What Makes a House a Home?
January 21, 2010
Did you ever wonder why the saying “Home Sweet Home” isn’t “House Sweet House” ? I think the answer is quite obvious. The word “home” has a much deeper meaning that is far more intangible.
Like many of you, I spend hours looking through the pages of design magazines, loving the images I see. I save thousands of those images in my files. I get ideas from hundreds of sources and store them all away for inspiration. When I eventually get around to it, I incorporate little upgrades here and there.
One thing strikes me quite often whenever I swoon over fabulous designer spaces. Yes, they’re gorgeous. Yes, they’re mesmerizing. Yes, they make me long for a cleaner, more pulled together design in my own home.
Yet one thing is absent from all of those images, regardless of how perfect they are on the pages of a glossy magazine. Those images, those spaces, and those houses are just not home. A house is just four walls and a roof, but a home is made up of everything else inside.
A house may be decorated from floor to ceiling with the finest furnishings money can buy. But that will never ever make it a home. A home is a sanctuary. Home is comfort. Home is inviting. Home is a refuge from the world.
Home is cozy. Home is lived In. Home is a pair of shoes in the corner, a blanket on the sofa, books and magazines strewn about, and jackets and scarves on the hooks.
Home is coffee cups left on the table and beds left unmade.
Home is where you wear your coziest clothing with only comfort and never fashion in mind.
Home is where there are kids’ fingerprints on the windows.
And pet chew toys under the couch.
And pets who sneak up on the couch.
Home is where there is a junk drawer that needs organizing.
And laundry piling up.
Home is where you celebrate that there are messy piles everywhere.
Because those messy piles mean you have loved ones among you.
Home is filled with your favorite smells.
Be it soaps.
Or candles.
Your husband’s cologne.
Or freshly baked cookies.
Your momma’s banana bread.
Or your dad’s BBQ.
Home is a little corner of God’s green earth to call your own.
A place where you might steal a Sunday afternoon nap.
Laundry on a line or kids playing in the yard.
A tomato garden or a lettuce patch.
Roses that need pruning and a lawn that needs mowed.
Or maybe just a patch of weeds. But it’s yours.
Home is where you are surrounded by the simple possessions that make you smile and decorated with your favorite things. Home is filled with your personal touches and your sentimental collections.
Home is time spent slowing down. Sitting down. Lying down. Home is filled with the most tender touches.
Home is where you begin your morning, and where you meet your loved ones at day’s end.
Most importantly.
Unlike the gorgeous houses in glossy magazines.
Home never ever looks perfect.
What is it that makes your house your home ?
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Tags: definition of home
Thanks for posting this. It was just what I needed to hear today!!
Kate, that is the most beautiful, poignant, eloquent post I have read in quite some time. I am bookmarking this one for sure, as I KNOW I will need the reminder…probably sooner than later. Thank you for sharing your heart on this today. As you can see from the comments, your words were a blessing to many.
An AMEN to your post as well. It is easy to get caught up in the decorating and forget the tender moments we are creating in those spaces. Love the sentiment and the truths. Holly
I loved this!! So sweet, and soooo true! I have to show this to my husband when he starts complaining about the laundry piles. hahahaha…
I love your post
)) Thank you.
))
Wish you great Friday
xoxo,
Raru
I love this post! I definitely agree with you! I’ve always thought the same about this matter. Again, LOVE this post:) Have a wonderful weekend:)
How right you are. This is what I try to keep in mind when I throw my hands up in despair over the unfinished corners and dirty dishes that never seem to be all the way taken care of.
I loved this post! It rings so true. It’s easy to get just as caught up in the magazines (which I love) version of what our homes should look like as it is the magazines version of what WE should look like. It’s just not reality. I’m learning to love the little things that make my house a home and accept that it’s never going to look perfect. People (and pets) live here. People that I love more than anything. And, that is what makes my house a home.
