California Spaces
Built Different: How the Ranch-Style Home Went from 1930s
The ranch-style home is so familiar it barely registers anymore. Drive through almost any postwar American suburb, and you'll pass a dozen of them without
The Lab
All Lab Entries
124 entries published · page 9 of 11
Smart Renovation
How to Choose the Best White Paint Color for Your Space
Paint chips lie. Not maliciously, but consistently — and the gap between what a white looks like under a hardware store's fluorescent lights and what it
Spatial Planning
I Had a Designer Fix My Cramped Staircase Landing — Here's
Every house has a dead zone. In ours, it was the upstairs landing: 42 inches wide, 54 inches deep, pinched between a bedroom door that swung outward and a
Smart Renovation
Dark Teal Cabinets Completely Changed This Dark, Dreary
There's a counterintuitive move that comes up repeatedly in kitchen renovations: the room feels dim and closed-in, so the instinct is to go lighter. White
Smart Renovation
'I Learned What It Really Takes to Build a Tiny Home—and
Building a tiny home sounds like a clean escape from the complexity of conventional construction — fewer square feet, smaller budget, simpler life. In
Spatial Planning
Kitchen(ette) of the Week: 5 Space-Saving Ideas to Steal
Sixty square feet. That's the kind of number that makes most home cooks flinch, but it's also the kind of constraint that forces genuinely clever
Smart Renovation
A Builder-Grade Kitchen Gets a Pop of Color with an Easy
The tell-tale signs of a developer special aren't subtle: flat-panel cabinets in an indeterminate shade of brown, laminate countertops that photograph
Smart Renovation
Rural seniors face growing repair crisis with aging homes
Rural homeownership for older adults looks like stability on paper — a paid-off property, low overhead, land that's been in the family for decades. What
Smart Renovation
I Painted My Shower Ceiling to Look Like Grand Central's
A painted shower ceiling is a commitment. A painted shower ceiling meant to replicate one of the most recognizable decorative murals in North America —
California Spaces
The Natural Feature That Makes Some Neighborhoods 15
A neighborhood can sit less than two miles from another and routinely run 12 to 15 degrees cooler on a summer afternoon. No elevation change. No
Smart Renovation
Valspar's 2027 Color of the Year Is a Specific Shade of
Valspar's 2027 Color of the Year is a mid-depth blue with gray undertones that most designers would file under "transitional" — the kind of color that's
Spatial Planning
Two Architects Made Their 527-Square-Foot Home Feel So Much
When two architects share a 527-square-foot home, the usual small-space workarounds don't make the cut. No freestanding shelf that "maximizes vertical