Room by Room: The House
I read, but didn’t finish, Creating a Beautiful Home by Alexandra Stoddard. I enjoyed what she had to say, but apparently, if you don’t give me pictures in a book about decorating, I lose interest. Stoddard is big into being authentic, and while that term can sometimes be an excuse for rude or bad behavior, I still feel like she made a good point that needs to be addressed in this Room-by-Room series:
Our houses are OUR houses!
This means that no matter the “normal” function of a particular space, we need to make it work for the needs of our people, home, and circumstances. If that means the tub suddenly gets used as a second washer or a place for baby chicks, that’s okay.
If the garage gets turned into an office or extra bedroom, the living room becomes the school room, bedrooms transform into entertainment or workout rooms, or upwards and onwards to all the strange and bizarre things we can dream up, that’s okay.
Our homes need to work for us, and our houses need to be for our people at every season we’re in, not some fake family we’ve dreamed up and labeled perfect, or some season of life we wish we were in.
Function: The function of the home is to be “Life giving and soul refreshing, a soft spot to land on a hard day and a beautiful place to recharge and rejuvenate,” as we think Melissa Michaels said. This is our great task as HearthKeepers. We turn floors, walls, plants, smells, textures, decorations, and so much, much more into safe soft spots where the souls that are ours can be rearmed for work. We guard and garden our hearts so that our people can safely grow.
Some days we do this by being frugal, sometimes by freshening, sometimes by cooking, and sometimes by hugs or clean laundry. But all this starts with us. Our house and our stuff are the tools we use to make it happen.
Beauty: Life is too short and too hard to not appreciate beauty wherever you can. God is too good for us to not create beauty however and whenever we can. Re-read that. God is too good not to create beauty however and whenever we can. Have you ever thought of it as insulting to God’s goodness to not enjoy and create beauty? When we don’t enjoy and create it, we’re acting as if God is a beauty-miser and He absolutely is not. Have you stepped outside recently?
Beauty is where “authentic’ is most visible. It is found in the unique ways we each create splendor, elegance, and serenity.
If you’ve watched the home decorating trends, they took a deep dive a few years back into minimalism. Now, my heart is happy with less visual noise, but minimalism with only beige, gray, and white as its color scheme, and only utilitarian metal begins to feel inhuman. Everything is turned into a pristine and cold place where no actual people live, especially no children. People are a bit messy, eclectic, and multi-dimensional. We’re hardly ever pristine. The decorating world responded by swinging in the other direction straight into grannycore. Literally, everyone realized why Granny’s house looked the way it did. People, real people lived there. No more making fun of handmade quilts, plants, and knick-knacks.
Side Note: Notice it’s grannycore and not momcore. There is a missing generation. Most women who are inspired to be homemakers are inspired by their grandmas, not their moms because their moms weren’t home. Granny’s house felt cozy because Granny was there. Granny’s house may have been weird, but it was authentic. A lot of women also sadly had moms at home who didn’t teach them anything about homemaking, and so they still look back at a previous generation.
Easy-access decorating can be a boon and a bane for our homes. It has its place but can leave us feeling rootless. Nothing in our homes have a story, history, or family ties. Nothing is unique. We all have that one plant or lamp from Target. Things aren’t built to last; they’re built to fall apart so that next season you can throw them out and get the latest trend. It takes a lot of skill and a pretty big mindset change to switch from quantity to quality. It also takes some budgeting. It’s good to freshen a home. I love bringing in seasonal changes. In fact, I realized that I lump spring and summer together and that might be why by the end of July I’m wanting a change so badly. I’ve been looking at the same things since March. Easy access and fast fashion have a place in our lives. They are great for when you’re saving up for better-quality pieces but still need something in that one spot. But better-quality decor elevates our homes and our lives. Better fabrics, better design, better art. Some of these things are worth the wait and the cost.
It takes work to keep things year in and year out until they root in our homes and our people. Buying things from Target isn’t bad decorating, but it can get us hooked on new, new, new, which can leave our homes feeling unmoored. Nothing signals home to our souls. It’s all just new. On the other hand, things can stagnate if they’re not moved, freshened, or changed out. It’s our job to find the tension between these two things. And when we do, we suddenly have an authentic home. A home that is us.
When it is all said and done, our homes and how we use them—be it one room in our parent’s house or a full home with extra nooks and crannies to spare—are what makes our homes home. They should reflect the people who live here, their needs, comforts, and personalities. We use our homes however we need to use them and when we do that, home is authentically us.
