Gina Smith can hang a string of Christmas lights in her laundry room and make dirty clothes look magical.
I discovered this last year when I started following her Adding Beauty Project. Gina’s blog fascinated me. My first thought was, “If I hung lights in my laundry room, it would look ridiculous.” But as the year went on, I experienced more and more envy and frustration. I couldn’t understand it. How did she make her kitchen look so homey and dreamy? Where did she learn about tchotchkes and knick-knacks and colors and patterns and warm, inviting nooks and crannies? How did she manage to take thrift store junk and transform it into priceless family heirlooms? (Note: I do not recall if Gina actually did this, but I know women who do.)
I’m an atypical woman in lots of ways. One of these is my intense practicality. I take exquisite pleasure in cleaning out the house, trashing, donating, re-organizing. I want everything neat and orderly and streamlined. Easy to dust. Un-cluttered. But Gina’s blog drew my attention to the fact that my main concern for my home had been what I was taking out. I hadn’t considered the importance of what I added in. What message had I been sending to my children by keeping their surroundings so sterile? Could they be learning, in spite of all the things I say out loud, that beauty is a non-essential?
This question was raised again in a session with Sally Clarkson at Hutchmoot in October. Sally talked about a visitor to her home who commented on the fact that everywhere he looked there was something interesting or lovely to see. Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. Sally said that it had been purposeful, the way she and Clay decorated their home. They had wanted to give their children an experience of beauty, to spark their interest and curiosity and to feed their souls. With wall hangings and knick-knacks. It seemed absurd. And yet it wasn’t.
I started small. I bought some baskets and set them next to the couches in the living room. When we went to the library, I just plopped the new stacks of books in the baskets so the kids would have easy access. All of a sudden, we were reading more, and in my house that’s saying something. Over and over, the kids would hand me books from the basket, and we would sit together and read. After that, it was paints. I got a nice, wooden box, and filled it with painting supplies: brushes, palettes, paints, paper. I tucked it into a corner. Suddenly, my kids wanted to paint all the time. It was remarkable! Could lowering the storage for books and craft supplies to floor level really make such a difference? Who knew?!
The next thing was a coat rack. Odd choice, perhaps, but no sooner had I tucked that thing in the corner than our coming and going routines smoothed out. When it was time to go, the coats were there, ready and waiting, no searching or fussing. And there was a place to store them when we got home. No flinging them on the floor or the couch. Then I bought a soft rug for the living room floor. Not long after, I caught the kids, huddled side by side under a Thomas the Train blanket, lying on the new rug at six in the morning. It’s so inviting. They want to play games more often, wrestle with their dad more often. Because of a rug.
I got a lamp for a depressing corner, a little jug for flowers, some brightly colored pillows. I got an inexpensive wall decal from Etsy, and now, rather than looking at a blank wall, we’re looking into a small birch forest. I’d like to keep going, too. I’d like to get that Hutchmoot poster framed, and I’d like to invest in the work of artists I admire. I’d like to add more plants and scatter every room with piles of books (because books never go out of style).
But the power of such minor changes still amazes me. I feel better about getting up in the mornings. The house just seems a happier place. I failed to realize that we’d been saving all our money for vacations, teaching the kids, inadvertently, that what we wanted most was to get away. I didn’t think how a few dollars and a few baskets might impress upon them how much we want to be here, in our home, with them. How much we value the simple routines of the life we’ve been given.
So thank you, Gina Smith. Thank you, Sally Clarkson, for sharing your wisdom with a slow learner. I don’t believe our house will ever be the same.
She never saw any of this coming.
She also had no idea of becoming either a mother or a writer, yet here she is, living in Nashville with a husband and two kids and three published books to her name. She ponders the humor of God and the strange adventure of living while she drinks kombucha on the porch, or plans new homeschool units, or reads everything from Emily Bronte to Dave Barry to Betty MacDonald.
You can find her books and an occasional poem or some such at www.helenasorensen.com.
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I can’t tell you how grateful I am for this. From one slow learner to another…thank you.
Thanks, Alyssa! I’m so glad.
Beautiful post!
Thank you, Sally! So grateful for your insight and encouragement!
Helena! This is so lovely.
Thank you, Gina. 🙂
Ahh this is great. I can relate.
And for what it’s worth, a little string of lights in a dark corner does wonders. 🙂
Thanks, Jen. I think I need to dig through the Christmas boxes and pull some out……
Helena, that is lovely! Now that my children are adults, there are so many do overs I wish I could have. So I always love to see parents learning & making changes while there is still time. Make the most of the Time Left to tip the balance of items on the do over wish list that can happen once they are grown and gone from home.
Gina, thank you for the encouragement. I feel like I’m climbing the steepest learning curve in the history of civilization. But maybe all parents feel that way. 🙂
This is great! My mom and Grandmother are great at this kind of thing. We grew up surrounded by beautiful things. They made up the fabric of our habitat. Have you seen Mark Sprinkle’s Wheaton lecture ‘Making Sense: Art and the Gospel’? In the last segment of the talk he hits on this idea of being intentional about our surroundings like this. Thanks for the post!
Matthew, that lecture sounds so appealing. Thanks for reading, and thanks for the recommendation!
This is lovely, Helena, and a great reminder. I’m still figuring out how to make our sterile apartment home and I’ve avoided buying things like baskets for books because it seemed like waste. I mean, I have a ton packed away back in Michigan. Why get new ones? But instead I’m frustrated with not having a place for books, or shelves for a few homey touches. I think the investment is worth it (and doesn’t have to cost much).
It must be so difficult to decide what’s worthwhile to spend money on when you’re in a transition stage. Jon and I have moved five times since we got married, and I think that’s been part of my struggle. It’s like I’m just holding my breath, waiting for the day when we finally settle down.
I think that nails it, Helena. We needed a simple bookshelf, and while we could have one made that would probably be lovely, we knew we wouldn’t be able to move it down the road. Simple IKEA types were nowhere to be found, so Kraig figured out how to make one from chipboard we found at Home Depot. Believe it or not, though, the results are nice and definitely add a homey touch. …Now if I could find lampshades for two lamps I got for cheap….
Helena, this is so lovely! It makes me feel legitimate about decorating again, instead of frivolous. It also emboldens me about putting white Christmas lights over my bed.
Thanks, Bethany! Based on what I’ve seen, you’ve totally got this. 🙂
Aww thanks friend!
I find this article confirming and inspiring. I have a strong anti-clutter drive and it sometimes takes too much precedence over building a space to foster relationships and imagination. I also recently purchased a rug (bright blue and squishy) for our hardwood living room/nursery/play room floor. It’s a small space but it feels more homey and all the kids love to lay on the rug and play on it. When my sister in law lived here she painted blue sky and white swirly clouds on the ceiling. It makes this room so fun to be in.
Sounds delightful, Wendy! I’d love to see it.
Yeah for pretty things! This was so wonderfully written, Helena. Thank you for sharing your journey, because even though I gravitate to pretty things, sometimes I struggle wondering whether they are spiritual enough… wouldn’t there be a better place for my money/time/effort? But no. My kids only get one chance at childhood, where they soak up what their world is “all about.” (And all of our visitors get a few, precious moments to spend in our home as well.) I want them to know the beauty of flowers in a vase, as well as the beauty that comes from giving them away to someone else.
A must read book on this topic!: Edith Shaeffer’s The Hidden Art of Homemaking: Creative ideas for enriching everyday life.
She does a beautiful job of walking through the Bible and looking at why we respond to the little touches of beauty we put in our homes and give to others. I was so encouraged reading it 🙂
Just put it on hold at the library. Thanks for the recommendation!