There is a particular kind of joy that comes from walking into a home and understanding, immediately, who lives there. The pieces that make that possible are rarely the expensive ones. They are the ones with a story — the ginger jar that belonged to a grandmother, the bookend found on a trip, the photograph that makes you laugh every time you pass it.
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Notes from
the studio
Essays on living with the things you love, the art of the gallery wall, paint, downsizing, and what it really takes to make a house feel like yours.
Living with the things you love
The art of the gallery wall
A gallery wall is not a collection of frames thrown at a wall. It is an edited story, hung with intention. Start with the piece you cannot stop thinking about — the one that anchors everything — and build outward, mixing sizes and leaving more breathing room than feels comfortable.
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Why paint changes everything
Of everything I do, paint has the highest ratio of impact to cost. It is the single change most likely to make a room feel completely new. And yet it is the one clients are most afraid of.
Read the article“The most beautiful homes aren't the ones that look the most expensive. They're the ones that feel unmistakably like the people who live in them.”— The Alexander Redesign philosophy
Downsizing without losing yourself
Downsizing is the project I am asked about most, and the one that tugs at me most. The fear is always the same: that a smaller space means leaving yourself behind. It does not have to.
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A room of your own
A collection that has spent thirty years in a box is not a collection. It is an archive. The day you give it a room — or even a shelf — it becomes a story again.
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Light, layered, lived-in
A room that looks good in a photograph but feels cold to sit in has failed. Warmth comes from layering — a rug over a rug, a throw where someone actually reads, a lamp that casts a low pool of light in the evening instead of relying on a single overhead.
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Notes, now and then
An occasional letter when there is something worth saying — a new project, a piece of advice, a room I cannot stop thinking about. No noise. Just the good stuff.