by Jessica

It’s hard to believe that we are officially heading into December tomorrow (except by the time I post this it is actually the first day!)….DECEMBER! To be honest, this year has felt like one of the absolute longest years and at the same time, I can’t believe it’s coming to a close in one month.

It seems kind of strange that we are heading into a season that is typically filled with Christmas concerts, work parties, evenings celebrating with friends, visiting family, and an overall busyness. This year will be quite different. We have been encouraged to stay home. Not socialize (maybe this guideline will change by Dec 25th?!?). Inviting people into our homes is no longer an option. And yet the most wonderful season (at least in my books, I know this view isn’t shared by everyone) is ahead. This year I felt a much larger pull to get the Christmas decorations out earlier than I have the past couple years (I don’t even think we had a Christmas tree last year!). I think in part, I needed something joyful to look forward too…even if it will be a much different Christmas than other years. I believe Julie shared the same sentiment in her blog, Christmas 2020, which is well worth the read.

Depending on whether your job has been moved to an “at home” work scenario or you’re still heading out to your workplace every morning, probably has an effect on how you feel about your home. Have you been reno-ing? Or have you been stuck not knowing what to do to make your home function efficiently for you? We are all faced with dilemmas in our houses. Actually, when visiting with Julie, even in her new house, there are areas that are not functioning as well as she had hoped. Which is refreshing to me! We all have areas of our homes (whether they are old or new) that may need some extra care and attention to make them function or feel like an actual asset to our home. My house is older, so the list of dysfunctional areas is long! But that also hasn’t deterred me from tackling the house that we live in and making it a home. I compiled a few different elements that I think are needed to move a house from just being a house to being a home.

Patience.

This is probably the most difficult part of the process, but one that I have come to realize is incredibly important. Instant homes don’t happen. It takes time…it just does. There can definitely be the immediate feeling of “this is ours” but I think that a home is curated and produced over time. Take the time to plan out your home in a way that ensures it will function for you. And sometimes this can take a lot of time. Take my living room for example. When you walk into our home, the living room is directly off the entryway and adjacent to the dining room. It’s not a huge space, but it has changed multiple times. I have had the furniture in every single different configuration I can think of! Sometimes I would be happy with it for a few weeks or even a month, but then it would get changed again. It took time to figure out the perfect furniture set-up for this room. I wanted it to be functional for our family and guests by having enough seating but it also had to feel somewhat spacious, not cramped. Which can be difficult to achieve in a smaller sized room. On top of that, I wanted a way to display artwork and sentimental items without, again, overcrowding the room. Once I finally found the furniture arrangement and storage option that worked the best for this room, it’s stayed that way. I haven’t rearranged furniture in forever haha! All of it took patience though. Trying new things and seeing if it would work or not.

*once I put up the shelving unit on the wall, this whole room came together. Before that point I had tried sideboards, couch in front of the window, couch on the wall with a gallery wall and none of it felt right until I put up the shelving unit.

Appreciate what we have in the moment.

It’s quite easy to get caught up in all the areas that our homes are not working for us….and I think it’s exciting and fun to create solutions for our homes problems. But I also think it’s important to appreciate and acknowledge the ways that our houses are working for us. What do you love about your home? What makes you smile as soon as you walk in the front door?

Let your home evolve with you.

Back to my living room. I have now had the same set-up in our living room for quite awhile. And it works. But there’s a part of me that is now wanting it to grow to meet our needs again. There’s been a few parts of our home that have changed. We have a fireplace in our basement, which is now largely unused and realistically it is very useless (50% of the time the whole house gets smoked out…not fun!). We moved the basement living area away from the fireplace so now it just sits. But we love enjoying fires. We love sitting around the fireplace, all cozied up in the winter. So for the past couple months I’ve been figuring out how to make a fireplace work in our upstairs living area. Budgeting everything out. Planning and dreaming for how we can change and evolve our main living area to be more functional and beautiful for our family. I love that homes grow with us. We can change things and try things and with each attempt that is successful (because not all are….hello 17 different shades of white that have been tried haha) we get our house closer to be the true representation of us and our families. The truer our houses are a reflection of us, the more they become a home.

*this is the basement fireplace which will officially be retired soon. Although it was a cozy spot to sit, I don’t know if it’s worth it seeing as the likelihood we will smoke out our home is quite high!

Curate.

Make your home meaningful. I’m a huge believer in this. Display what is sentimental. Most items in your home should be functional, beautiful, and/or sentimental. I was working on an office project a few years ago and wanted to add a pop of colour into the room. I purchased a poster from Hardpressed in Saskatoon called Sask Liliies. It is a beautiful poster that felt so perfect for this office space. What I didn’t realize at the time was that the Prairie Lily had much more significance to the homeowner than just being the Saskatchewan flower. It had personal significance, which immediately upped the value of having this art poster in their home. It’s one of my favourite pieces in that room for that very reason. We can all go to home stores and fill our empty bookcases and shelves with decor items, but eventually they lose our taste and we replace them with something different. Now, I’m all about finding the beautiful decor piece that will finish off a look that you’re going for, but those items should never outshine the ones that have personal significance. And to the owner, they never will.

Many of the designers and home decor enthusiasts I follow on social media are people who take the risk. Chris Loves Julia has this saying, “Don’t Wait.” On their website they say, “Words to live by. It's never too soon to love your home. Start making memories right now. Just, don't wait.” I love that! Another home reno enthusiast, Angela Rose Home, lives by her words, “Stop pinning. Start doing.” And Jenni Yolo from I Spy DIY is never afraid to jump in and try new paint colours in any room.

Let’s not wait. Make your house a home. Start the project. Start planning. Start patiently piecing items together until it finally fits and works for you. Let’s love our homes no matter what state they are in.

Cheers to the last month of 2020!