https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal daily 0.75 2026-08-29 https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal/your-furniture-might-be-too-small monthly 0.5 2026-09-02 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/af5bba85-5abd-4129-a55b-5ec05bae04c6/IMG_0587.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small There’s a strange thing that happens when people are afraid of making a room feel crowded. They start buying tiny furniture. A small sofa. A small rug. A little coffee table floating somewhere in the middle. A collection of side tables that look as though they’re apologizing for taking up space. The thinking makes sense. Small room. Small furniture. Except that’s not always how it works. Sometimes all those little pieces actually make the room feel smaller. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/d2be19d7-08fc-4079-ba08-921b259e8fe3/IMG_0601.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Scale Changes Everything You can choose a beautiful sofa, beautiful chairs, a beautiful rug and beautiful lighting and still end up with a room that feels completely off. Usually, we start looking at scale. Scale is one of those things you notice even when you don't know you're noticing it. A lamp that's too small makes the table underneath it feel awkward. A rug that's too small makes the furniture look disconnected. A tiny piece of art floating above a large sofa can make an entire wall feel unfinished. Nothing is necessarily wrong with any of those individual pieces. They're just wrong for the space. And that's an important distinction. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/fffac80e-fef7-4d84-9327-f4185d7df9f3/IMG_0590.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Bigger Can Actually Feel Calmer This is where design gets a little counterintuitive. Sometimes putting something larger into a small room makes the room feel bigger. One substantial coffee table can feel calmer than three little tables scattered around. A large piece of art can make a wall feel more expansive. A generously sized rug can visually connect an entire seating arrangement instead of chopping the floor into little sections. Even an oversized lamp can give a room the kind of confidence it was missing. The goal isn't to cram enormous furniture into every available inch. It's to stop being afraid of letting a few things have presence. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/046d6411-594e-4297-a347-933fa53b02aa/IMG_0591.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Please, Give the Rug a Fighting Chance We need to talk about rugs. Specifically, the tiny rug sitting in the middle of the living room with absolutely no furniture touching it. It's trying its best. But it cannot do this alone. A rug should help establish the boundaries of a space. In a living room, we generally want the furniture to have some relationship with it, rather than orbit around it from several feet away. When you replace an undersized rug with one that actually reaches beneath the furniture, something interesting happens. The room often feels larger. Nothing about the architecture changed. The furniture didn't move into another dimension. The proportions simply started making sense. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/d4fbc02b-3563-4f66-bdbb-ab7d70b8fa96/IMG_0593.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Stop Automatically Pushing Everything Against the Wall Another small-room instinct is to push every piece of furniture as far toward the walls as physically possible. Sometimes that's necessary. Sometimes it leaves you with a mysterious empty patch of floor in the middle of the room and a sofa sitting twelve feet away from the person you're trying to talk to. Furniture doesn't have to hug the perimeter. Pulling a chair forward or floating a sofa can create a much more intentional arrangement, even if you're only moving things a few inches. A room should be designed around how people use it, not around preserving the largest possible rectangle of empty flooring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/2a35191b-4cd3-4f56-b2d0-c76ec2369c2e/IMG_0596.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Tiny Art Is Not Fooling Anyone We love small art. We really do. A tiny painting tucked beside a doorway or incorporated into a gallery wall can be fantastic. But one little 11-by-14 frame centered above an eight-foot sofa is probably not creating the effect you hoped for. Large walls need enough visual weight to hold them. That doesn't necessarily mean buying one enormous painting. You could create a grouping, hang a textile, use an architectural object or combine pieces of different sizes. But the composition needs to acknowledge the amount of wall around it. Sometimes the solution to an empty-looking room isn't adding more things. It's making the things already there bigger. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/75123438-61ae-4b60-a823-b9805caf1ea6/IMG_0594.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Every Piece Doesn't Need to Be the Star There is another side to scale. If everything is oversized, sculptural and demanding attention, you've created a different problem. Rooms need hierarchy. There should be moments your eye notices first and quieter pieces that support them. Maybe the oversized pendant is the moment in the dining room. Maybe it's the enormous antique cabinet. Maybe it's the art. Maybe it's a ridiculous lamp that you absolutely did not need but now cannot imagine living without. Let something lead. Everything else doesn't need to compete for the job. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/2718ba56-8d81-4e6c-8431-b3529f69c59d/IMG_0597.