A room is a decision about how you want to be tired at the end of the day.

I live in forty-eight square metres in Tokyo with one good chair and far too many bowls, so I have had to mean that. I trained as an architect and left to write, which my teachers took badly. Uchi (内) means inside, and it means home: the room you come back to. The palette comes after the tiredness. So does the name on the lamp.

This is where I keep what the world's rooms are doing. Around seventy sources, read in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Italian, French and English: an apartment in Seoul, a house outside Taipei, a Copenhagen showroom seen from here rather than from Denmark. East first, because east is where I am sitting.

Each story is a headline, an excerpt of a few lines, one photograph and a link to whoever did the work. We never reprint the piece, and the photograph belongs to the person who took it. When a room was written up in Korean or Italian it stays in Korean or Italian here; the link takes you to the writer's own words.

I am not trying to be complete. I am trying to notice.

— Mio Tachibana, Tokyo

← Uchi Archive

Livingetc

The Kitchen Color Is Shocking, but in the Best Way — How the Owners of This 1912 Victorian House Proved Their Fearlessness

October 10

Perched up high in stunning San Francisco with sweeping views across the Bay, this 1912 Victorian home has been brought back to life with a modern personality while consciously holding onto its…

Kitchens & bathrooms

Read at Livingetc ↗

One letter a week, starting soon.

Latest

The Kitchen Color Is Shocking, but in the Best Way — How the Owners of This 1912 Victorian House Proved Their Fearlessness

Related

I Bought a Japanese ‘Donabe’, and It’s Changed How I Cook, Host, and Style My Kitchen Livingetc

The Strange Beauty of Blue Countertops — Why This Ethereal Kitchen Trend Is the Most Interesting Design Idea Right Now Livingetc

Move Over White Bathrooms – Rich Brown Is the Sophisticated Neutral Designers Are Embracing Instead Homes & Gardens

A Classic Amsterdam Canal House with a Light Blue Kitchen and a Secluded Garden The Nordroom

The Hotel Lobby Bathrooms Where Design Takes Centre Stage AD Middle East

7 Nostalgic '60s Kitchen Colors Your Parents Loved – and Why Designers Are Bringing Them Back Homes & Gardens