Styling Tips

It looked big in the shop. Now it floats. Three ways to fix a rug that is too small for the couch, the bed or the dining table.

Can you work in a dark room? Better than you'd think. Dark green walls cut screen glare, and the room feels like a study rather than a workstation.

A pottery display shelf and a bookshelf are the same problem: what to put next to what. Pick one kind of object and let it repeat.

Two IKEA Alex drawers, one butcher block top, and a Skådis pegboard on the wall. A home office for about the price of a desk chair.

The Kallax is great until you look at it. Don't fill every cube. Add oak trim and legs, and it stops looking like a college dorm.

What's behind you on a call matters more than what's on your desk. Point the camera at a wall worth looking at, and nobody will notice the desk.

Most office Halloween decorations are orange plastic that looks terrible on camera. Keep it on the desk, out of frame. Just enough to notice when you sit down.

Budget furniture looks like budget furniture when it arrives as a set. Mix it with wood, old things, layered rugs and real textiles, and nobody asks where the sofa came from.

Styled shelves are mostly about what you leave off. Books low, objects higher, a third of every shelf empty, and a few simple tricks for stacking and color.

Five home office setups, from a full built-in desk wall to a small desk in an alcove, plus how to light it for working after dark and what actually belongs on the desk.