Aesthetic Over Everything

I was doom scrolling one night, and my algorithm knows how to get me because I LOVE a good home tour reel. After about 30 minutes of scrolling, I had a strange realization. All of these houses almost looked the exact same. They had a beige sectional, the same mirror in the corner, and a wooden table with a candle or books stacked on top.

I should start by being honest, I used to always want the staged home. There was a point where I only cared about aesthetics, and I would have been the first person to unfortunately buy the same beige couch. On Pinterest I had all those photos saved, and truly built a whole little life around the idea of having a house…but really never a home. The more I started thinking about how I wanted my life to feel, and not just look, I realized I could never have a perfectly staged home. We buy the nice things, and then spend the next however many years making sure nobody actually uses or messes up said thing. But the strangest part is who we chose these things for. When we really think about it, we chose it for a photo, or for the guests who stop by every now and then, but really it's all for the aesthetic of a life we aren’t even living. 

When I think about the coziest homes I've ever been in, there was always stuff going on and memories everywhere. You can walk through an entire home now and not learn a single thing about the person who lives there. The answer to "where did you get that?" is always Amazon or Target. Rarely does a house have anything handmade and they especially don't hold any stories. Houses have started to feel like a museum, and not a home. There are no walls filled with pictures and no fridges filled with memories…like a random magnet from a state you went to years ago. We clear away the only things that actually mean something, and replace them with things that match the vibe. Children won't remember the random art on your walls, but they will remember having their artwork hung up around the house or the fort on the living room floor.

Here’s the thought I keep coming back to...we're teaching children to be guests in their own homes, and taking away the potential for memories to be created. Now I'm not saying let your child make a mess everywhere… I’m just saying don't be so afraid of the mess! While I'm still in the season of collecting ideas in my head for my home, there is one thing I now know… I almost made the mistake of creating a house and not a home. The truth is I want a space that feels warm, cozy, and lived-in. I don't want to think about if something meaningful "matches the aesthetic." While it’s nice to make your home beautiful, it's also nice to look around a home and feel the love all around you. At the end of the day, the house was never the point… the life inside of it always was.

From my heart,

Hanna