#weekend

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…

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…

The brass switch plates that quietly upgraded our flat for 36 euros.

We changed every switch plate in the flat over a Saturday afternoon. Total cost: thirty-six euros. The flat now looks like ours instead of e…

I limewashed our hallway on a Tuesday — here is what I would do differently.

Limewash is the only paint that gets better as you make mistakes with it. After a Tuesday with a brush and a plastic tub, our hallway has th…