Start with the room you are standing in.
Every room here gets the same treatment: what you decide first, what the lease will not let you touch, and the numbers that end the argument.
Get my rug size Or jump straight to the numbers Six rooms · Three numbers each
Five guides are finished, four renter projects are written up step by step, and one corner is photographed with its shopping list on the picture. Every room below lists the ones that apply to it, so you are not hunting through an archive. See all thirty numbers →
What feels wrong?
Not sure which room is the problem? Start from what you can see.
You do not need the vocabulary for this. Pick whichever sentence sounds like your place and it will tell you which room to open.
The six rooms
Twelve things in one rented living room, and you can touch each one. Shop the living room
Living room
The rug goes down before anything else, because it decides where the sofa can sit. Then light, because your ceiling probably has none.
What is written for the living room
- GuideWhat size rug do you needType your room, get the size, and watch the plan get drawn to scale.
- GuideWhat size coffee table do you need?Two thirds the length of the sofa, 14 to 18 in away, at cushion height.
- GuideWhat size lamp do you needFloor lamp 58 to 64 in, table lamp 26 to 30 in, and the shade rule that fixes the rest.
- GuideHow high should curtains go?Rod near the ceiling, brackets past the sides, hem on the floor. No drill.
- GuideHow to hang a gallery wallCenter the whole group at 57 to 60 in, 2 to 3 in between frames, laid out on the floor first.
- ProjectPeel-and-stick wallpaper, one wallWhich walls take it, how many rolls, and the twenty minutes it takes to get the wall back.
- ProjectTextured wall art, in four stepsBig art for the wall above the sofa, made on a canvas, hung on strips picked by weight.
Five guides · two projects
See the living room in order →Bedroom
Almost every bedroom mistake is a height mistake. The nightstand, the lamp, the rug that starts in the wrong place.
What is written for the bedroom
- GuideWhat size rug do you needThe bedroom mode puts the rug under the bottom two thirds of the bed and shows you the walk-off.
- GuideWhat size lamp do you needA bedside lamp is as tall as the nightstand, and the shade bottom sits at your eye when you read.
- GuideHow high should curtains go?The room where blackout matters, so the brackets go wide enough to cover the glass.
- GuideHow to hang a gallery wallAbove a headboard the center moves up. Here is the number it moves to, and why.
- ProjectPeel-and-stick wallpaper, one wallOne wall behind the bed is the cheapest headboard you will ever fake.
Four guides · one project
See the bedroom in order →
Dining room
This is the room with the least room for opinion. Chairs move backwards, and the furniture has to allow for it. Get the clearance wrong and you feel it at every meal.
What is written for the dining room
- GuideWhat size rug do you needThe dining mode of the calculator measures the chair, not the table, which is the part everybody skips.
- GuideWhat size lamp do you needPendant height over a table, and how wide the shade can get before it blocks a face.
- ProjectPlug-in lighting, no electricianA plug-in pendant over the table when the ceiling box is in the wrong spot, with the cord handled properly.
Two guides · one project
See the dining room in order →Twelve things in one rented dining room, and every one of them comes off the table measurement. Shop the dining room
Small spaces
A studio runs on two rules that fight each other: leave a walkway, and stop chopping the floor into pieces. Here is where each one wins.
What is written for small spaces
- GuideWhat size rug do you needThe calculator warns you when the room is too tight for the size you wanted, which happens a lot here.
- GuideHow high should curtains go?Hang the rod near the ceiling and a low window stops advertising how low it is.
- ProjectPeel-and-stick wallpaper, one wallOne papered wall gives a studio a back wall, so it reads as two areas instead of one crowded box.
- ProjectAged terracotta vase, in four stepsSmall rooms need small good things, and this one costs an afternoon and a sponge.
Two guides · two projects
See the small space in order →Twelve things in a living room under twelve feet across, numbered. Shop the small room
Entryway
Four square feet doing the work of a whole room, usually with a door swinging through the middle of it and no place to drill.
What is written for the entryway
- GuideWhat size lamp do you needOne small lamp on a console does more for an entry than the ceiling fixture ever will.
- GuideHow to hang a gallery wallA narrow wall takes a vertical stack, not a grid. Same center at 57 to 60 in, different shape.
- ProjectAged terracotta vase, in four stepsThe thing that goes on the console so it stops being a place where keys pile up.
Two guides · one project
See the entryway in order →Ten things in a four foot entry, and one of them you should not buy. Shop the entry
Corners and nooks
The cheapest room you will ever make, because it is a chair, a lamp and a surface. Almost all of it is a lighting problem.
What is written for corners and nooks
- GuideWhat size lamp do you needThe whole nook lives or dies on shade height, and 40 in is measured from the floor to a seated eye.
- GuideWhat size rug do you needA small rug under one chair is the one time a 3 by 5 is the right answer instead of a bath mat.
- ProjectPlug-in lighting, no electricianA sconce beside the chair with the cord run down the wall, out in ten minutes at move-out.
- ProjectTextured wall art, in four stepsThe one piece a corner needs so the chair is not floating against a bare wall.
- ShopShop the organic reading nookSeven things in one rented corner, numbered on the photo. Touch a number and get the rule it obeys.
Two guides · two projects · one shoppable photo
See the nook in order →And two more rooms numbered the same way: the rustic living room and the colorful corner.
Not sure which room is the problem
Then work from the number, not the door.
Most of what makes a rented apartment feel unfinished is one of thirty measurements, and it usually is not in the room you suspect. The art is low, the rug is small, the curtain rod sits on the window frame like a shelf. The three symptoms at the top of this page name the room for you; the thirty numbers are where the rest of them live.
Where next