Alexandra Ilyashov

Where to travel in 2019? The world's best secret restaurants? How to power-trip at work? Because life is always more manageable in list form, we've ranked, tallied and indexed everything from Instagram stars to the salaries of videogamers.

Continue reading WSJ Off Duty: The Lists Issue.

Inadequate Vibrations

5 of the weird, charming, ultimately unnecessary inventions that failed to keep Brookstone’s stores afloat.

1. Rock & Recline Shiatsu Massage Chair Plopped in its curvaceous design (right), you could choose from four preset massage combos, and dial in optional heat—although adding "rocking" to a rubdown was slightly nausea-inducing.

2. Kalorik Waffle Bowl Maker This red George Foreman grill-style gadget whipped up "golden waffle bowls" you could pile high with bacon and eggs, fried chicken or ice cream.

3. Desktop Missile Launcher This playful weapon connected to a computer via USB cable so you could fire foam projectiles at anyone impeding your productivity.

4. Bed Fan with Wireless Remote Sweaty sleepers, take note: This mattress-height fan was meant to "circulate air under the sheets," targeting its much-needed breeze across your body rather than blasting it all around your bedroom.

5. Smartphone-Controlled Paper Airplane You still had to fold a paper sheet into a pint-size plane, but its clip-on rudder let you steer the craft for 10 minutes by tilting your iPhone or tapping a "throttle" in the app.

Continue reading on The Wall Street Journal.

Whether you’re being hypervigilant or just finally have time to wash the mountain of clothes, linens, and towels you’ve been putting off, read on for expert intel on how to do laundry the right way.

How to do laundry might not be at the top of your list of concerns as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe and the world practices social distancing and self-isolation, but there’s a heightened awareness around cleanliness and sterilization—Lysol wipes are practically our national currency at this point. While there hasn't been much data to suggest how long the virus can live on fabric, the CDC does offer a useful list of laundry tips if you're taking extra precautions right now, including opting for the highest temperature suggested on care labels. It's also key to always wash your hands afterward and practice social distancing if you're frequenting a communal laundry room or laundromat.

Because we're all got cleaning on the brain—and nothing but time to do it—read on for expert tips on how to do laundry anytime, including how to best wash pieces you'd normally send to the dry cleaner.

How to wash cotton, linen, and durable synthetics

Gwen Whiting, cofounder of The Laundress, a New York City–based laundry-products brand, suggests using the warm-water normal cycle on a washing machine because of its “high agitation and a lengthy cycle, for everyday laundry items made of cotton, linen, and durable synthetics, such as sheets, towels, T-shirts, socks, and underwear,” and saving the heavy-duty or sanitize settings for cases of heavily soiled laundry.

How to wash knit blends

“If the knit item contains any amount of silk, follow the washing instructions for silk even if the percentage is small," says Lindsey Boyd, cofounder of The Laundress. "The same rule applies to all woolens and cashmere. So, if you have a sweater that's 20% wool and 80% cotton, it should be cleaned according to the wool washing instructions, while a dress that's 30% cashmere and 70% wool should be washed according to cashmere washing instructions, using a soap designed for silk and delicate synthetics. Dry knits by laying the items flat in their natural shape on a drying rack or clean towel, and “never hang wet wool, as it can stretch and distort the shape,” Boyd says.

Continue reading on Glamour.

There’s nothing like a beautiful kitchen—it’s the perfect starting point for a great dinner party. But a post-party kitchen is an entirely different (read: messy) story. With a few clever moves before, during, and after an at-home event, though, your kitchen doesn’t have to be a complete disaster zone the next morning. Below, four tricks every savvy host can employ without missing a moment of the festivities.

Clean up the kitchen pre-party.

Even a bit of washing and organizing makes a huge difference. Before guests arrive, tidy countertops and wash everything you used for party prep, instead of saving it all for the end of the evening.

Strategically serve hors d’oeuvres.

Save the finest china—or any china—for the main event and opt for disposable, eco-friendly plates and trays for appetizers to deftly cut down on cleanup. Even better? Serve dips in hollowed-out vegetables. They look impressive and can get tossed once the night ends—that is, if they don’t get eaten first.

