Departments · The study, the kitchen, the table
Living
Home is where the good objects earn their keep: the chair you read in, the knife you cook with, the speakers you listen to, the table you host at. We write about the few things worth buying properly and the habits that make a house feel lived in.
A man’s home does not need more things. It needs the right dozen: a chair, a lamp, a knife, a pan, an amplifier, a pair of speakers, a decanter, six good glasses. We explain what makes each one good and why the good one costs what it does.
The Home Bar tool lives here as well as in Spirits. The stories cover the study, the kitchen, the hi-fi and the dinner for six.
In this department
The latest in Living
Living · The study
The Study: A Room of Your Own
A chair, a lamp, a desk that faces the window and shelves of books you have actually read. How to build the one room in the house that is entirely yours.
Living · The kitchen
One Knife, One Pan, One Board
A 20 cm chef’s knife you can sharpen, a carbon steel or cast iron pan you can abuse and a wooden board the size of a newspaper. Ninety percent of cooking, three objects.
Living · Sound
A Hi-Fi System You Will Keep for Decades
An integrated amplifier, two speakers on stands, a streamer or a turntable and the right positions in the room. Real music in a real room, for the price of a good watch.
Living · The table
How to Host a Dinner for Six
One dish you can cook with your eyes closed, one drink made in a jug, candles, a playlist and the discipline to sit down. The dinner that makes people want to come back.
The tool for this
Home Bar
Tick the bottles and the fresh things you have. See every classic you can make right now, and the one bottle that would unlock the most.
Reader poll
The room you would perfect first?
Questions we get asked
What is the first piece of furniture to buy properly?
A reading chair with a good lamp beside it. It is where you will spend the evenings that matter and it lasts thirty years if you buy it once.
Is expensive hi-fi worth it?
Up to a point. A €1,500 integrated amplifier and €2,000 speakers, well placed, will outperform most systems costing five times as much that are badly set up. Placement is free.
How do I make a rented flat feel like mine?
Light, textiles and one big picture. Lamps instead of ceiling lights, a rug that covers most of the floor, curtains that reach the floor, and one piece of art you chose yourself.
Departments
Eight things a man should have an opinion on
The only suit you actually need
Tailoring, wardrobe, shoes
Your first serious watch
Mechanical, considered, kept
The last analogue cars
Drive it, do not display it
A week from one carry-on
Fewer bags, better trips
Six bottles for a first whisky shelf
Whisky, cocktails, cigars
The case for the wet shave
Shave, skin, scent, barber