Why Home Décor is Important

Remember the day you moved into your own space for the first time? The walls are empty, the carpets smell of soap from the cleaners you overpaid to shampoo it, and the whole place looks like promise- promise of happy times to come and perhaps a few too many late nights binging Netflix on your hand-me-down couch. After a while, you hang some photos, put together those Ikea end tables, and order a monogrammed cutting board from Etsy to display in your kitchen. Before you know it, walking into your home makes you smile. You are reminded of memories with loved ones when you pass by their photo, the sight of the new slip cover on your hand-me-down couch makes you feel a little fancy (it affirms that you’re better than that 1970’s floral print), and in general, there’s a place for everything and everything in its place.

Why does this process matter? The way we decorate our home is our opportunity to create the kind of space we enjoy, and it says a lot about our personality. Are you an extrovert, arranging as many chairs as you can so you can bring all your people together or an introvert designing the perfect reading nook? Everything from your choice of colors to the number of throw pillows you put on the sofa is an opportunity to create an environment where you and your loved ones will thrive and to make your mark. You can create a calming space with simple color schemes, a cozy and inviting home with warm tomes, or a bright and lively entertaining area with bold patterns. We think Deborah Needleman explains this idea best in her book, The Perfectly Imperfect Home.

The point of decorating, as far as I can tell, is to create the background for the best life you can have. 

Decoration can be life-enhancing. It can make dinner parties more fun, kids happier, relaxing easier, talks more intimate, guests at ease. And to think, decorating is often considered frivolous. Making a charmed and happy home is a noble endeavor.

The simple secret is making sure that every decorating decision contributes to the creation of beauty and comfort. Beauty to uplift our senses (to transcend the mundane) and comfort to make us feel taken care of (to embrace us in the mundane.)" -Deborah Needleman

Beyond expressing ourselves, home décor can affect us physically. Do you light a scented candle while working in your home office to set the mood for a productive day or keep a lavender scented sachet with your sheets so that they smell like bedtime? In an article for Scientific American, Rachel S. Herz, an assistant professor of psychology at Brown University, states that scents can affect mood and productivity based on associative learning. For example, people who worked in the presence of a pleasant-smelling air freshener reported higher self-efficacy, set higher goals, and were more likely to employ efficient work strategies than participants who worked in a no-odor condition. Read more on that here. 

Home décor is important because it can affect everything from our self-perception to our confidence and productivity. So, go ahead, buy that new throw pillow or piece of art if it makes you happy. You’re not treating yourself, you’re creating an environment in which you can be the best version of yourself!

Sachets by Room: 

🧖‍♀️Bathroom: Bee Happy

👩‍💻Living Room: Summer Romance

👕Laundry Room: Laugh, Love, Laundry

I was knee-deep in a bin of organized socks when I realized I was doing it again. Rage cleaning.

When I can’t control my worries with meditation or a good SSRI (praise be), I will indulge in a night of rage cleaning—wherein I feverishly tidy every corner of my home hoping to uncover some sort of calm and peace. Sometimes I feel better. Sometimes I feel worse. It’s almost always a sign I’m not managing my stress levels. And now that I’m talking about rage cleaning, I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

We all have little quirks we turn to when feeling a little (or a lot) anxious. Mine? Well, rage cleaning became the coping mechanism in my teenage years. Every time a stressor loomed, I would get into organization mode, sometimes taking it upon myself to organize my sibling’s rooms along with my parent’s kitchen. Once, I placed notes on everyone’s bedside tables outlining how we could all do our part in making mornings a little less hectic and chaotic. My parents thought it was cute (mostly because I wasn’t out getting tattoos—still a cardinal sign in their eyes). They saw and appreciated my gusto for self-improvement, but in hindsight, my propensity to improve and control myself and others came from anxiety and battered self-esteem.

It came from the expectations to win another national title; the pressure of maintaining a size zero pant size; the genuine struggles with ADHD I kept hidden from everyone. In trying to improve and control everything around me, I was just looking for an escape from the pressures of looming adulthood. Perhaps my inclination to control my surroundings was the beginning of an itch to “leave the nest,” coupled with a bit of teenage angst. Yet a little over fifteen years later, home (for me) needs to be a place where the external stressors of my world are required to wait outside.

I rage clean less today because I found a new way of dealing with the chaos of the world around me, and that is… being slightly obsessed with nesting and ALL things related to interior design.

In many ways, caring for your space is a form of self-care.

Our personal spaces are the ones that set the stage for our lives. They do not require a vision board or even a Pinterest board. And while removing clutter is a huge part of caring for your space, it won’t necessarily reveal the home you NEED, just the one you might think you want. While we can’t control much of anything in this world, we can control what our spaces do for our psyche and our time spent with one another. We don’t need a picture-perfect house or designer furniture to create a haven for ourselves. In fact, if you’re feeling triggered by what you don’t have as it relates to material things, it probably means it is time go inward and explore what you may need emotionally or physically at home to feel more at peace. Easier said than done, but it’s usually what I need when I start comparing my life to someone else’s.

We don’t need a picture-perfect house or designer furniture to create a haven for ourselves. In fact, if you’re feeling triggered by what you don’t have as it relates to material things, it probably means it is time go inward and explore what you may need emotionally or physically at home to feel more at peace.

So what does my personal haven from the outside world look like? It’s a place where it is ok to be as messy as I’d like, to cry as loudly as I please, to indulge in frivolity without guilt. It’s the place where my kids feel like they can be 100% themselves, and can also begin to learn their own tactics for self-care—like when they need alone time or a little nook that’s all their own. It’s having that spot on the couch where we have our hard talks and good fights. It’s where everything that really matters happens. And most of it is right within our four walls.

Start with what you cherish about your life that money can’t buy. Then build your home around it.

What I’ve realized as we prepared for our 2019 remodel is this: The care I put into my space is almost always a reflection of the care I needed myself. It’s a reflection of what I’m teaching my kids about advocating for their own needs, and recognizing that my space is their space. In a way, designing my home became a subconscious way to heal during the years I was in therapy, and the way I prepared to become the best mother I could be before the babies arrived. Today, taking care of my space is just another way I show my family I love them. And really, there isn’t one style, design aesthetic, or budget that can make that happen for you. It’s much simpler than that.

And speaking of love and simple pleasures, as I am sitting here writing this—hot coffee in hand and light streaming in from the windows—this song came on:

I’ll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today.
Staring at the fire for hours and hours while I listen to you
Play your love songs all night long for me, only for me.
Come to me now and rest your head for just five minutes, everything is done.
Such a cozy room,
The windows are illuminated by the evening sunshine through them,
Fiery gems for you, only for you.
Our house is a very, very, very fine house with two cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy ’cause of you and our—
La, la, la

Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.