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Measure First. Then Question the Measurement. Yes, we measure. Constantly. But design isn't simply an equation where the correct dimensions automatically produce a beautiful room. Sometimes the technically appropriate piece still looks timid once it's in the space. That's why we like to tape dimensions onto the floor. Hold cardboard against a wall. Stack books underneath a lamp to see whether it needs more height. Give yourself some way to experience the scale before committing to it. And if you're deciding between the slightly-too-small version and the slightly-too-large version? We probably already know which one we're rooting for. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/660c22d4-c8e2-439e-b8c0-35988bfee7c0/IMG_0599.png Our Journal - Your Furniture Might Be Too Small - Let Something Take Up Space Your home doesn't need to feel stuffed. It also doesn't need to look afraid of its own furniture. A room feels comfortable when the things inside it have enough scale to belong there. So buy the larger lamp. Try the bigger rug. Hang the enormous painting. And maybe stop buying tiny coffee tables because you're worried the room can't handle anything bigger. It probably can. https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal/stop-trying-to-finish-the-room monthly 0.5 2026-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/5add2358-045a-4a53-bd78-e9c03bf56150/IMG_0604.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Unfortunately, We have a slightly inconvenient piece of design advice: Your room does not need to be finished by Friday, or next month and possibly not even this year. We know. That's considerably less satisfying than ordering twelve things tonight and watching the tracking numbers roll in. But some of the best rooms we've ever walked into have one thing in common. They took time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/fe4eba6b-747d-436d-aa94-a7a17e8c1bce/IMG_0605.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - The Internet Has Made Us Impatient We see a finished room online and consume the entire thing in about four seconds. Sofa. Rug. Lamp. Art. Chairs. Done. What we don't see is that the antique table might have been found three years ago. The painting came from someone's grandmother. The chair was bought on vacation. The lamp was an estate sale find that sat in a closet for six months before anyone figured out where to put it. We're seeing the final photograph, not the timeline. And that's an important difference. When you try to recreate that collected feeling in a single weekend, things can start looking a little too coordinated. Because they are. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/379c5ba5-c0aa-4378-b93e-04d925ac15f3/IMG_0607.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - You Don’t Need to Fill the Empty Corner Empty space makes people nervous. There's a corner. Therefore, something must go in the corner. So we buy a chair. Does anyone sit there? Absolutely not. But the corner has been defeated. Sometimes we'd rather leave that space empty until we find something worth putting there. An empty corner isn't necessarily an unfinished corner. It can just be an empty corner. Your house will survive. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/0c319667-dfc9-4df7-a1b1-5ff6a7975606/IMG_0608.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Buy the Thing You Can't Stop Thinking About We'd rather build a room around something you genuinely love than fill it with things you simply don't dislike. There's a difference. The piece you keep going back to at the antique store. The ridiculous lamp you took a picture of and then thought about for three days. The painting that doesn't match anything you own. The chair you have absolutely no logical place for. Those are usually more interesting starting points than searching for “beige accent chair 32 inches wide.” Practicality matters. But occasionally, obsession is a pretty good design tool. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/b7394635-1554-41ce-a961-70d198f89ebc/IMG_0610.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Not Everything Needs a Partner Somewhere along the way, decorating became very concerned with pairs. Two matching lamps, Two matching chairs. Two matching nightstands. Two matching pillows sitting very politely on either side of the sofa. Symmetry can be beautiful. It can also become predictable. Maybe one side of the bed has a little antique chest and the other has a simple table. Maybe one lamp is taller. Maybe the chairs aren't the same. If the room feels balanced, the pieces don't necessarily have to match. Balance and matching are not the same thing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/c022f250-6b00-4c33-9978-66c38e7a4bc0/IMG_0614.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Let the House Tell You What It Needs This is the part that takes patience. Live in the room. Notice where you naturally put your drink. Notice which chair nobody uses. Notice that you always drag the floor lamp six inches closer when you read. Notice that the giant coffee table you thought would overwhelm the room is actually exactly what it needed. A floor plan can tell us a lot. Living in a space tells us more. Good design responds to how a home actually behaves. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/7de06a39-a003-47db-b638-e447cdca3cc1/IMG_0611.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - The Temporary Solution Can Stay Temporary We're completely comfortable with a room having placeholders. Keep the old side table until you find the right one. Leave the wall blank. Use the lamp you already own. You don't need to replace something mediocre with something else mediocre just because you're impatient. That's how homes slowly fill themselves with things nobody particularly loves. Wait. The right piece will eventually show up and when it does, you'll be glad you didn't settle. