A Home for All Seasons
There’s something about autumn that always tends to feel like a new beginning. It may be because it’s the start of the school year. That sense of anticipation is contagious, whether or not we have children, and whether they are still in the pencil-and-backpack stage or all grown up.
Even if those school years are long behind us, fall often brings a change to our rhythms. Depending on our personality, the cooler air and shortening days can be invigorating, inspiring new ideas, projects, and activities. Yet for another person it’s a signal to slow down, to turn inward to their home and their thoughts, to seek comfort and contemplation. This nesting instinct often sparks ideas for enhancing our living spaces so they better reflect where we are in our lives.
What made me think of this was reading a post in Better Honey, a blog by Sveta Dunn. Titled “Recovering a Sense of Seasons In Our Work,” she talks about the importance of stepping back now and then to tune into what our bodies may be telling us about when to work and when to rest. She writes, “Our culture makes it all too easy to forget how to honor wisdom in the seasonal rhythms of our bodies.”
Like all living creatures, we are bound by our circadian rhythms, the ebb and flow of the seasons, and the cycles of our physical bodies. In nature, a period of growth is often followed by a period of rest. Does your home support and nurture you through these cycles? Does it reflect how you want to live?
While we often think of our home as a refuge, it doesn’t have to be a place only for relaxation. It can also inspire and motivate us to become our best possible selves. A well-designed home can improve every facet of our lives, wherever we are in our seasonal energies.
You may think of the rooms in your house according to their function: dining room, family room, exercise room. If one or more of them are unsatisfying, but you can’t quite put your finger on why, look at them through another lens: How does each room in your home support where you are in your energy cycle? How do you feel when you are in them? Do they feed your energy or do they deplete it?
With each person, it will be different. What is relaxing or energizing to you might be the opposite for someone else. It’s important to know yourself and identify what you need from a space in order for you to live your best life.
If you’re having trouble figuring that out, turn to a professional interior designer, someone who is trained to guide you through the discovery process, and beyond. An interior designer can evaluate your home, help you identify what is working, and what you need from your living spaces that they don’t yet provide. And a designer can then turn those concepts into reality.
Whether it’s a simple refresh to an existing space or a complete renovation to reflect the way you live now, I can help create a home that works for all the seasons of your life.
Larisa McShane and Associates is an award-winning full-service interior design firm in Villanova, PA. For more personalized ideas, call or email us to schedule our signature personal style discovery, a complimentary phone consultation, or check out the interior design services we provide for Philadelphia and Main Line, PA clients.
