Clik here to view.
Steal This Look: Black and White Indoor/Outdoor Terrace
When I moved from a big, rambling East Coast house to Northern California a decade ago, I was shocked by how small West Coast houses were in comparison. Then it dawned on me: California practically...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bouquet of the Week: Splurge on Black and White Anemones
The first apartment my husband and I shared had a tiny white and black kitchen. A huge white porcelain sink sloped gracefully into a black tiled counter top, and black-and-white checked tiles formed a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Considering the Fiddle Leaf Fig
You've seen them. They're everywhere. They're lush and sculptural and they make for excellent eye candy in photographs of some of the most beautiful apartments you see floating around the Internet. The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Domestic Dispatches: My Worst Design Decision Ever
The worst mistake I made was not when I forced my husband to spend all weekend painting the kitchen trim a sickly robin's egg blue. The worst mistake was not the $149 "deal" I got online on a wobbly,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Taking 'Bread and Roses' Literally in Brooklyn
A hundred years ago when some women workers used the rallying cry “Bread and Roses” during a strike at textile mills in Massachusetts, they were demanding basic survival plus the right to have beauty...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: Shade-Tolerant Herbs To Grow in Your Apartment
Buttermilk biscuits with chive butter, egg salad with ribbons of tarragon, iced tea with fresh mint. There are a lot of reasons to love warm weather, and the addition of fresh herbs to some of my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: Alliums, Three Ways
Brightly colored and shaped like something from another planet, these cousins to chives and garlic and onions are cropping up in gardens throughout New York at this time of year. But more than being...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: The Ultimate Disguise
In the springtime, muscari—also known as grape hyacinth—can be spotted around the base of nearly every tree in my Brooklyn neighborhood. A florist's pot of the striking blue flowers is one of my...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Domestic Dispatches: 5 Ways to Cover 50 Windows on a Budget
Curtains can go very, very wrong. If you go overboard, you end up with something heavy and expensive and claustrophobic, like one of those getups Sally Field wore in Lincoln. On the other hand, don't...
View ArticleClik here to view.
To the Hunt: England's Most Discreet Tailors
They have a royal warrant over the door, but these tailors of the English hunt still stay as far below the radar as it is possible to be. "We are situated in the heart of the English Shires, the best...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Steal This Look: A Perfect Potting Shed
Found: a potting shed replete with perfectly aged supplies and strewn with useful and beautiful gardening paraphernalia. This potting shed keeps popping onto our Pinterest feed, and we couldn't help...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: Grow Lily of the Valley on a Windowsill
When I'm talking about getting plants to flower indoors, I prefer the word "coax" over "force." It sounds kinder, doesn't it? Well, coaxing Lily of the Valley to bloom indoors is a very good thing to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Tiny Apartment? Hide Potting Soil in Plain Sight
Perhaps it's unconventional to embark on gardening projects in a tiny space, but since I potted my first farmers' market geranium last spring, I've been searching for a tidy place to store my leftover...
View ArticleClik here to view.
7 Secrets for Living with a Flat-Screen TV, Cord Control Edition
I don't have anything against the idea of TV; in fact I consider TV to be the new novel. When I power-watch three or four—OK, five—episodes, I get the same woozy, drugged-out high as from being lost in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Steal This Look: Dry Garden Tablescape from Local Milk
The menu at a recent dinner party hosted by Beth Kirby of Local Milk sounded delectable—stinging nettle and ricotta ravioli, yes please—but it was the tablescape she created with Tennessee textile...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Urban Gardener: Is Unfiltered Tap Water Safe for Plants?
Ask most people who live in New York City about the tap water, and they'll say it's terrific. Carried into the city from a network of reservoirs and controlled lakes that make up a 1,972-square-mile...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: Toolbox for a City Gardener
Two years ago, I finally decided to part with the ugly plastic box of tools that I'd been carting around since college. I'd keep the tools, but their carrier needed an upgrade. With a limited budget...
View ArticleClik here to view.
DIY: A Beauty Mask Made from Flowers
I am fussy about what I put on my face. If I can't pronounce the ingredients on the back of a bottle, I get nervous in the pharmacy aisle. So I took matters into my own hands with a do-it-yourself face...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Crisis in the Commode: Powder Room Edition
There are people who refuse to use the bathroom if they are not at home, and I used to think they had a problem. That was before I ventured into the guest bathroom at a dinner party and a toilet paper...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Flu Prevention: A Spoonful of Elderberry Syrup
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down? Make that honey. As we approach flu season, here's a natural remedy for flu prevention that actually works. I've been making elderberry syrup every fall...
View Article