Keep your dishwasher busy.

Instead of waiting to deal with an avalanche of dirty dishes after guests have headed out, load the dishwasher midway through the bash. That head start will keep your sink from piling up by the evening’s end.

Do a first pass before passing out.

Once the last guest is gone, resist the urge to crawl into bed and give your kitchen at least a little love: Toss lingering napkins and disposable servingware, wrap up any leftovers, and bring wine or cocktail glasses to the sink. Got a second wind? Tackle handwash-only pieces first and then get as much as you can into the dishwasher to get refreshed overnight. Fête accompli!

Read the full article on Vogue.

So you’ve got the standing desk and the ergonomic office chair all set up in your new work-from-home station, plus an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse for your laptop to help you maintain proper posture. Beyond those essentials, you may also want to consider adding a desk lamp to your home-office setup: Not only will it provide a bit more lighting than the blue-light glow emitted by your computer screen, a lamp can add an element of (functional) design to your work space, making even the most cobbled-together desks look a bit more put together. To find the best, most stylish desk lamps — from tried-and-true classic task lamps to contemporary light sculptures — we consulted a group of interesting people with good eyes for these kinds of things, including architects, interior designers, and other folks who value form as much as function. Read on for their picks, which come at a range of prices and include a desk lamp for just about everyone.

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

Sweater season is officially upon us, but with the coziness comes a pesky concern: do you have moths? Are they laying eggs on your cashmere sweater right this minute, promising to chew tiny but irreparable holes into your clothing?

Maybe, but before we get into what to do about it — because there are things to do that don’t include odorous mothballs — it helps to know what moths are doing in your closet in the first place. “There are two different types of moths that damage textiles: webbing and case-bearing clothes moths,” says Meredith Wilcox-Levine, a professional textile conservator at Textile Conservation Workshop. Both kinds of moths eat textiles, but the latter does something called grazing, chewing at a top layer of fabric without leaving a hole. They also are both more of a nuisance in larval form, rather than in winged form. Wilcox-Levine describes them as “tiny, nearly transparent caterpillars,” explaining that they eat protein to prepare for metamorphosis. Unfortunately, “at the point where larvae are large enough to be easily noticeable, they will already have eaten away at your favorite items [in order] to reach that size,” says Corinna Williams, co-founder of the Brooklyn laundromat-slash-coffee shop Celsious. If anything, looking for the cocoons can at least confirm that it’s moths, and not wear-and-tear, causing the holes.

That makes dealing with the problem a matter of prevention and eradication. We asked four experts — Gwen Whiting and Lindsey Boyd, co-founders of laundry products brand The Laundress, Wilcox-Levine, and Williams — about how to deter moths, and how to evict them (and prevent them from reproducing) if they’ve already taken up residence.

How to prevent moths

To prevent a moth infestation, Whiting says you should first learn what they like to eat, and what they can’t eat. “Moth larvae typically target clothes made from animal fibers such as silk, wool, cashmere, angora, or fur, and materials that contain keratin, the fibrous structural proteins found in our skin and hair,” she says. There’s one useful exception: “Moths cannot eat through cotton,” Boyd says. For that reason, she and Whiting recommend storing vulnerable clothes in breathable cotton canvas bags with zipper closures, and to avoid plastic or cardboard that could trap moisture and create moth-friendly humid environments.

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

A great desk can improve your productivity and your posture — but it can also take up more space than you can spare. Fortunately, you don’t need a sprawling apartment or a proper home office to eke out a dedicated workspace. Small solutions abound, from lap desks to retro TV trays, so if you’ve spent the last few months hunched over your laptop while lying in bed and working from home, an upgrade would do you well. (After all, many of us won’t be returning to our offices anytime soon — or, perhaps, ever.)

With that in mind, we asked 13 work-from-home professionals, interior designers, and small space experts to share their favorite small desks and tiny work surfaces at every price point.