Lovely images and beautiful words, Kate. My house is a home because it is filled with giggles, love and fun, Hubby and two little princesses!
Beautiful thoughts. Things that make my house a home: books in the middle of being read strewn about; toys tucked into unexpected places (like the wood box, the shoe basket, the snack cupboard); warm patches on the furniture where a dog or cat has been curled up for a few hours. I’m cozier just thinking about it.
I love this post, Kate. I was just reading a blog where they featured some photos of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Tribeca loft and thought “wow, that place is gorgeous, but it’s…tooo…perfect.”
I agree that home is a cup of tea on the table and your latest knitting project on the arm of your comfy chair. It’s a pile of books on the bedside table. It’s your husbands shoes by the back door bc he was nice enough not to slog into the house and bring mud in.
It is cozy and tidy, but lived in.
Lovely post. I couldn’t agree more with all of your examples of “home”. One thing that makes me really happy is seeing my cat and dog curled up or stretched out somewhere, in the house or out in the yard, completely comfortable and safe and content.
Ours certainly fits your definition of home. Thank you for helping me see it with new eyes.
Thank you for the sweet reminder so beautifully written.
What a beautiful article! And so appropriate for everyone! Home is exactly as described – I don’t think you missed a detail. Home to me is dolls on pillows on the floor covered in just cleaned towels; chairs pushed together with sheets over them to create a fort; my dog’s bones on the floor half chewed and chew toys waiting to be thrown; books on the couch next to the homemade blankets, coffe cups on the table and my sewing sitting ready to be picked up again! Add in the plants and I am a very happy, happy person! Thanks so much for sharing this- we all need this reminder daily.
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This is a beautiful post. You said it all. I’m in the process of decorating my townhouse fixer-upper. I finished the living room and my dear friend (Gil) who has shown great patience in trucking furniture, moving sofas, and nailing trim gave me one of the greatest compliments. He sat down in one of my Goodwill finds, two deep-blue velvet tufted wingback chairs, by the fireplace and said, “I like this, it’s cozy. It feels like home.”
I came here through Hooked on Houses and what a treat! Sometimes I come down on myself for not keeping my home in Show Home perfection – especially with a 2.5 year old, a six month old and a 9 week old puppy – but your post definitely brings perspective! Home is the pitter patter of little feet trotting down the hall, a page full of first scribbles hung on the fridge, too many shoes cluttering up the front entrance and a collection of house plants that are verrrrry thirsty (better go water them now, while I’m remembering).
Thank you for such a beautiful message – just what I needed to hear!
I’m visited from Hooked on Houses and am very grateful for that I found this. Thank you for your wisdom.
Wonderful words that don’t even need pictures.
Beckie in Brentwood, TN
You expressed this so beautifully!
This is why I get so sad when people tell me that they are not proud of their home. That it’s only temporary and not worth making it “home”. That they avoid having friends over because they are embarassed.
I have discovered that I am passionate about helping people make their house (even temporary or rental houses/apartments) a home. A place that nurtures you and helps you recharge. A place that reflects who you are. A place you happily invite others to share. A welcome home.
You are my new post crush! Post up today about what makes my house a home! Hope you had a great weekend!
I couldn’t agree more. This makes me think of George Bailey in “It’s a wonderful Life. ” He hates that newel post that always comes off in his hand, then at the end he kisses it! Home is like no place else on earth, even the finest hotel. I love my happy home! Thank you.
Oh, love your site!! White, white and more white!!! Love it!! so beautiful … yes, leave your door open!! thank you for letting me “dream” a few minutes!!
Pink Hugs,
Dee
you are right….
my sister has the most amaizing house but no one goes cuz she is alwas saing do not thouch the walls or dont use the table or the nice livingroom. i have a home its still under construccion. i still dont have a finished kitchen but i have familiy over all the time and they love it. when my home is all finished it will be a very worm home.
from ensenada MEXICO .thanks deanna