How the articles here get made, in plain terms.
One writer
Everything is written and edited by Priya Raghunathan. I use software to check spelling and to look things up, the way anyone does, but the measuring, the trying, the judging and the being wrong are mine, and so is the name on the piece.
Measured before it is published
Where an article gives a distance, a height or a clearance, it is a number I took with a tape measure in a real room, or a published standard I name so you can check it. I do not repeat a figure I have only seen quoted somewhere else without saying that is what it is.
Lived with first
A change gets weeks in a room before it becomes an article. Week one flatters an idea. Week three is where the lamp turns out to be in the wrong place. If I have only read about a method rather than done it, the piece says so outright.
The failures stay in
When something took three attempts, the article says three attempts and describes what went wrong in the first two. That is not a stylistic habit. It is the part most likely to be the one you need.
Conditions are named
Almost nothing in decorating is true everywhere. A rule that works under a nine foot ceiling can fail under a seven foot one, and north light does something different from west light. Where a piece of advice depends on the room, the article names the condition rather than stating the rule flat.
Independence
Commercial relationships, set out in the affiliate disclosure, have no say in what is recommended or how warmly. No brand, agency or network reads an article before it is published.
Corrections
Articles get revised when I learn something better, and the updated date at the top of the page reflects it. If something here is wrong, write to contact@decoratingourspace.org. I will fix it and say what changed rather than quietly editing it.
Where I stop
The work here stays at the level of a tenant with a tape measure, a drill they are allowed to use, and a willingness to patch a hole. Anything touching electrical panels, gas, plumbing inside a wall, or structure goes to a licensed trade, and the articles say so where it comes up.