The journal
Ten long articles, written by Jane, paid for by nobody else. Lighting heights, paint undertones, what a kitchen actually costs, and how to read three bids that arrived $41,000 apart.
The archive
Newest first. Each one is the long version of an answer Jane has given on a call often enough that it was worth writing down properly.
Lighting · 8 min read
One ceiling fixture is why your room looks flat at night. Light belongs at three heights, in one color temperature, on separate switches. Here is the method.
Planning · 7 min read
Most returned furniture was never going to fit. A twenty-minute measuring routine, the eight numbers you actually need, and the doorway math people forget.
Renovation · 9 min read
Three bids on the same kitchen came in $41,000 apart. Here is the line-by-line reason why, and the six items missing from almost every cheap quote.
Color · 7 min read
Undertone, north light, and the reason your greige turns lilac at 4pm. A method for reaching the right color in two samples instead of twelve.
Renovation · 10 min read
Doing the right work in the wrong order is the most expensive mistake in a kitchen. The correct sequence, trade by trade, and the three decisions to lock before demolition.
Styling · 8 min read
Color ratios are the easy part. Rooms usually fail on three other things: light at three heights, a rug that is too small, and nothing at eye level.
Small Spaces · 6 min read
You do not have a clutter problem, you have a landing-strip problem. Where things actually accumulate in a small home, and what to put there instead.
Renovation · 9 min read
A 40-square-foot room routinely costs more per foot than a kitchen. What drives the number, which upgrades are worth it, and the one move that doubles the budget.
Color · 9 min read
Rooms chosen one at a time end up as a corridor of arguments. How to build a five-color house palette that lets each room differ without any of them clashing.
Why this exists
A consultancy that sells judgment has an awkward incentive. The more you understand, the less you need us. We publish anyway, because the alternative is a practice that quietly depends on its clients staying confused, and that is a poor way to spend eleven years.
So the articles are written to be used rather than teased. The measuring piece lists the eight numbers. The paint piece names the undertones and tells you where to tape the sample. The renovation pieces print real Portland figures with a date attached, instead of a range wide enough to be meaningless. If one of them solves your problem and you never hire bumfuzzledjane.com, that is a good outcome, and it happens more often than you would think.
What an article cannot do is look at your room. It does not know that your only window faces north, that the radiator sits on the wall you wanted the sofa on, or that the quote in your inbox has no electrical in it. That gap between advice and a decision is the whole job, and it is what a ninety-minute Design Direction Call is for.
The ASID code of ethics requires designers to disclose compensation received from suppliers. Ours is a short disclosure: there is none, on any page, ever. The longer version of that argument sits on the about page, and you can see the advice applied to real houses over in the projects.
The list
Roughly monthly, usually less. A new article, occasionally a correction to an old one, and nothing else. No sequence, no launch countdown, no eleven-part course about your hallway.
Unsubscribe in one click. The list is never sold, shared or rented, and it is only ever used to send the journal. If you would rather just ask Jane a question, write to her directly.
Begin here
An article can tell you how to measure, how to sequence a kitchen and where the money hides in a quote. It cannot tell you what to do with your actual floor plan. Send that over and Jane will, within one working day.