Best under-$50 small desks

Ikea Micke Desk

Susan Dominus, staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, likes this cheap, compact Ikea piece so much, she owns not one but two (and raved about it on Twitter last month). “It seemed like a good desk for a 10-year-old boy, which is the original person for whom I purchased this desk,” she says. “At some point, I decided I really wanted to work in my nice sunny bedroom, and there’s this little corner where only a small desk would fit, so I stole my son’s desk” before buying a second Micke. She says the white finish “feels clean, bright, efficient, and friendly.” It’s also surprisingly spacious; despite feeling quite cozy, “the desk seems strangely big, wide, and deep for its size, and the drawer is surprisingly capacious, just big enough for everything you’d need,” Dominus says. (It would also make a great grooming nook, she notes: “If I were a different kind of person, I’d be using it as a vanity, with a big mirror and perfume bottles on it.”)

LapGear Media Bed Tray with Phone Holder

Architectural designer and blogger Sade Akinsanya says she purchased a version of this tray table from a Laura Ashley store a few years ago, and it “has been well used ever since.” She reaches for it often: “When I want to work from bed, when I want to eat and watch Netflix, when I want to photograph something.”

Best under-$100 small desks

Songmics Tilting Top Laptop Desk

Meredith Talusan, author of memoir Fairest, has used wooden laptop desks for over a decade (“since at least the mid-2000s”) and currently has this model, which she loves so much she traveled with it to Guatemala and the Philippines. “I like that it tilts and has that piece of wood that stops your laptop from falling down, and even has a little drawer to keep your stuff,” Talusan says.

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

Weighted blankets are known to relieve anxiety and improve sleep quality, but for anyone who runs hot at night (or is anticipating a steamy summer indoors), lying under 10% of your body weight may sound more stifling than soothing. That’s what makes cooling weighted blankets, which claim to reduce stress and body temperature, so appealing.

For most blankets in this fast-expanding category, the cooling factor comes from the outer cover material, like bamboo, though a few rely on innovations like “hydro-powered technology.” There are also weighted blankets that are comparatively cool, like those made from cotton or cotton-bamboo blends, that aren’t actively cooling. “Ultimately, a weighted blanket isn’t necessarily cooling just because it’s advertised as such,” warns Sarah Riccio, senior writer and bedding expert at Sleepopolis. “Ask yourself, ‘What part of this blanket’s construction is the cooling part?’ If there are no special textiles or cooling fabrics to be found, chances are, it’s just a regular, temperature-neutral weighted blanket.” Ben Trapskin, founder of Sleep Sherpa, agrees: “I think it’s important to have realistic expectations,” he says. “There’s only so much cooling that fabric can provide.”

As tenuous as the claims may be, a good cooling weighted blanket really can make a difference in your sleep quality. While “more-extensive research is needed before we can pinpoint the effectiveness of weighted or cooling blankets,” says Dr. Sanam Hafeez, a neuropsychologist in New York City and faculty member at Columbia University, “anecdotal evidence shows those who purchase either or a combination feel very happy with its effect on their sleep.” Along with testing quite a few of the options myself, I consulted a handful of sleep experts and health specialists to find the best cooling weighted blankets (and a few simply cool ones, if that’s what you’re after).

Best overall cooling weighted blanket

Riccio raves about the Bearaby Tree Napper, an ultrathick knit design that gets its heft from jumbo-sized yarn made of organic Tencel Lyocell fiber. “It’s a uniquely cooling weighted blanket in that it’s made entirely from Tencel, a cool and moisture-wicking fabric that feels soothing on the skin and can help stave off night sweats,” Riccio says. She likes that the open-loop weave design “promotes a ton of breathability,” and it also distributes weight evenly over the body, something most duvet-covered weighted blankets (cooling or not) don’t do. This one’s also sustainably made and biodegradable, in contrast to the synthetic cover materials and plastic pellet or bead fillings that many weighted blankets are made of.

Like Riccio, I’ve also personally been impressed by the Tree Napper. Its weave feels delightfully chilly to the touch and stays that way for a while, and the hefty weave’s airflow is noticeable. I’ve also found that the wide holes between yarn strands are soothing and anxiety-quelling to poke and curl your fingers through while dozing off. However, Trapskin does note one downside to its heft. “You can wash the entire Bearaby blanket,” he says, which is unlike most weighted blankets, which have a duvet you have to remove and wash separately. But because it’s quite heavy, “it takes a long time to dry, so I would recommend line drying if possible.”

