Home Offices
How Much Room a Home Office Desk Needs
A desk can be pushed into almost any wall in almost any room. That part is rarely the…
Daniel Cole
Daniel Cole writes Room Almanac's practical guides to sizing, layout, small spaces, and organization. He focuses on the measurements and everyday constraints behind decisions such as sofa size, furniture spacing, storage capacity, and making limited floor space work harder.
Latest from Daniel
Home Offices
Entryways
How to Size a Console Table for a Narrow Entryway
Most console table advice leads with height and length, since those are the numbers a retailer lists first.…
Dining Rooms
How to Size a Sideboard for a Dining Room
By the time a dining table’s shape and the chairs around it are settled, most of a room’s…
Kitchens
Counter Stool Height for a Kitchen Island
Buy a set of stools before measuring the counter they’re meant to sit at, and there’s a real…
Bathrooms
How High to Hang a Bathroom Vanity Light
A bathroom vanity light almost always goes in after the mirror, which means its height is really the…
Rugs
Where to Put a Rug in a Living Room
A bedroom rug only has to work with a bed and two nightstands. A living room rug has…
Rugs
Where to Put a Rug in a Bedroom
A bedroom rug does one job before it does anything else: it tells the room where the bed’s…
Bedrooms
How to Lay Out Bedroom Furniture So the Room Still Works
Most bedroom layout advice assumes a rectangular room with a full wall for the bed and enough space…
Kitchens
A Kitchen Island Has to Fit the Room Before It Fits the Stools
Real clearance and footprint numbers for whether a kitchen island fits, before deciding how many stools go around…
Dining Rooms
Picking a Dining Table Shape for an Odd-Shaped Room
How round, rectangular, and oval dining tables respond differently to an off-square corner, a narrow room, or an…
Bathrooms
Walk-In Shower or Tub: What Fits a Small Bathroom
The real square-footage tradeoffs between a walk-in shower and a tub, and what a tub-shower combo gives up…
Bathrooms
A Bathroom Organization System Built Around How You Get Ready
A zoning system for a bathroom counter, medicine cabinet, and under-sink storage, built around daily habits instead of…