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/e11e1e91-590d-4ba6-acaf-838c577a8e1f/IMG_0615.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Your House Should Have a Timeline We like being able to look around a room and see different periods of someone's life. The table you've owned forever. The art you bought five years later. The chair you found last summer. Something inherited. Something brand new. Something you're still not entirely sure about. Those layers are difficult to manufacture because they're not really a design style. They're history and history takes time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/8133955b-f2ad-4943-a370-05c26537f394/IMG_0613.png Our Journal - Stop Trying to Finish the Room - Maybe, It's Never Finished Here's the other possibility. Maybe there isn't a finish line. Homes change because the people living in them change. You find something better. You move the chair. You repaint the room. You inherit something. You finally replace the table you've complained about for seven years. Then six months later, you move everything again. Good!! We'd much rather see a home that keeps evolving than one that was “completed” in 2026 and never touched again. So stop trying to finish the room. Make it good. Then give it enough time to become yours. https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal/when-a-room-needs-something-ugly monthly 0.5 2026-08-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/95b35ece-ba84-42a2-b0af-30b2309fb64a/PowderRoom+Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_17_17+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Every Beautiful Room Needs Something a Little Ugly We’re going to say something that may sound strange coming from an interior design firm: Sometimes a room needs something ugly. Not actually ugly. We’re not suggesting you drag home something you hate in the name of good design. We mean the piece that’s a little awkward. A little strange. Maybe too old, too heavy, too primitive or completely different from everything sitting around it. The thing that makes you look twice. Because sometimes a beautiful room has a problem: everything is beautiful. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/31ffb81e-5725-4993-9cb7-b0a4a2f7ea88/Bedroom+Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_14_14+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Pretty Can Get Boring There’s a particular kind of room that’s almost impossible to criticize. The sofa is beautiful. The chairs coordinate. The rug is the right size. There’s a tasteful arrangement on the coffee table. The art complements the palette. Everything is exactly where it should be. And somehow, you feel absolutely nothing. Technically, the room works. But there’s nothing to discover. We think great interiors need a little tension. Something that interrupts all that prettiness and keeps the room from feeling too carefully assembled. That’s where the “ugly” thing comes in. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/c7ca29a0-2587-44ea-9ba5-8b4065cf7bce/Dining_room+Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_11_12+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Give the Eye Somewhere to Stop Imagine a beautifully tailored living room with warm plaster walls, linen upholstery and an antique rug. Now put a strange, oversized brutalist candelabra on the table. Suddenly, there’s a conversation happening. Or take a polished dining room and introduce a primitive wooden stool that looks like it has survived three generations and at least one questionable repair. It might not be the prettiest thing in the room. It might be the thing you remember. These pieces give your eye somewhere to stop. They create contrast against everything more refined around them. And contrast is often what gives a room its personality. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/95ccb680-1a41-4dbb-8386-af7fcc231ca1/Living+Room2_Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_03_12+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Not Everything Needs to Match the Assignment One of the easiest ways to make a home feel overly designed is to become too loyal to a particular style. If you have a midcentury home, everything doesn't have to be midcentury. If you love traditional interiors, you are still allowed to own something contemporary. And if your house leans modern, we promise an old wooden cabinet isn't going to ruin it. In fact, it might save it. We’re much more interested in how pieces relate to each other than whether they came from the same design period. A sleek chair beside a heavily worn antique chest can make both pieces more interesting. A contemporary lamp sitting on an old table creates contrast. Something crude placed beside something delicate suddenly makes you notice the qualities of each. Rooms become interesting when things that shouldn't necessarily work together somehow do. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/20fa0a26-c728-497c-8948-461d7e1ad39a/Dresser.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Age Helps New furniture has a difficult job. It has to create character without having lived long enough to actually acquire any. Older pieces already have it. They have scratches. Uneven finishes. Repairs. Strange proportions. Wood that has darkened over decades. Metal that isn't quite the color it used to be. We don't necessarily want to fix all of that. Sometimes the wear is the best part. There’s a difference between something being damaged and something showing evidence of a life before yours. We like the latter. It keeps a room from feeling as though everything arrived on the same delivery truck Tuesday afternoon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/64f49b7e-c974-4b14-94b8-76a22c74eb39/LivingRoommage+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_01_15+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - The Weird Thing Usually Finds You You can certainly go shopping for an unusual piece, but the best ones tend to appear when you aren't specifically looking for them. You find them shoved into the corner of an antique store. At an estate sale. In your grandparents' attic. At a flea market underneath twelve things you absolutely do not want. And your first reaction might be: What on earth would I do with that? Good. Those are often the things worth considering. You don't always need to know exactly where something is going before you bring it home. Sometimes you just know it has enough character to deserve a place somewhere. We’re big believers in leaving a little room for instinct. