Home Is Where the Soul Is

I like thinking of different parts of my home not as the architectural structures they are but more abstractly or even symbolically as avenues and pieces of my personality.

For example, think about your floors as the foundation of your shelter. Of course, this is quite literal in the sense of what floors serve to do for your home. But they’re the basis of your comfort and ground you to reality.

And your bed? It’s your personal charger, what keeps you going after a long day of being out and abuzz. So, you come rest in it at night to unwind, recharge, and get back to 100% for the next day.

Your kitchen also serves as a fuel station in the sense of quick energy when you need it right away. While your bed is your ultimate charger, that takes a third of the day to really charge up. But when you’re in need of a short burst of energy, the kitchen is your best bet.

And your closets and dressers and drawers in your bedroom? Those are essentially storage for your everyday armor. Sure, we wear clothes out and about because of decency, but at their core, aren’t clothes worn more for their warmth and protective properties than they are for concealing our naked bodies?

And your bathrooms are your cleansing stations in order to rid your body of all the bad things that could harm it.

Think about your windows now. They aren’t just structures for letting light in. They’re the path to your emotions. If you had none, you’d feel cooped up, restricted from freedom, devoid of happiness. With them, though, sunlight has a chance to enter your home and charge you with great emotions, give you positivity, and make you feel alive, as if the outside world is yours for the taking. And even on gloomy days, your windows still validate your pensive thoughts and melancholy disposition. It’s okay to have those sorts of days.

Overall, your home is so much more than a freestanding building for shelter. If you think of it as a larger, more important force in your life, you’re more likely to treat it well, keep it updated, and not neglect any part of it. Don’t just look at your house as where you go at the end of the day. Look at your house as an extension of yourself, because it is. Without it, you’d be a shell of who you are.

Picking Your Home’s Theme

After purchasing a new house, a lot of people go into decorating their home with a specific theme in mind. This, I can say, is a great idea. The thing is, that early period in owning the home is a very tiny portion of time in which you’re actually living in it, so it doesn’t account for all the stuff you accrue as you continue to live in that house.

What I’m getting at is that the theme you once were shooting for when decorating your home is likely long gone once time has moved on. Your house eventually may become invisible, in a sense, especially if you grow into a comfortable routine that requires you to do nothing to keep the place up to date.

That’s the time that you know an update is needed, though. You need to return to the theme you once chose or seek implementing a new one. No, not every single item in your abode needs to fit perfectly under the theme you’re looking for, but having some main fixtures in each room makes it easier to stick to the setting you’re going for.

Here are a few common themes to shoot for with some examples of aspects that can be staples in your house for each theme.

Rustic.

Rustic is all the craze nowadays where I’m from. From old tin antiques to tattered barnwood signs, you’re sure to know what this theme looks like when pulled off well. Oftentimes, you’ll see a lot of faux sticks adorning the rusted looking pieces of metal that go in rustic-themed houses, as distressed wood is accentuates the rust-colored metal quite well.

Wood.

While wood isn’t necessarily a theme, it’s a material that can tie so many things together. A lot of people love having wooden dinner tables or wooden dressers and bed frames, so if you choose to use wood in certain rooms in your house, make sure to match the wood or contrast it sharply. Having shades of wood that are kind of similar but not can really throw off the vibe of a room.

Additionally, the natural light that comes in through big windows and reflects off of different types of wood can be beautiful and complement other themes you have going on in a nearby room.

Natural.

I’d have to say this is my theme of choice. Natural differs from rustic in that a house with a natural theme has more plants, earthy colors, and even dirt/soil looking things. Muted wood, autumn colors, and minimalistic metal is the key here. Of course, natural theme begets the use of natural lighting, too, so having open windows within this type of room really sets everything off nicely.

The wood you do end up using in a natural-themed house shouldn’t be finished or glossy but rather simplistic and reminiscent of wooded areas. Greys, browns, and mossy greens abound in a natural theme.

Methods for Maturing the Look of Your Home

At some point, you need to think about moving some furniture around in your home to change things up, give you a new and reinvigorated perspective, or just to make things interesting, it’s really not a bad idea to do so. But during these periods of shaking things up, you might also think about getting rid of junk and minimizing the decor around your home.

