My own home décor makes a huge difference in my life. It makes a difference in how I feel about my life, my accomplishments, myself as a person, my success as an adult.  My home is my sanctuary—it is the place where I seek refuge from the hectic pace of the world outside. This is the place where I feel the safest. Home decorating makes a huge difference in how I feel within my refuge. My personal décor includes items that I picked out myself, items that I inherited from my grandparents, are items that were given to me. Each piece of décor tells a story. The Thomas Kincaid butterflies hanging in my kitchen were a wedding present from my parents, the wall hangings in my dining room are actually a pair of old windows out of my grandparents’ home, the end tables in my living room were picked up at a garage sale and were sanded, stained, and distressed during one of my DIY phases.

Even the choices in paint color, carpets, types of tile, and hardwood flooring help tell my story. I have always gravitated toward cool and relaxing color palettes so most of my home but I chose to paint my kitchen a pale yellow because it reminded me of my grandma’s house where I spent a lot of time and its where I learned to cook. I updated all my bedrooms to plush carpets because I prefer to be barefoot in my home. I chose natural wood cabinets, hickory hardwoods, and wood tiles because I grew up in the country and they remind me of that. I have carefully crafted my living space with these items because they hold special meaning to me, they show me where I’m from, my creativity, my passions, and they represent different things in my life that have shaped me into who I am today. I work hard outside of my home so that I can have this refuge and so that I can continue to fill it with meaningful things. It is because of my home décor that I can come to a house and feel like I am a part of it, it is an extension of me—that is what makes that house my home. My home is my story; my past, my present, and my future.