It is loud and echoey - 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 wood-and-leather bookshelf holding vinyl records sits against a dark forest-green wall, with nesting tables and a blue velvet chair in the foreground.

Multi-Use Rooms

Zone the Room by Noise, Light, and Nerve—Not Just Furniture

Sensory zoning organizes a large room by how loud, bright, social, focused, or restorative each area should feel—because two spaces can look separate and…

A gold-and-plum living room with a black marble coffee table, tufted sofas, and richly patterned drapery framing an arched doorway beneath a crystal chandelier.

Multi-Use Rooms

Curtains Have Left the Window and Started Rearranging the House

Space-shaping drapes and portières are one of 2026’s smartest room-splitting moves: flexible privacy, softer acoustics, and actual drama without committing to another wall.

A dormer reading nook with a plum velvet bench, wraparound bookshelves, and a brass reading sconce in daylight.

Small Interiors

The Reading Nook Is Back—and It Wants Some Quiet

A reading nook is not a chair staged near books. It needs real comfort, useful light, a little enclosure, and enough personality to pull…

A breakfast corner with a worn-oak window seat, wool cushions, round birch table, and clay-plaster walls in morning light.

Materials, Color & Finish

Ilse Crawford: If the Room Does Not Support the Person, the Concept Has Lost

Ilse Crawford is useful to study because human-centered design is not a look. It begins with behavior, comfort, light, sound, touch, social use, and…

A double-height living room with a large wool rug, sage velvet curtains, and a cream boucle sofa arranged to soften echo.

Materials, Color & Finish

The Echo Is Part of the Room

A large hard-surfaced room can look finished and still sound exhausting. Treat reverberation as a design problem using absorption, furniture, textiles, and smarter zoning.

A plastered half wall topped with a reeded-glass steel screen separating a kitchen from a sitting area while daylight passes through.

Awkward Spaces

Open Plan Has Gone Too Far. Give It a Half Wall.

When a huge open plan needs more privacy or structure, a half wall, glazed partition, or partial enclosure can restore boundaries while preserving light…

A large finished basement zoned into a media lounge, game table area, and exercise corner between painted structural columns.

Multi-Use Rooms

The Basement Is Too Big to Be One Rec Room

A large basement works better as several coordinated zones than one vague rec room. Use columns, lighting, floor treatment, acoustics, and circulation to give…

A double-height living room with a low deep-green sofa, an oversized pendant hung low, and wide horizontal art at seated eye level.

Materials, Color & Finish

Tall Ceilings Need a Lower Horizon

Soaring ceilings can be dramatic and still make a room feel emotionally remote. Lower the visual horizon with furniture, lighting, textiles, and correctly scaled…

A wellness room with a sage yoga mat facing a garden window, a low wooden shelf with folded blankets, cork flooring, and soft morning light.

Light and Atmosphere

A Wellness Room Should Change Your Behavior, Not Just Your Paint Color

Create a wellness room around the behavior you want to support—rest, stretching, meditation, recovery, reading, or quiet—using light, sound, storage, comfort, and a low-friction…

A hobby room with a birch standing-height worktable, pegboard tool wall, open shelving with bins, and a sewing machine by a bright window.

Multi-Use Rooms

The Hobby Room Is Back. Make It Earn the Square Footage.

Design a hobby room for the activity itself—not a themed backdrop—with the right table, storage, lighting, sound control, seating, reset system, and room to…

A compact room with a desk zone separated from a daybed by a heavy charcoal wool curtain and a deep-pile rug.

Multi-Use Rooms

Small Multi-Use Rooms Need Acoustic Boundaries Too

Visual zoning is only half the problem in a compact home. Use soft absorption, furniture placement, doors, gaps, and task scheduling to keep work,…

Maximalist bedroom with layered bedding, colorful art, and patterned textiles

Materials, Color & Finish

The Bedroom Begins With One Enormous Textile

Build a bedroom around one oversized textile—rug, curtain, canopy, quilt, or wall hanging—then let color, scale, lighting, and quieter supporting pieces follow its lead.

A basement night room with deep aubergine walls, an oxblood corduroy sofa, wood-slat paneling, and warm sconce and cove lighting.

Multi-Use Rooms

The Basement Stops Apologizing and Becomes the Night Room

Turn a basement into a deliberate night room with layered low light, acoustic softness, durable materials, strong color, and a layout designed for evening…

A textured sitting room with plum velvet armchairs, plaster walls, a walnut table with a steaming mug, and soft daylight from a wide window.

Light and Atmosphere

Atmosphere: The Part of a Room You Feel Before You Name It

Atmosphere comes from the combined effect of light, sound, texture, temperature, scent, scale, color, and use. Learn how to shape it deliberately without turning…

A dark polished media room with a cherry-red sectional, cola-brown lacquered console, copper sconces, and a warm ceiling light cove at dusk.

Light and Atmosphere

The Living Room That Thinks It Has Stadium Lights

A dark, polished everyday room built from cherry, cola, copper, smoked glass, layered viewing zones, and lighting dramatic enough to make Tuesday night feel…

A chunky cream knit throw draped over the arm of a sage-green velvet sofa, with a wood coffee table in front.

Materials, Color & Finish

The Room That Knows When to Lower Its Voice

A softly mischievous full-build guide to creating a peach, chamomile, oat, and celery-green room that feels calm, useful, grown-up, and beautifully looked after.

A garage converted to a music room with acoustic panels, a drum kit, guitars on stands, and daylight pouring through the open roll-up door.

Multi-Use Rooms

The Garage Becomes the Loudest Room in the House

Turn a garage into a music, workshop, game, or creative room by solving ventilation, power, fire safety, storage, acoustics, temperature, and vehicle separation before…

Shared residential courtyard at dusk with a communal table under string lights, lounge chairs with bold cushions and a quieter bench by planted borders.

Function and Flow

The Courtyard That Knows Everyone’s Business

A full-build design for courtyards, shared terraces, lobbies, community rooms, and neighborhood commons with sharper lighting, flexible social zones, bold color, and no block-party…

A covered outdoor lounge with a wraparound cushioned sectional sits beneath a wood pergola, framed by desert plantings and a paved patio floor.

Outdoor Rooms

The Outdoor Room Needs More Than One Kind of Conversation

A successful outdoor gathering needs more than one compulsory conversation circle. Design for full-group talk, paired conversation, quiet observation, standing pauses, late arrivals, and…