The Journal
Notes on making a room feel good — how to place things, what is worth buying once, and why a room reads the way it does.
More from the Journal
French country, read properly
The reputation is largely American, largely from the 1980s, and largely wrong. Sunflowers, roosters, toile on every surface — a decorating style about France rather than the way French rural houses actually look. The real thing is quieter, and easier to live in.
Buy the useful thing you like looking at
Form versus function resolves nothing, because almost nobody is choosing between a beautiful object and a working one. The real tension is narrower: some objects are designed to be used, and some are designed to be photographed. Four tests separate them.
Minimalism is not about owning less
The usual advice is to remove things until the room feels calm. It works about half the time. The other half you get a room that is emptier and no more restful — because quiet is not a function of quantity. It is a function of agreement.