“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all of the details of daily life”….
William Morris
He also said, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”…..I would consider him the original Marie Kondo.
I grew up in Sacramento and was raised in a 1200 square foot home. It was the only family home we ever lived in. Though small, there were certain areas off limits…namely the largest room in the house–the living room. It was the space dedicated for company only –a place that you got to look at but rarely experience. When I moved out into my first rental it was the first opportunity I had to designate how I was going to use the spaces my roommate and I shared while getting my accounting degree at Sac State. In retrospect, a degree in Interior Design would have been more fitting but I didn’t know that was a choice.
Fast forward 41 years and a lifetime of raising three kids and the good fortune to have remodeled five homes, I have realized my passion is working within a framework of what already exists and making it better. What truly makes my heart sing is to take a home with all of its existing furniture and breathe new life into it by rearranging furniture, organizing closets, decluttering, and elevating those “treasures” to tell the stories of my client’s lives. It never gets old when a client finds something dear they had stashed away long ago and it regains purpose and attention in their “refreshed” homes… a piece of family art can be included on a gallery wall. Sentimental objects can be used to curate a bookcase…the list goes on.
I believe every seat should have a beautiful view and every angle needs to be considered. Everything in your home needs its own “home”…and anything that no longer serves you can be used to “grease the wheels of the universe”…someone else out there will find use with what you no longer need…. and at some point in time, I believe if we can find “the elegance of enough”….. we will feel lighter and more expansive. With systems in place, it becomes easier to maintain and to find the happiness that William Morris described.