The Design Journal

Nurseries are the most emotionally charged rooms I design and, paradoxically, the ones where restraint pays off most. There is enormous pressure to make the space special, which pushes people toward themes, toward a great deal of stuff, and toward decisions that will be obsolete in eighteen months. The rooms that hold up are the calm ones. Partly because a calm room is genuinely better for sleep, which is the actual function. And partly because a calm room can absorb the tida

Tampa households host more overnight guests than most, and the reason is obvious to anyone with relatives in a cold state. From roughly November through April, our spare rooms are in demand. That makes the guest room one of the more heavily used rooms in a Florida house, which is an odd thing to say about a room that sits empty most of the year. The result is a genuine design tension. The room needs to be genuinely comfortable for a week at a time, and it also needs to justif

Tampa attracts substantial first-time homebuyer activity every year. Young professionals graduating from rentals into their first owned homes in Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, and Channelside. Families relocating from out of state for jobs and lower cost of living. Tampa locals stepping up from apartments into starter homes in Hyde Park bungalows, Davis Islands cottages, or suburban Tampa Palms and Westchase. Each of these first home buyers faces the same fundamental questi

Small homes represent a significant portion of Tampa's residential inventory. The 1920s Hyde Park bungalows that defined an era of Tampa residential construction. The Craftsman cottages scattered throughout historic neighborhoods. The smaller homes in Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, and Old Seminole Heights. The Davis Islands cottages that complement the larger Mediterranean Revival mansions. The Bayshore Boulevard condos that range from compact to expansive. The accessory d