You keep bumping into it - what to do about it

Practice

Future Use Belongs in the Brief

Adaptable rooms start before a compliance checklist. Put changing movement, reach, vision, hearing, controls, glare, fatigue and household needs into the brief while there…

A California hillside living room with a board-formed concrete fireplace, oak built-ins, and a wide window onto the landscape.

Materials, Color & Finish

Commune Design: Context Is a Better Starting Point Than a Trend

Commune Design is useful to study because its projects begin with context, architecture, program, material, collaboration, and craft instead of importing a repeatable house…

A late-afternoon backyard with teak lounge seating, slim path lights, drip irrigation along a cedar bed, and a speaker tucked in planting.

Outdoor Rooms

Your Smart Backyard Should Not Need a Help Desk

Smart outdoor technology should remove friction from lighting, irrigation, power, audio, and comfort—not turn the backyard into another support queue.

An apple-green English sitting room with a raspberry linen sofa, tea tray, open paperback, and a cat dozing on the ottoman.

Materials, Color & Finish

Rita Konig: A Room Should Look Better After People Start Living in It

Rita Konig is worth studying because her rooms become more convincing in use: practical relationships, collected objects, comfort, pattern, and enough looseness for life…

A formal living room with white paneled walls, emerald velvet sofas, a geometric rug, and peacock-blue lacquered doors.

Materials, Color & Finish

Corey Damen Jenkins: Refined Maximalism Still Needs a Floor Plan

Corey Damen Jenkins is useful to study because his maximalism is supported by a disciplined skeleton: architecture, layout, repetition, scale, tailoring, and editing.

A 1920s Mediterranean-revival room with steel casement windows, plaster walls, a green tiled fireplace, and a modern linen sofa.

Materials, Color & Finish

Studio Shamshiri: Let the Architecture Keep Its Accent

Studio Shamshiri is useful to study because its rooms separate architectural character from inherited inconvenience, allowing old and new to coexist without fake continuity.

A library-lounge with floor-to-ceiling oak shelving, a rolling ladder, a green leather chesterfield, and brass hardware in daylight.

Materials, Color & Finish

Roman and Williams: Light and Craft Can Make a Room Feel Older Than the Renovation

Roman and Williams is useful to study because its rooms feel built before styled: architecture, substantial materials, light, furniture, and craft carry the atmosphere…

A chateau salon with a limestone fireplace and blue-grey paneling paired with a curved saffron sofa and sculptural wing chair.

Materials, Color & Finish

Pierre Yovanovitch: History Is More Useful When the Floor Plan Moves On

Pierre Yovanovitch is useful to study because his work separates historic character from obsolete function, allowing old architecture and contemporary life to coexist without…

A bright home office with a white oak desk set perpendicular to a large window beside a deep teal accent wall.

Furniture and Scale

The Desk Should Face the Right Problem

Desk direction affects glare, distraction, privacy, camera views, door awareness, and circulation. Choose the orientation by the work problem you need to solve instead…

A compact bedroom with a plum linen bed and a slim walnut console at its foot holding folded sweaters and a tray.

Awkward Spaces

The End of the Bed Has More Jobs Than a Bench

The foot of the bed can hold storage, dressing space, a narrow desk, circulation, or nothing at all. Choose by clearance and daily routine…

A double-sided oak shelving unit dividing a bright room, with a green sofa on one side and a desk zone visible through the shelves.

Awkward Spaces

Make the Room Divider Earn the Floor Space

A divider in a large room should solve more than one problem. Use shelving, storage, screens, consoles, or furniture backs to create separation without…

Floating walnut desk and storage bench mounted on an oxblood-red wall with a clear wood floor below

Small Interiors

Put the Furniture on the Wall and Give the Floor Back

Wall-mounted desks, nightstands, consoles, and storage can release floor area and simplify circulation. The trick is choosing the pieces that genuinely benefit from floating.

Wall of deep green closed cabinetry with brass hardware, one tall door open to reveal crowded shelves inside.

Furniture and Scale

Closed Storage Is Not Automatically Calmer

Doors can reduce visible labels and still make a room feel heavier. Test the cabinet’s visual mass, operating clearance, reset behavior, and point-of-use logic…

A sleek white low console anchors a teal accent wall beneath a mounted television, styled with a ceramic vase, a glass bowl of flowers, and a brass lantern.

Function and Flow

Storage That Blocks Circulation Is Clutter Wearing a Cabinet

Storage has stopped earning its footprint when retrieval and circulation become harder than the original mess.

You keep bumping into it Workspace