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/4aa99348-b14d-4fb8-988c-480ffdbaf72a/Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+11_59_22+AM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - There's a Difference Between Weird and Random Of course, we're not advocating chaos. The goal isn't to fill a house with strange objects simply because they're strange. The piece still needs to have some relationship with the room around it. Maybe it repeats a material. Maybe its shape balances something across the room. Maybe its roughness contrasts beautifully with a polished surface nearby. Or maybe it simply has enough presence to stand on its own. Good tension feels intentional even when the individual pieces seem unexpected. Random feels random. There is, admittedly, a fine line. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/c826e5d1-a6fc-489a-9421-09937d0f0100/Statue+Image+Aug+29%2C+2026+at+12_06_30+PM.png Our Journal - The Case for Something Ugly - Your Home Needs a Few Question Marks We don't think you should be able to understand an entire room in five seconds. There should be something that makes you curious. Something with a story you don't immediately know. Something that makes a guest ask, “Where did you find that?” Because your home isn't a furniture showroom, and it doesn't need to behave like one. Buy the beautiful sofa. Hang the beautiful art. Choose the beautiful fabric. But when you find that strange old chair, slightly ridiculous lamp or enormous object that you can't stop thinking about? Maybe don't talk yourself out of it. Your room might need something ugly. https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal/understanding-color-psychology-exploring-the-emotional-impact-of-hues-in-your-home monthly 0.5 2026-08-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/abdcdce1-e75e-4d4b-a2de-0e9aa3a0c4d5/IMG_0564.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Confident, Warm and Not for the Indecisive. Red has presence. Red has presence. There’s really no getting around it. It can bring warmth, energy, richness, and a sense of history to a room. Deep oxblood, brick, burgundy, and earthy reds can be especially beautiful in dining rooms, libraries, powder rooms, and smaller spaces where you actually want a little drama. The key word here is intentional. Red isn't usually the color I’d choose because someone told me it promotes energy. I’d choose it because the room can handle it and because it makes the architecture, furnishings, and materials around it look better. And yes, there is absolutely a difference between a beautifully moody oxblood room and a room that looks like someone found a gallon of red paint in the garage. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/4f839581-9988-4dc0-86e5-eef5c77afe98/IMG_0567.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Calm Without Being Predictable Blue has earned its reputation for feeling calming, but there’s much more range here than people give it credit for. A dusty blue can feel soft and atmospheric. Navy can feel tailored and sophisticated. A blue-gray can create a quiet backdrop without becoming another beige room. But undertones matter tremendously with blue. The wrong one can quickly turn cold, especially in a room without much natural light. This is why I will continue saying it: sample your paint. The tiny square on your phone is not telling you the truth. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/e176b78c-c4d9-4972-af4e-5bf6096285e3/IMG_0565.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Proceed With Intention I like yellow. There, I said it. But yellow requires restraint. Soft ochre, mustard, muted straw and buttery cream can bring incredible warmth to a room. They work beautifully with aged wood, stone, brown, olive and antique brass. Bright primary yellow covering four walls? That's a much harder sell for me. Yellow doesn't have to scream sunshine to make a room feel warmer. Sometimes the best version is the one you almost wouldn't call yellow at all. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/c39b4a6b-0203-48fd-a083-dee52c9d7308/IMG_0563.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - One of the Best Neutrals That Isn't Actually Neutral Green is one of those colors I return to again and again. Olive, moss, sage, forest, muddy green. There are so many directions you can take it, and it works incredibly well with the materials I naturally gravitate toward: warm woods, aged brass, stone, linen, leather, plaster, and creamy whites. It also has an ability to feel interesting without demanding all of the attention. Personally, I think we've spent enough time treating beige and gray as the only safe neutrals. A beautiful muted green can do the same job with considerably more personality. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/1259484b-aa0e-4a23-aba1-94040d471862/IMG_0566.