About this journal

Maksym Kotsiuba is an independent online journal about interior design. Its one editorial rule: every guide has to give you numbers you can act on.

Most interior design advice stops at adjectives. A rug should be "generous," lighting should be "warm," a sofa should "fit the space." None of that helps you at the store. This journal exists to fill in the figures behind those adjectives: how many inches of walkway a living room needs, how high a pendant should hang over a counter, how many lumens a kitchen actually uses, and which fabric rating survives a house with kids and dogs.

What we publish

The journal is organized into five sections:

• Rooms: Layout guides for every room in the house. Furniture clearances, rug and table sizing, TV heights, and floor plans that hold up in daily use.
• Color: How to pick paint colors that work in your light. Undertones, the 60-30-10 rule, sheen selection, sampling methods, and whole-house palettes.
• Lighting: Practical lighting guides with real numbers. Fixture heights, recessed can spacing, color temperature, and how many lumens each room needs.
• Small Spaces: Design guides for small homes. Apartment-scale furniture, studio zoning, storage strategy, and layout moves that make tight rooms live larger.
• Materials: Materials guides for real households. Flooring and countertop comparisons, fabric durability ratings, tile choices, and finish mixing rules.

How the guides are written

The dimensions and ratings in these guides come from long-standing industry practice: standard furniture sizes, common building conventions, manufacturer specifications, and the working rules professional designers use every day. Where a number is a convention rather than a law, we say so, and we tell you how far you can bend it. Our full process is on the editorial policy page.

Questions, corrections, and topic requests are welcome on the contact page. Corrections get fixed in the article itself.