Read the full article on New York Magazine.

Did you recently score a weekend out in the country, or at the beach, thanks to some generous vacation-home-owning friends of yours? Congratulations! Now it’s time to thank your hosts. Besides a (handwritten) note, flowers, wine, candles, and chocolates are and probably always will be standby tokens of appreciation. But we thought there are surely gifts that can eclipse those in thoughtfulness, so we asked some people who would know best: the hosts themselves.

Ahead, 14 people who own a vacation home or go in on long-term rentals told us about the most memorable, unusual, and surprisingly useful host gifts they’ve ever received from guests. We went out and found similar items and surrogates for each of those gifts, and feel confident that we’ve got you covered for every weekender situation — and that you’ll get invited back again.

Vinglacé Stainless Steel Wine Cooler

Instead of — or in addition to — a bottle of wine, an attractive double-walled wine cooler makes for a great and lasting gift. “My wife and I received this Vinglacé wine-bottle chiller from a friend, and we love it because it’s hard to find really effective bottles for chilling rosé by the pool,” says Yann de Rochefort, founder of Boqueria restaurant, whose vacation house is in Elizaville, New York. “This holder is not only effective at keeping a bottle cool, but also protective of it, so it’s really portable and safe.”

Old Dutch International 11-Gallon Copper-Plated Hammered Beverage Tub

Bigger and more versatile than a wine cooler, a beverage party tub is a good call for frequent entertainers. “A very useful gift for hosting, and wasn’t top on my list to buy myself,” says Michele M., who vacations in Water Mill, New York. And if you’re staying a long time: Go ahead and add some bottles. “It came filled with wine, which made it not only over the top, but that much more thoughtful.”

Continue reading on New York Magazine.

Queer Eye devotees have likely spent ample time envisioning Antoni Porowski, the show’s affable, handsome resident cooking savant, as a key component of their fantasy kitchens. But what might Porowski’s own dream kitchen look and feel like? In conjunction with Samsung’s Chef Collection, Porowski discussed the essential components of his ideal cooking space with celebrated interiors designer Alexa Hampton, who helms New York–based design firm Mark Hampton. After their conversation, Hampton created a rendering of Porowski's dream kitchen (pictured below), featuring the latest Samsung Chef Collection appliances.

“Cooking is all about preparation,” he says. “If a kitchen is well designed, with ample counter space and easy access to pots and pans and kitchen tools, it makes the whole process of cooking seamless and exactly what it should be: enjoyable.” Having a kitchen that feels inviting and “livable” is important to the Queer Eye star, too. “I don’t want a sterile environment to work in,” he says. “Cooking is an emotional thing for me, and it should be comfortable.”

Distinctive areas devoted to certain cooking tasks, plus dedicated space for the mingling, are priorities to Porowski. “I love a lot of free counter space; I love having stations for my mise en place, whenever I’m preparing dinner or entertaining,” he tells Hampton. “I like to have a station used for preparation, and also one that’s a little more for entertaining, that has some kind of bench situation or bar stools where people can sit down and enjoy a bite while they watch me cook. Growing up, my parents had a big old house, and everyone would always end up in the kitchen, no matter what.”

Color-wise, Porowski eschews orange or “one aggressive pop of color” on a neutral backdrop in favor of warm, inviting shades and textures. “I tend to be a little more old-school: I tend to go for earth tones and anything organic or old,” he says. “Any opportunity to have something a little aged or imperfect is always attractive to me.” That might mean “a massive, classic butcher block from some kind of a grand Tuscan villa,” Porowski says. Currently, he relies on his Boos wood blocks, in both dark and light wood. “They’re just very durable, sturdy, American-made blocks that last for a lifetime if you treat them well, like a cast-iron skillet,” he says. The juxtaposition of colder, minimalist elements with rougher-hewn natural accents appeals to Porowski, giving him a modern kitchen with a sense of history. “I like clean lines and modernism, but if I can have something organic, like the grains on a Nakashima table, but in the kitchen, I’m all up for that,” he says.

Continue reading on Vogue.