Home Therapy

I often flip through the pages of design magazines to admire beautiful pieces and for inspiration.  However, as beautiful as the glossy pages are, I find it difficult to picture my family living in these environments.  Something is always not quite as I would have it.  More importantly, most things are not as my husband or children would have them.   Which gets me to thinking: “What makes a house a home?’

I suppose my answer would be much different from yours, since my family is also likely to be different from yours.  Or maybe not?  I know this for sure, my house is a home because of four very important elements that fill it with beauty every day.  It’s filled with love too.  But I am talking about the physical spaces that are mandatory to make it the place we can’t wait to return to.  Home is a soft place to land.

It’s nourishing, for the body and the soul.  It’s where I work to create nourishing meals for my family.   There is plenty of room to spread out, a place for all the cookbooks, cupboards filled with favorite foods, and a huge surface for preparing hearty dinners and rolling out dough.   And when it’s all ready, there is a place to sit and savor, unwind and reflect, relish and flourish.  It’s a social space where friends can gather.

It’s peaceful.  At the end of a hard day, when I have been rushing around, I feel my cares fall away as I walk through the front door.  The house gives me a hug.   A big bed to sink into with wonderful white sheets, a place to cuddle with a good book, and a colour palette that is natural and calming.  Here is where our day gets put to rest, and we wake refreshed, ready to face the world all over again.

It’s a place to learn and grow. When we need a place to think, a place to read, a place to share thoughts and ideas, read a book, surf the net, and finish homework.  There is a place that is free from distraction and full of inspiration.  It is warm and inviting, and puts a mind at rest.  We feel secure, we feel warm, we feel relaxed.

And of course, it’s where we connect! Where we share our love for one other, and remind one another of the importance of friendship and family.   Whether it is sitting around a breakfast table or lounging together, playing games, fighting for toys, fighting for the remote, you are all together and you are a family.  And that is the most beautiful gift of all.

The people that you fill your house with are up to you, but I can help with all the rest!