When I moved into my home almost 25 years ago, I wanted to create a beautiful space in which I loved to live. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the resources or know enough about myself to do it. Instead, I created a space in which I could live, rather than one in which I loved to live.
In fact, most of what I had, which wasn’t much, had been given to me. I had a full-size bed, end tables, a dining room table with two chairs, a sofette, some dishes, a stereo, a VCR, television, a television stand, and a bookcase with a few textbooks from college—the basics. The only things not given to me were the electronics and the books.
I had enough to eat, sleep, watch television, listen to music, and read. My life consists of basically the same things, but I am in the process of creating a much more enjoyable space in which to do it.
Create a space in which you love to live. Share on XA couple of months ago, a leak coming from one of my upstairs neighbor’s condominiums damaged my master bedroom, master bedroom closet and master bath. The water damage resulted in stripping down parts of these rooms to the studs and concrete. It reminded me of Genesis 1:1-2, which says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void” (emphasis mine). In the beginning of my repairs, these rooms were “without form and void.”
Needless to say, in order to begin repairs on these rooms, I had to empty them of their contents. I don’t have a big place, so removing these rooms of their contents meant clutter in every other room of my home.
Both effects were immediately overwhelming. I couldn’t go into a room of my home without feeling unsettled. And the effect had a lasting impact on me. On my first day back at work following the initial repairs, a co-worker asked me, “What was wrong?” There was noticeable and immediate impact to my continence—and not a positive one. It was stressful having my home in disarray.
Yesterday, the repairmen completed work on my closet and bedroom. The work to these rooms consisted of new drywall, paint, and carpet. This seems minor in comparison to all the tile work that needs to be done in the bathroom, but significant all the same. The room felt immediately different and even more so once we moved the furniture into the room.
The walls and carpet are two complementary shades of dark grey. I chose dark colors for the bedroom since it gets a lot of natural light from three large windows and to promote sleeping at night. I am fairly sensitive to the light when sleeping, especially in the morning since my bedroom faces east and is brightest in the morning.
It felt so good in the room with all the new changes that I didn’t have the heart to put my old comforter on the bed even temporarily. Truthfully, the old comforter never really brought me joy—my new criteria for keeping things. It was late and I hadn’t fixed dinner, but I ran to Target for some other things and found a new comforter set in shades of grey. It looks perfect in the room.
The black furniture, curtains and blinds remain from my previous color scheme. With all this black and grey, the room could use a pop of color. There is some red in the two pieces of artwork in the room, so I am thinking of adding a red headboard as the finishing touch to add that pop of color while maintaining the darkness for sleeping. Then, my beautiful master bedroom will be complete. Now, for the bathroom…
Questions:
- What steps have you made/could you make to create a beautiful space in which you love to live?
- How would creating a beautiful space improve your life?
- What obstacles have you encountered to creating a beautiful space?