Room by Room
A kitchen is a workflow before it is a look
Most kitchen regret is about distances and surfaces, not about finishes. The layout decisions are the ones you live with.
Emeka Dozie
Contributing writer, Rooms With Stories
Emeka writes about materials, ageing surfaces and the case against anything that only looks good new.
Contact Emeka through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
20 articles
Objects & Craft
Repair is cheaper than replacement and almost nobody does it
Most household objects fail in a small number of predictable ways, and most of those are fixable with basic tools.
Room by Room
Bathrooms fail at ventilation and storage long before they fail at tiles
The two things that determine whether a bathroom stays good are both invisible in the photograph.
Room by Room
Seating plans are conversation problems, not furniture problems
A living room that nobody wants to sit in usually has its seats too far apart, all facing the same wall.
Room by Room
Open plan solved one problem and created three
Removing walls gives light and sightlines. It also gives noise, cooking smells and nowhere to be alone.
Room by Room
A desk in a bedroom needs a boundary you can see
Home working failed for most people at the point where the work never visually stopped.
Room by Room
The utility room is the most undervalued space in a house
A machine, a sink and a metre of worktop absorb a startling amount of the mess that otherwise lands in the kitchen.
Room by Room
The front door decides the plan of the whole house
Where you enter, and what you can see from there, sets how every other room is reached and used.
Objects & Craft
A mattress is a support system and it has a shorter life than the bed
Comfort is personal, but the things that determine how long a mattress lasts are not, and they are rarely on the label.
Objects & Craft
Bed linen quality is about fibre and weave, not thread count
The number on the packet is the least reliable indicator of how sheets will feel after twenty washes.
Objects & Craft
What you are paying for when something is handmade
The premium is not craftsmanship as a sentiment. It is specific, and it shows up in materials, tolerance and repairability.
Objects & Craft
Looking after wood furniture without ruining the finish
Most damage to timber furniture is done by well-meant maintenance, dry air and radiators rather than by use.
Objects & Craft
Storing textiles: moths, light and damp are the three threats
Clothes and blankets are not damaged in storage by time. They are damaged by insects, sunlight and moisture, all of which are…
Objects & Craft
What to check before you pay for second-hand furniture
A ten-minute inspection separates a piece that will last another fifty years from one that will be firewood in two.
Objects & Craft
Flat-pack is good at some things and bad at others
The format is not automatically poor quality. It has specific strengths and specific failure points, and both are predictable.
Room by Room
The television has quietly rearranged the living room
Screens grew, thinned and cheapened, and living rooms reorganised themselves without anyone consciously deciding to. What follows…
Room by Room
A larder works because it is shallow, cool and shut
Food storage fails in deep cupboards for reasons that are structural rather than moral. The old larder solved all of them with one…
Room by Room
Garden rooms are glass boxes with a temperature problem
A room made mostly of glass gains heat quickly, loses it just as fast and has almost no thermal mass in between. Everything that…
Objects & Craft
Wardrobe storage is measured in rail metres, not doors
Hanging space is the number that decides whether clothes storage works. Almost every wardrobe complaint is really about the ratio…
Objects & Craft
Boxes and baskets postpone decisions rather than create storage
Containers feel like organisation and are frequently the opposite. A box lets an unmade decision be moved rather than made.