Porch #169 🏡 Let's reimagine our homes!

Is your house whispering to you? Have your living spaces kept in pace with the rest of your life? Did Grandma leave a battered trunk in your attic? Join us for this hearty homekeeping discussion.

you can listen in while you’re puttering around your home sweet home

Happy weekend, friends!

Are you getting restless or a bit irritated as you look around your house? Bored with the same-old same-old decor? Yearning to bring some sparks of life or creativity back into those four walls? If so, you’re in the right place.

As long as I can remember, I’ve been dragging furniture from one room to another. Remaking a dining room into an office. A living room into a dining room. Bedrooms into sitting rooms. The space over the garage into The Nest, my Cape Cod counseling office. And after my Covid-induced retirement, The Nest morphing full circle back into a storage unit.

It all started in high school when I lugged the trunk my Grandma used when she came to visit us from Scotland down the steep, dusty attic stairs and into my bedroom to use as a little side table under the window that looked out over a flowering dogwood tree. A half century later, I’m still putting this worn and tattered heirloom to good use in storing extra pillows. (Side Note … why didn’t Granny take it with her when she returned back to Scotland? This odd dilemma never crossed my mind ‘til right this very minute.)

Anyway, much to the irritation of my husband and sister (who were never big fans of bumping into tables or tripping over baskets that had found fresh purpose in a new location), I’ve always loved the process of moving things around the house, reconfiguring what was into something a bit new.

There’s nothing like seeing your stuff in a completely different light. It makes you appreciate what you own. You find unique ways to use an object. Or you realize that you’re sick and tired of something that’s been around for far too long and so you send it packing to a new locale where it’ll be appreciated.

the barely used living room morphed into a spacious dining room in our NY home

10 years ago this week I wrote -

Sometimes we just need to listen to our houses, you know? We need to hear what they quietly whisper to us in voices dim and quiet. We need to discern the invitations they're putting out there in the most gentlest of ways.

For times have changed since we unpacked those moving boxes all those years ago. Our families look different, our possessions have mushroomed, our daily lives bear little resemblance to what they looked like back in the day when we first turned brand new keys in unfamiliar front door locks.

We aren't the same now as we were then.

Maybe it's time to fully appreciate who we are in this season. Here. Now. And thoughtfully consider what we truly must have around us to bring us restful satisfaction and a sense of place. And maybe more importantly, begin to comprehend that much of what is strewn about serves no significant purpose anymore. With a bit of sorrow, disappointment, and yes, fear, we discover that the things we held dear in ages past are bringing us no joy in the present and take up valuable space that would best serve us in ways new and fresh, wide open and free.

For the truth is that we are who we are right now. And our spaces need to reflect that truth.

🏡

When we bought our Cape Cod house 12 years ago, the dining area had a big, blank, wall with a heater running along the bottom and not too much room between it and the table. (Yawn.) She looked sad and awkward, like a wallflower shrinking into the background at a middle school dance. She wanted to step out of the shadows but we weren't doing anything to help her.

She should have known that I had big plans.

THE BORING, FORLORN DINING AREA

Two years ago, my resident craftsman and I put our heads together and re-made the ho-hum wall into floor to ceiling shelves. When the belle of the ball made her long awaited debut I can’t begin to tell you how happy I was to have all this open space to play with and fill so I could finally enjoy the all the wonderful things I had collected over the years instead of having them buried in boxes in the basement.

INSTALLING THE SHELVES

TWO YEARS AGO

Over time, I added and rearranged more odds, ends, and trinkets to my heart’s content. And then slowly but surely I started to notice that my valued collections were, well … starting to get under my skin. I found myself muttering ugh instead of exclaiming ahh when my eyes drifted over to the wall.

It had morphed into something all too visually much for me. What had once been a delight had morphed into major Clutter Central.

I was craving more white space. The wall needed editing. Fewer cookie cutters and dark blue depression glass and small gathered tchotchkes and fragile china pieces. Less stuff replaced by some larger or more colorful pieces.

LAST WEEK

It was time to change things up again.

Enter The Nester, my favorite home guru and her house-hushing philosophy. (Read how to house-hush here. The woman’s a genius.)

So … last weekend I followed her easy step by step advice and cleared everything off the shelves. Put the piles in the back bedroom. Closed the door for a few days. And let the room take a much anticipated breather.

LAST WEEKEND

And then I only chose to pull out the treasures I was excited to greet once again. And add a few newcomers to the party.

Precious white space has returned. I smile with contentment when my eyes wander in that direciton. I purposefully chose a variety of wood, glass, tin, pottery, and paper objects. I went for bigger and bolder aiming for a variety of textures and shapes. Most every object has a lost and found story. Many were freebies and some came at a cost.

NOW!

This all speaks to who I am and where we find ourselves this season. A simple, cozy home filled with lots of stories. A full life with some wear and tear yet still of some value. Quiet. Content. With plenty of white space for whatever God sends our way. I like that.

Let’s talk about your homes, your stuff, what’s up in the attic or down in the basement, and any and all fresh decorating visions you’ve got up your sleeve!
Linda

PORCH
a soft place to land
a calm weekend haven
a gentle pause from life's busyness
so we may experience
the tender lovingkindness of Jesus
as we do life together
in community

SHARING MY WRITING with Paula . Joanne . Andrew . Joanne

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