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A Christmas door sign should be the easiest decoration you own, yet most of them announce themselves as craft projects

The front door is where Christmas decorating usually tips over. One week it looks bare, the next it is buried

The entry console has the hardest job in the house in December. It is the first surface guests see and

A coffee table decorated for Christmas usually fails in the same two ways: a centerpiece tall enough to hide the

A bathroom counter is the smallest work surface in the house, and it is already full. Toothbrushes, soap, skincare, and

Every December, the same thing happens to flat surfaces: one cute piece comes out of the box, then another, then

Swags have an image problem. Too many of them still arrive loaded with plastic-looking berries, glitter-dusted cones and a bow

A Christmas wreath should be the easiest decoration of the season, yet it is the one that most often goes

Modern backyards usually fail at the extremes. One version is a hard gray slab of paving that feels like a

Side yards usually fail as dumping strips: the bins live there, the mower lives there, the grass dies in permanent

The beds are watered, the lawn is mowed, and still the backyard sits there looking perfectly fine and completely forgettable.

Most front yards are not designed at all — they accumulate. A bed gets dug in whatever shape the hose

Most backyards don’t fail in one big way; they fail in pieces. A bed goes in one spring, a path

Small gardens usually fail by shrinking everything. Tiny pots, tiny plants and tiny beds scattered around like samples only make

Backyard gardens usually disappoint in one of two ways. Either a few lonely beds float in a sea of lawn,