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Better Than Its Reputation Purple makes people nervous. And I understand why. Mention a purple room and most people immediately picture something extremely purple. But plum, wine, mauve, and brown-based violets can be incredibly sophisticated. In the right room, they create depth without feeling overly colorful. This is another color where undertone changes everything. My guest bath is a painted Behr’s beautiful “Aubergine”. I'm probably not giving you grape-purple walls anytime soon. Aubergine with warm wood and aged brass, though? Now we're having a conversation. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/e4d1ca09-3f8d-41d6-8c27-7c80b35d0c94/IMG_0570.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Gray: We Need to Talk Gray isn't bad. I want to make that clear. Is it my favorite? No. But after years of gray floors, gray walls, gray furniture, gray cabinets, and somehow even gray wood, I think we've established that there can, in fact, be too much of a good thing. A warm charcoal can be beautiful. Soft putty-gray can create a great backdrop. Gray mixed thoughtfully with warmer materials absolutely has a place in design. The problem isn't gray. It's using gray as the default because we're afraid to make an actual decision. A neutral room still needs depth, contrast, texture, and personality. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/8b26cfe6-3607-455d-8c0e-fbe41b2c7bc6/IMG_0568.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Much More Sophisticated Than You Think Pink doesn't automatically mean feminine, youthful, or overly sweet. Dusty rose, clay pink, plaster pink, salmon, and muted blush tones can function almost like warm neutrals. They pair beautifully with brown, burgundy, olive, cream, black, and natural wood. Used thoughtfully, pink can make a room feel incredibly warm and collected. The trick is finding a pink with enough complexity that it doesn't immediately announce itself as PINK. Sometimes the best colors are the ones you have trouble describing. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/48a9d3f8-a199-44f2-8fb3-1f2105b97016/IMG_0571.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - Drama Done Right I love a dark room when the room actually wants to be dark. Black and near-black colors can make architecture feel stronger, artwork more important, and furniture more sculptural. They can also create an intimacy that simply isn't possible with white walls. But painting a room dark doesn't mean you can forget about lighting. Actually, lighting becomes even more important. Layered lamps, sconces, picture lights, and warm ambient lighting can make a dark room feel enveloping and sophisticated rather than gloomy. And sometimes a room with very little natural light isn't asking you to make it brighter. Sometimes it's asking you to embrace what it already is. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/d458b96e-2767-45e6-96d1-b224e1b1fb56/IMG_0573.png Our Journal - Color Psychology: Exploring The Emotional Impact Of Hues In Your Home - The Color I Haven't Mentioned: Brown Brown deserves its comeback. For years, interiors moved toward cooler and cooler neutrals, and somewhere along the way brown became associated with outdated design. I'm glad that's changing. Chocolate, tobacco, camel, espresso, walnut, and muddy earth tones bring warmth and grounding to a space in a way that cooler neutrals often can't. Brown also plays incredibly well with other colors. Olive, burgundy, cream, dusty blue, aubergine, ochre, and black all become richer beside it. If beige feels too safe and black feels too severe, brown might be exactly what the room needs. https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/journal/the-finishing-touch monthly 0.5 2026-08-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/1786837856973-NX8L7B53PC1QBD88F8H0/IMG_0556.png Our Journal - The Finishing Touch. - Throw Pillows: The Small Detail That Changes a Room Throw pillows are one of those design details that seem simple until you actually start choosing them. Suddenly, you’re comparing sizes, fabrics, patterns, colors, and wondering exactly how many pillows a sofa needs before it becomes a place no one can actually sit. We love throw pillows because they give us an opportunity to experiment. They can introduce color without committing to an entire room, bring pattern into an otherwise quiet space, and add the texture that makes a room feel layered rather than overly finished. But like most things in design, there’s a point where enough is enough. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/0314a170-30d9-49a6-b2c9-ac344ec0c200/IMG_0557.png Our Journal - The Finishing Touch. - Texture Does A Lot of the Work If your room is mostly neutral, texture becomes especially important. Linen, wool, velvet, bouclé, woven cotton, embroidery, and other tactile fabrics can make a restrained palette feel much richer. You can have an entire arrangement in creams, browns, olives, and other earthy tones without it feeling boring when the materials have enough variation. Sometimes the difference between a room that feels flat and one that feels finished isn’t another color. It’s another texture. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/da7ce356-fd56-4bec-b149-e31d7916609e/IMG_0559.png Our Journal - The Finishing Touch. - Be Careful With Trends Pillows are an easy place to try something new because they’re relatively simple to change. That doesn’t mean every pillow needs to reflect whatever is trending at the moment. If you genuinely love a pattern, color, fringe, trim, or unusual fabric, use it. But we’d rather see one interesting pillow that brings personality to a room than six trendy ones that will feel dated next year. A room should tell us something about the person living there, not just when it was decorated. