A Welcoming Home

My last two posts are my beginning thoughts on creating a home.  What makes a home, how it tells your story, and now, what makes a home feel welcoming.  I've given a lot of thought to what my home means to me, how it's an extension of my personality and style, and why I care so much about how it feels to me and others.  

A home is for enjoying life and sharing with others.  We want it to be satisfying to live in and an inviting space for our friends and family to gather.  What do you want others to feel when they enter your living space?

A welcoming home embraces and spontaneously draws one in.  It evokes a subtle reaction.  It may have an immediate appealing aesthetic, project a friendly hospitality, suggest a mood, or just stir one's curiosity.  But we hope it also arouses a desire to experience more.

Upon entering, you're stepping into a personal environment--and one's visceral sense takes over.  As you take in the surroundings, unconsciously you get a sense of who lives here and how they live, whether it feels Comfortable and Lived-in.  

A room must be essentially comfortable, not only to the body but the eye... well behaved but free from too many rules... mannered yet casual and unself-conscious. ~ John Fowler

Comfortable                                                                                                                                         Comfort is the most essential aspect of any home.  Comfort makes people want to relax and linger.  The flow of the rooms should be easy and logical.  Furniture preferably informal.  Seating should be in a close enough configuration to make it companionable, with surfaces close at hand.  Generously upholstered furniture and pillows add to comfort.  No matter where you sit, you should be able to sink back to a relaxed position and then easily get back up.  Chairs for reading with good lighting are very inviting.

The word cozy may seem somewhat interchangeable with comfort.  But comfort is more tangible.  Cozy is snug--not in the sense of small or tight--but like a warm embrace.  A cozy home has a sense of intimacy and serenity.  The host has exposed a very personal side of themselves in a genuine and unself-conscious manner.  A cozy home gets its warmth through colors, materials and flattering lighting.  There are few shiny surfaces, except the glossy richness of wood.  Mementos, photos and books add charm.

Lived-in                                                                                                                                                              A home should feel fully lived-in.  Unpretentious.  Ideally, people should live in all the rooms of a home.  And when they do, the spaces get soft edges, a relaxed and slightly imperfect quality.  You create your own patina--a luster--things feel like they've been lived with and loved.  But there's a distinction between well-used and over-used.  Maintained versus neglected.  When furniture gets worn, colors fade, and soiled areas persist, replacements are needed.  A kitchen with all items visible and at hand can be cozy and lived-in, as long as it's kept tidy and clean.

Plants and flowers provide rooms with a sense of daily life.  They seem to being in fresh air with them (some plants actually improve the quality of the air).  A pet-friendly home automatically feels lived-in.  You've taken your home to another level of relaxed casualness if animals are coming and going.  The secret is to only have visual awareness of the resident pets--no lingering odors.