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If a living room feels off but the furniture is nice and the colors work, nine times out of ten it's the rug. It's too small. A rug that's too small makes a space feel smaller, not bigger, and it's the one decorating rule I'd call close to absolute. Here's how to size one properly, why an 8x10 is usually the floor rather than the ceiling, and the five minute tape trick that tells you exactly what your room needs before you spend anything.

People come in convinced their wood furniture has to match. It doesn't, and a room where everything matches usually looks like a showroom set rather than a home. But there's a real difference between mixed and mismatched. The trick is matching undertones rather than colors, and knowing why two woods that are almost the same are far riskier than two that are nothing alike. Useful if you're working around pine ceilings, existing floors, and a stone fireplace.