Sometimes, this means updating what you have on display and getting rid of things you once thought were particularly cool to show off. As you’ve gotten older, though, things that once were neat probably aren’t so fitting for your home here and now.

No matter the case, we’ve put together a few ways to make your home look more sophisticated, refined, and “adultlike” than it used to right after you got out of college.

Clean your windows.

Probably a simple thing to do when you really think about it, but having nearly invisible looking windows can be the difference between “has their stuff together” and “slob.” Don’t fall on the slob end of the spectrum, even if you do have kids running around putting their paws on everything they possibly can. It takes little to no work at all to clean windows, but boy does it make a difference.

Get rid of the mementos and thematic figures.

I’m guilty of having a few mementos from Japan standing on my home entertainment system, but I recently decided to adorn that shelf with a stack of like-genre books. Just as well, I’ve begun doing the same in other cubby holes of my entertainment system with other mementos from trips abroad (like a wooden Dutch tulip from a Dutch-owned island in the Caribbean). By pairing these souvenirs with different stacks of books, I’ve made my book collection the focus and these small baubles the accentuating, not focal, piece.

Choose appropriate photos.

Everyone likes to have photos in their home. That’s totally fine and understandable. But if some of the photos you have up are either super outdated (you with college friends), not presented well (i.e., in a weird, juvenile, or shoddy frame), or simply out-of-focus, you should consider taking them down. Just as well, too many photos can remind someone of their grandparents’ house. While this isn’t a bad thing, it’s more of a reminder that that was a different time and era and modern, “adult” houses nowadays are a bit more simplistic and uncluttered.

Clean up your empty bottles.

Having bottles of liquor in a designated place (along with tumblers, wine glasses, and mixing utensils) can be very classy. But keeping empty liquor bottles as a trophy “graveyard” is so college. Get rid of the remnants that show your guests you may be borderline alcoholic and leave only the unfinished bottles to show you’ve got class and options when guests do visit. You want your houseguests to know that you can have a good time and mix a nice drink together without letting them think you’re overboard on your nights alone.

Bay Windows As Reading Nooks

Growing up, I liked to read a lot of books and generally keep to myself quietly while at home and relaxing. For the most part, I was stark opposite to my younger brother. He would play sports video games with friends, hoot and holler at sporting events on TV, hang out with people all the time, and just always go go go. Me, though . . . well, I was reserved, laid back, and didn’t speak to people too often.

Now, that’s a time long gone as I’m the more outgoing and loud sibling of the two. But nonetheless, I used to love my quiet time at home growing up. I would read in little corners of the house and not talk to anyone for hours on end.

One of my favorite spots in the entire house was our bay window.

Bay windows are, for the most part, not too common in most houses for whatever reason. Obviously they’re tougher to install than simpler windows considering they jut out from the house itself and need support from beneath.

But man, when a house has a bay window, a quiet and book-loving child feels like they’re in heaven. And that’s all the time that they feel like that.

If you’re on the edge of choosing whether to install a bay window or not, I can guarantee that the answer is almost always yes. The only reason I really see someone not biting the bullet and getting one is because they may be compromising some structural integrity to their home.

Otherwise, the cost is absolutely worth it. And a bay window never, ever looks bad on a home. As for getting use out of it? Well, even if you don’t have kids and never plan on having kids, your cat or dog will love it. At the very least, you’ll end up loving it just for decorating and looking out of.

Having a bay window installed, or even doing it on your own, isn’t as daunting as you may regard the entire process as. Nor does it cost as much as you may worry about. All you have to remember is that you want it and it’s worth it. It changes up the way your home looks so drastically from within while not really making it look too different from the outside. Ultimately, it opens up whatever room you put it in and also allows for more decorating space and even places to hang out.

One of my fantasies that I’ll go ahead and share here is to have bookshelves lining the walls just inside the bay window. So, whether you put those bookshelves beneath the window as a sort of cubby space or create ceiling high shelves for your expansive library, you’re dedicating the space to a genuine reading nook that will leave friends and family green with envy.