Dear IKEA, We adore you. Your affordable, stylish pieces and the ritual of “some assembly required” make many of us loyal customers. Still, I need to register a small but sincere complaint about one of your products: the Kassett storage box. Typically, assembling IKEA furniture is part of the experience. There’s a certain satisfaction in … Read more

Thanks for all the laundry room ideas last week — we really appreciated the feedback. We took time to consider every suggestion and even got a few quotes for more involved options like moving hookups, shifting the doorway, and possibly bumping out a wall. One recurring idea (call it “Option 3”) was to rotate the … Read more

Blue calcite is a less common, beautifully hued variety of a very familiar mineral. Calcite itself appears worldwide and is a major component of limestone, marble, and many construction materials. Blue calcite, by contrast, is prized by collectors for its soft, calming tones that call to mind a clear sky or still blue waters. I … Read more

Each month we like to brighten the house with an inexpensive—or sometimes free—bouquet or potted plant. The tradition began with a thoughtful holiday gift from my partner, and it’s become a simple way to keep our space feeling fresh. This month I strayed from our usual grocery-store flowers when I found a small, leafy plant … Read more

Ok, we’ll share a slightly gross little secret: our master bedroom mattress was ancient. It was a hand-me-down — John’s sister generously passed it along when we moved to Richmond three years ago after years of her own use. As mattresses age they tend to stiffen, and ours had become as hard and uncomfortable as … Read more

We recently added trim to our office desk to give the cabinets a built-in look. The bottoms had been feeling unfinished, so we decided to attach simple baseboard-style molding to blend the cabinets with the room and create a cleaner, more polished appearance. Before heading to the store I measured carefully and made a small … Read more

Our office looked like this when we first laid eyes on the house. Then it looked like this on moving day. And here’s what it looks like about a week and a half into living here. On the one hand, it doesn’t look that chaotic. There could be a llama in the middle of the … Read more

I’m back to share my monthly grocery-store bouquet — a sweet holiday surprise from my husband. This month, however, the bouquet didn’t come from the supermarket. We didn’t splurge at a florist either; instead, we wandered into our own backyard and clipped a dozen giant wild irises that have been popping up between the old … Read more

When Audrey sent us photos of the nursery makeover she completed for her sister, we were eager to share the transformation. Below is her note describing the project and a few helpful details about how the space came together. I love reading your blog and wanted to share a before-and-after project that’s been well received … Read more

About a week ago, after we painted our brick fireplace, our kitchen looked pretty rough and dated: We then removed the desk and the upper cabinet that would block the future wide doorway to the dining room. After one coat of a primer that barely covered, the space still looked unfinished: After fighting stubborn bleed-through … Read more