Blog

Here are my reading nook ideas, built and paid for: a real cozy reading corner in the spare corner of my guest-room-office, five pieces of furniture, $483.88 total, every price verified on the listing…

My first apartment after college had exactly zero closet space. Not a small closet. Not an awkward closet. None — the landlord had removed the bedroom closet during a renovation and never put one back…

I Measured Three TV Stands Against My 65-Inch TV. Here’s the Size Guide I Wish I’d Had. My 65-inch TV arrived on a Tuesday. The picture was gorgeous. The problem was underneath it: my old 48-inch stan…

Last Thanksgiving, nine of us squeezed around my 60-inch dining table plus a borrowed card table. My brother-in-law ate with one elbow hanging off the edge. My aunt’s chair blocked the kitchen doorway…

My spare bedroom was the most expensive storage closet in my house. It sat empty roughly 330 days a year, collecting a guest I bought for twice-a-year visits and a stack of boxes I kept telling myself…

Our living room faces north, and the windows are old enough to vote. The thermostat sits at 66°F all winter because my wife runs warm and the gas bill runs terrifying. I, meanwhile, run cold — my hand…

A sofa table behind couch gaps is one of those ideas that sounds like a design-magazine luxury until you have lived with a floating sofa for a year. Ours sits two feet off the back wall because our li…

Last spring I signed the papers on a 620-square-foot one-bedroom condo twenty minutes from the airport, and by summer I was holding keys to a second place — a two-bedroom cottage on the edge of town w…

I have shopped Black Friday furniture deals for six straight years, and I learned the expensive way that the biggest discount banner rarely means the best value. Last November I almost bought a &#8220…

LED Bathroom Mirror: My 60-Day Real-World Test Sixty days ago I did something I have never done with a bathroom fixture: I bought two of them. A LED bathroom mirror for our main bathroom, and a plain …

How to Winterize Patio Furniture the Right Way Every year on the last weekend of October, right after the final cookout, I spend one Saturday doing something my neighbors probably think is overkill: I…

Ceiling Fan Size Guide: Pick the Right CFM I bought my ceiling fan the way most people do: I measured the price tag instead of the room. My bedroom is 12 by 14 feet, the ceiling is a flat eight feet, …

Our front door had a shoe problem. Not a cute little shoe problem, a real one: four people, fourteen pairs of shoes, and a front hall that sounded like a bowling alley every morning at 7:40. I spent s…

My daughter turned seven this fall, and her old bed had started to feel like a toddler costume — a little too small, a little too babyish, and the mattress had the permanent dip of a hammock. I needed…

I never planned to write a bed frame buying guide. But between my own bedroom, the guest room, and the first apartment my kid moved into last fall, I now own three queen bed frames — and I assembled e…

Sofa Cushion Fillings: Down vs Foam vs Down-Alternative — My 5-Year Sit Test My living room currently holds the evidence of two very different bets. The 81.8-inch grey velvet Chesterfield 3-seater I r…

Sectional vs Sofa and Loveseat: I Measured Both Setups in My 12×14 Living Room. Here’s the Honest Winner Last spring I stood in my 12-by-14-foot living room holding a tape measure, a budget of ro…

Velvet Accent Chair: My 6-Month Real-Life Durability Test When I clicked “order” on my first velvet accent chair last spring, I did it braced for regret. Every furniture tip I’d ever absor…

I have now bought the wrong mattress size twice in my adult life, and both mistakes cost me real money and real sleep. The first time, I ordered a king for a 10-by-12 bedroom because bigger felt like …

I Bought a $199 Kids Climbing Dome With a Slide. Two Months Later, Here’s the Honest Verdict. Leo, my three-year-old nephew, has exactly one speed: full sprint. My brother’s backyard in the suburbs — …