Is There Really No Place Like Home?

I have a confession to make: there was a big fat gap in my living room until several months ago.

For the past few years I told myself it was about the couch. And the rug. Then I got some new art which really helped brighten up the place but it still wasn’t quite right. I had a soft ottoman as a coffee table, no accent chairs. Just a bit room with a big couch and a few big holes to fill. I never considered that the room wasn't waiting on furniture. It was waiting on me.

If I’m being honest, I avoided spending time in my living room because it meant sitting still which was something I avoided until this year. The turning point wasn’t a new chair. I wish it were that simple. It was smaller and slower than that, a hundred unremarkable mornings where I started to recognize the woman making coffee in that kitchen. Part of that was learning to be alone in a quiet house. I used to avoid it, silence felt like an invitation to think about things I wasn’t ready for, so I filled it with plans, noise, other people’s houses. Now, I look forward to the quiet the way you look forward to a friend. I honestly crave it and my living room has quickly become my favorite room in my home.

The pieces took me a while to find to make my house feel like a home. Somewhere in the middle of rebuilding everything else, I stopped decorating for who I used to be and started decorating for who I’d actually become. That’s when the room started filling in. Not because I finally had time to shop. Because I finally knew who I was shopping for.

The final pieces of my living room design arrived just as the final pieces feel into place to me starting to feel like myself again. I partnered with Hetta to finish the space, and if I’m honest, it felt less like finishing a room and more like finally being ready to. I love how cozy the Hearth Lounge Chair’s are and the kids absolutely love them too. On the weekends they move them to face the television and each curl up in their own. They’re the perfect size and color for the space, drawing in the chocolate brown from my artwork.

I can’t believe we’ve lived in this home for over three years without a coffee table. This Dark Brown Beam Coffee Table is incredibly durable, classic and fits perfectly into the space. We dance on it, eat from it and it feels elevated and really ties the space together. Behind my sofa is the Beam Console Table which perfectly matches the coffee table and offers a great place to set drinks or have a vase with flowers behind the sofa.

Here’s what I actually believe now: no amount of good design makes a house feel like home if you haven’t found your way home to yourself first. This living room used to be the room I spent the least time in. Now it’s the room I look forward to the most.

So if there’s a gap in your living room right now, a corner you keep meaning to fill, a room that still feels a little unfinished, I’d ask you gently: is it the room, or is it you?

A very special thank you to Hetta for offering this beautiful pieces to me: Dark Brown Beam Coffee Table, Hearth Lounge Chair, Beam Console Table

What does home mean to you these days? Has the definition changed?

I’d love to hear it in the comments.

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