Making a Sanctuary

I have thought and thought about what home means to me and I have come up with one word that encompasses it all: A Sanctuary.  Our home should be our sanctuary.  Our home should be a place where we feel truly safe.  In fact there are so little people who see this important factor about living in a space.  So often negating and ignoring a space where we spend so much time and where we can feel welcome and warm as well as excited and moved.  A space where we can feel tranquility and peace and where each room has a meaning.  With that said I would like to invite you into my home and go through each room with you but before I do I would like to say that every item in my home means something, from the coffee cups that are modern and white to the coasters from the Frank Loyldwright home gift shop in Springfield.  Everything in your home should have meaning.  

Coloration is a big factor when decorating your home.  The colors will speak a certain language.  In my home it is aqua and sand, the colors represent the beach and sand.  They also represent harmony and a softness that I have experienced in my past visits to Mexico and to the Hampton's as well.  This coloration simply says everything about me as a spiritual person because the color is as light as spirit and reminds me of doves.  We must remember that coloration that is dark will have one feeliing and softer colors will make us feel differently from the dark ones.  It is important to surround yourself in colors that are going to bring you joy whether they are bright ones like the ones we see in Mexico or soft light colors like the ones we see in Greece.  Color is eveything and although white can be quite airy and fun it is mostly stale and lifeless.  I happen to love white trim versus wood trim because it adds a newness and freshness to just about any style of home, but the walls must have some color.  I say to people when in doubt do a light to medium true tan with whilte trim.  

I want to start out with my family room that is filled mostly with slipcovered sofas.  One full size one and two love seats.  I like slipcovered sofas because they can be washed and I love these because they are a lovely shade of off white I love so much.  I have always loved furnsihing rooms in white and am a big fan of all white with beautiful tan, light blue or green walls.  Again a Hampton like inspiration of mine but also something I have been doing for years even before it became popular to do all white rooms.  My favorite object in this room is the white orched plant.  It has a dozen orchids on it and it looks magnificent indeed.  It is for me the womb.  I see the orchid as mother nature and I think everyone should have at least one.  They are such a symbol to me of birth.  When accessorising the room I went to Home Goods and found pillows tht had a lot of white and aqua in them, one of them with a beautiful bird fabric and three embroidered with the words: Love amd Dream in aqua.  In this room the rug is a true sand color that finsihes the beach like look and feel.  It was so funny because when the painters were painting the home they mentioned that they felt as though they were in a "beach house" and that my friends was the objective.  There are many accessories in the room including two low meditation pillows made of rattan hanging on the walls as art.  I say think out of the box.  In my former living area I used suitcases stacked atop each other for an end table.  There are no strict rules but to make sure that the accessories are meaningful to you.  I like the commercial for Pier One that says "speak to me".  I truly feel that this is what your home should do, "speak to you".  and "speak of you".  It should say something about who you are on the inside.  The family room that I am referring to is super comfy and has matching throws for people to cuddle under while watching the 60 inch flat screen TV.  It is all about comfort and my feeling is that a family room should be comfortable to the heights of comfort.  Really a place where you put your feet up on the ottomans and where there is no such thing as a cocktail table but rather laquered trays.  

Our home is our sanctuary.  It is where we can feel not only comfortable but also connected to our environment.  Where we eat and sleep and laugh is a place we can put our hearts into and our mind to work in.  It should not just be a house that is made of wood and metals and the like.  It should be sacred and we make it sacred with all the items we put inside of it, including the occassional vase with flowers of our liking, bringing life from the outdoors inside.  We should have a sacred space where we go and we read or pray as well.  A home is a place where God resides and where there is joy and a home speaks for itself.  It is not just about beauty although most of you know I love beautiful things.  It is more about the feeling one gets when you live in it and interact with it.  Interact!  That is the key, interacting.  We interact with our home.  Many times people who don't interact with their home are unhappy with their home.  They don't see a reason to spend money on a new sofa because they are disconnected from their home.  They don't get a Goddess statue because they think that they don't need to make the space sacred and loving.  But alas I am here to say that it is sacred and that everything in it means something bad or good.  

I remember meetiing a person and then seeing their home after a year of knowing them.  When I walked into what they called a living space I was in utter shock.  The plaster from the cieling was on the dining table, the sofa cushions were torn, the tiles were no longer on the wall but inside the bathtub and the toilet was not suppose to be brown inside but it was.  The dinner table had a leg missing and the cabinet doors in the kitchen were hangin off by a thread.  The floors were not dirty they were filthy.  When one tured the faucet in the kitchen it sprayed up at you.  In one corner of the dining area there was a red mark that looked a little like blood but was some sticky substance.  I knew  when my foot went through the stair upon arrival that I was in trouble.  Did I mention I had a 300 dollar pair of white shoes on my feet?  Needless to say this was an environment that the owner was completely detached from and a sad statement about his life.  The only explanation could be dpression or some form of addiction but to this day I will never ever know the answer.  All I know is that for me this kind of living does not honor me and love me.  This is the opposite of what I think honors us all as human beings and although there is illness to be healed for people who live like this it is not my place to cure them.  

To be continued: "Making a Sanctuary" (a home)