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/2b1d7b19-3fe6-4195-b1cf-a1b799544523/IMG_0558.png Our Journal - The Finishing Touch. - The Final Layer Throw pillows aren’t going to make a poorly designed room suddenly work, but they can make a good room feel complete. They’re an opportunity to bring together colors used elsewhere in the space, introduce something unexpected, soften furniture, and add a little personality without taking the room too seriously. Choose fabrics you genuinely like. Mix instead of match. Pay attention to scale. Invest in good inserts. Leave enough room to actually enjoy your furniture. And if you fall in love with another pillow when you absolutely do not need one? 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The Curated Collection A beige fabric sofa with two matching cushions. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/9c802080-84d9-49dc-90b5-0067624ad534/IMG_0508.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Vintage glass chandelier with a tiered, scalloped design hanging from a chain. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/75ac989f-219d-4780-a9fb-acc8cf89c4b8/IMG_0507.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Decorative pillow with a floral pattern in shades of brown and white https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/387443c8-5d60-43c6-98c8-11b2454ad9e5/IMG_0510.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A modern armchair with dark brown upholstery and wooden legs. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/0f9fd575-89cc-4776-b30b-1e9ce9726453/IMG_0519.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A wooden console table with curved legs and a flat rectangular top, set against a plain wall. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/4cfa2509-a462-4793-b2f6-15a249f459b3/IMG_0518.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Stack of folded fabric with floral lace pattern, tied with a white ribbon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/046e58f1-9e95-4332-8c59-e456edbdd89b/IMG_0523.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Ancient clay vase on a black pedestal in a museum setting. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/ffadb8c1-a68b-4608-98e0-29f083b345a5/IMG_0515.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A bedroom with peach-colored walls, a beige bed with white bedding, two bedside tables with lamps, a framed picture, a large window, a plant, and wooden ceiling beams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/abbf3b0c-d0cc-404c-8a9d-d14d92b8921f/IMG_0525.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Chessboard with carved chess pieces on a marble surface. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/345526a7-0075-4c1f-9139-bc26fb6daa2c/IMG_0524.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A floor lamp with a white lampshade and a black metal stand against a plain wall. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/a4a12f48-38fb-4f51-ba0f-0fb017be7ead/IMG_0513.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A textured beige ceramic vase with a wavy, honeycomb-like surface design. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/5c6ff4e2-3acd-4a10-a9df-b7063418239d/IMG_0522.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Marble cube with white decorative stones inside, placed on a white surface. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/4aa3ce44-cc3b-4dc8-96f5-0f05692e5a71/IMG_0517.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Two black garden lights with pointed stakes and round tops against a gray background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/4136bf59-0948-472a-8a6f-8c18bd08f25e/IMG_0520.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Brown sofa with rolled arms and two matching cushions on a white background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/a61cf0e4-82ea-4021-8530-d31d2be85ec8/IMG_0521.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Ceramic vase with a black background and beige floral pattern. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/e0ae9a9b-1681-4dc9-9eb8-2e72ed77b393/IMG_0526.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Living room with a brown leather sofa, white pillows, and small wooden coffee tables on a light-colored rug. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/32ca76c9-5490-4971-b3f7-d7f07ce06f47/IMG_0516.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Landscape painting of a hill with flowering bushes and a distant view of a valley or coastline. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/73233e46-180f-4c77-95dc-20b5d0488c30/IMG_0514.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A modern chandelier with ten white lampshades and a brass finish. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/2967d94e-ab4a-45c2-8e18-2e9371072663/IMG_0512.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Three brown, plush decorative pillows on a sofa with cacti in the background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/c8a4801f-f214-4351-a66d-dcec8c6ff4f6/IMG_0511.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection Oval framed painting of a flower bouquet in a white vase on a beige background. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/cb5c9011-4cc1-42cd-8e51-e9507c65bdbe/IMG_0509.webp Penny & Murphy Co - The Curated Collection A Breville espresso machine with a green exterior, multiple control knobs, a gauge, and a portafilter attached for brewing espresso. https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/services daily 0.75 2026-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/a1ed9fb5-f8fa-48de-aace-3c9c0531e5f8/IMG_0533.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/a31f4540-4e00-42de-9c18-2ed98e98dfda/imgg-demo-pJOWolCw.png https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/copyright daily 0.75 2026-08-17 https://www.pennyandmurphy.co/about daily 0.75 2026-08-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6a761d9d7ecbd836dd95f0a9/0474b342-43d5-4ceb-b0f5-fbecaae8f042/IMG_0537.png