After living with our fireplace for a few months, I have finally settled on a room setup that is both inviting and functional. The room felt unbalanced surrounding the fireplace with just the love seat. Not having control over where the fireplace was placed on the wall, I was determined to find the right look with the current setup our home was given. I wanted the space to feel cozy but I also wanted to use it on a regular basis.
After much debate, I decided to pull in the chair that I used in my office. While I loved being able to curl up in my office, I wanted a comfortable reading space by the fire. While I adore the love seat in the corner, it is not the most comfortable for reading.
As I began to style the chair I found myself decorating all angles surrounding the chair. This was a new concept to me and something I have always noticed that Melissa Michaels of The Inspired Room does well. She often shares different angles in her home and I loved that you passed by pretty things from all sides. Because the back of the chair stuck out in view from the kitchen and coming from the living room, I used a basket and garden stool to dress up the space while still remaining functional.
As I styled this space I did not intentionally plan to surround this post around Melissa's new book, Love the Home You Have. But as I moved things around and stacked the current books I am reading, her words seemed to fill my mind as I intentionally worked at making my home work for me.
She says, "Our obstacles and limitations are actually opportunities to create something more beautiful. As we redesign our homes, we start to feel more alive and in touch with the people we were created to be. We can put our own stamp of beauty right where we are when we look beyond our homes as they are to what they could be."
So often I see the limitations of my home as a discouragement until I fully understand the beauty in how it can be used to serve my family in how we specifically live and function.
Besides wanting a cozy space to read, I have found my nephews using this room more. The baby is getting older and can now play on his own. Both nephews love to play with cars and so I often find them rolling them around our hardwood floor. I wanted to be with them without necessarily interrupting their play.
In came a comfortable chair where I could read or sip some hot tea while they played. I found a pretty poof to act as a foot stool and suddenly all was well in the world. I was close to the boys while they played but also had a place of retreat whenever I wanted to ready quietly by the fire.
I used books to help hold up our vintage love seat that is slowly falling apart. Not only are the books helping the chair get a little more life out of it, I love the quirky detail.
Even though we are past fireplace burning season, I finally found a fireplace screen that I liked. While I was plenty happy with the exposed fireplace, with my nephews around I needed a screen for when they were over. I found this beautiful gold one from Home Depot and I love the added detail it adds to the fireplace.
Melissa also writes in her book, "Setting the right atmosphere inspires us with what is possible. Setting our minds on what is lovely around us and what can be lovely nurtures our home and dreams for our home and life while also guiding how we make changes and improvements."
By simply envisioning and creating a space that encourages rest and reading has been such a wonderful reminder each time I see it to slow down and enjoy the moments that are in front of me. I now have a place to just sit and enjoy my nephews, something I often struggle with when I have a never ending to do list. I have a place to keep my books, where I will always know where they are, to actually encourage myself to sit down and just be.
I desire to create a home that invites my family as well as our guests to settle in. I want to live in a place that reminds me to slow down and remember where my true priorities lie. It is in simply enjoying my home that I believe my home is finally doing it's job. It has become a refuge from the outside world where we can find quiet and fulfillment for our hearts and souls.
I am so grateful for all the hard work we put into restoring this fireplace. It has truly added so much to our home but also to our hearts in making our home more of a reflection of our family.
While I am still getting plenty of things done each day I am more intentional about down time. I am in a current state of slow moving. I am trying to waste less time online and instead curl up with a book. I am doing the dishes and then sitting down with those nephews. I am learning to love the home that I have in creating it into a place that serves us well.
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