The Curations

I look at a lot of photos of other people's rooms. Enough that I've stopped being surprised by what's usually wrong with them. Eight times out of ten, there’s just too much going on. That's a hard thing to tell someone, because every piece of design advice they've ever been given points the other way. Room feels flat? Add a plant. Feels cold? Add a rug, some cushions, a lamp in the corner. The whole industry runs on the assumption that a room you're unhappy with needs another purchase....

People often send me photos of their rooms, and the message attached is nearly always a list of complaints. The ceiling's too low. There's an alcove nobody knows what to do with. One window, facing the wrong way. Fair enough. That's what they're asking me to fix. But I've noticed something in a few years of reading those messages: almost nobody opens by telling me what their home is already good at. Which is a shame, because that's usually where the answer is. Every home is good at something...

"White walls are so depressing." Someone left that under one of my videos last week. A few days before, a different person told me a dark, wallpapered room I'd shared was "just depressing" too. Two rooms that couldn't be more opposite, and both of them got handed the exact same verdict. It got me circling a question I've been chewing on for years: what actually counts as wrong in design? Two different kinds of ‘wrong’ When someone calls a room wrong, they're usually pointing at one of two...

"Bright." "Calming." "Sophisticated." There are plenty of words people use to describe their design goals. But joy rarely makes the list, like we're not supposed to aim for it. Which is strange when you think about it. Your home is the one space that's entirely yours. And most people, if they're being honest, just want to walk in and feel good. So let's talk about how to bring joy into your home. Fix what's broken first I see a lot of people try to add joy to a room whose design already isn’t...

Most "bad" rooms aren't badly decorated. The furniture works, the colours are fine, nothing is actually wrong. And yet the whole space feels like it's still waiting for something. Nine times out of ten, the room isn't missing a big piece. It's missing contrast. I use a simple checklist for this: Something new, something old, something dark, and something that catches the light. Photography by Ori Harpaz Every finished-feeling room I've ever designed or walked into has all four. When a room...