The full notebook

A serving tray from oak off-cuts and a single afternoon.

We had three short pieces of oak in the off-cut bin and a Saturday with no plans. By dinner the tray was glued. By morning it was carrying c…

The thrifted hand-stitched quilt that ended our duvet shopping forever.

We tried four duvets in five years and not one was right. A vintage hand-stitched cotton quilt cost less than a single duvet and outperforme…

How one heavy linen tea towel replaced eight in our kitchen.

We owned eight tea towels and used the same one because it was the heaviest. Then we bought one good one for fourteen euros and threw the ot…

The floor cushion and low bench that replaced our second armchair.

We sold the second armchair for forty euros and bought a floor cushion and a low pine bench instead. Total saved: six hundred euros and two …

How a 60×90 jute mat and a brass hook fixed our entryway in an afternoon.

Our entryway was a corridor that ate keys, coats, and dignity. A jute mat, a brass coat hook, and a thrifted bench later, it lets us in and …

A side table from one cracked oak plank and a Friday night.

A neighbour was throwing out an oak plank with a long crack. We took it. By Saturday morning it was a side table that the cat preferred over…

A limestone soap dish, three years on — what it taught us about everyday objects.

We bought it because it was cheap and white. Three years and roughly two thousand washes later, the dish has become one of the small reasons…

How we found a reading chair that does not feel like furniture.

We bought five chairs and sent five chairs back. The sixth has not moved from the corner of the living room in two years. Here is what we le…

Three balcony herb planters that survived a Lisbon summer of forgetting.

We tried six herbs in three pots. Three died, three lived through a forty-degree week and our forgetting. Here is what stayed and what we le…