Shades and Placement
I count them properly maybe twice a year, usually right before my husband asks why the hall closet won’t shut, and the number currently sits at fourteen. Fourteen wall sconces,…
Nightstand Styling: What You Reach for in the Dark
I counted them last Sunday, out of something between curiosity and dread, standing at my own nightstand at eleven at night instead of doing literally anything else with my evening.…
The Bottom Shelf of a Bookcase: Heavy, Hidden or Handy
I bought a full set of Encyclopedia Britannica off a woman on Facebook Marketplace for forty dollars, which felt like a genuine triumph at the time. Twenty six volumes, 1987…
Using the Lower Shelf of a Coffee Table
I was on my knees Tuesday morning, vacuum attachment in one hand, phone flashlight in the other, trying to work out what exactly had colonized the space under my coffee…
Lower Shelf of a Console Table: Baskets, Books and Beyond
I currently own eleven baskets whose entire job in life is to sit on the bottom shelf of my console table. Eleven. I counted them last week while my roommate…
Coffee Table Styling Rules of Thumb
I counted last week, out of morbid curiosity, because I’d just rearranged my coffee table for the third time in four days and needed to know if that was a…
Console Table Behind a Couch: Sizing and What to Put on It
The reputation console tables have is that they’re furniture store filler. You know the vignette. Three matching books nobody’s ever going to read, a glass vase with two dried stems…
Protecting a Coffee Table Without Hiding It
My sister walked into the living room, looked at the ring already sitting on the coffee table from somebody’s iced tea, looked at me, and said, “You wrote a whole…
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…
Hallway Console Table Ideas That Set the Tone at the Door
I currently own four console tables, which is objectively too many for one person living alone in half of a triple-decker, and I want to be upfront about that number…