What Does “Home Decor” Mean?

If you’re working class like yours truly, you buy what you can afford, which is not necessarily what you would choose if you had choices. I’ve had items that were rescued from curb sides. 🙂 Fortunately, I inherited most of my furniture from family members. It’s emotionally mnemonic, and establishes a sense of place, history, and connection. My surroundings are “shabby” in the world’s eyes, but it feels comfortable and meaningful.

You can sense it when you move out of a house, noticing just how empty a place can feel walking through a school hallway in the evening or an unlit office on a weekend fairground out of season it is usually bustling with life but how lies abandoned and quiet It’s easy to forget that most of your memories happened in places that are still around, the walls mostly unchanged, with even some of the same people, who carry on in your absence. But the world you once knew, and the people you still remember, have long since moved on, replaced by so many others who have passed through these doors. Every house is haunted— even if it was built from scratch and lived in for the first time. . The floorboards may creak with impressions of a beaming baby learning how to walk, the wind may rustle the bedspread—and make it whisper with old conversations. Most of the time, these impressions are mistaken for imagination. But the next time our imagination makes us perceive something puzzling or inexplicable… don’t think about the phantom that floats in the corridors. Think about the experiences that were borne, the smiles that were conjured, the beautiful memories that were summoned. Because we’re not alone.

My home is divided conceptually. My room is beach style designed with anchors, fish and beach signs. My brothers room is Japanese style made with anime posters, animated cats and Japanese imported figures. Our favorite living room is designed with romantism as my moms wish where decorated with yellow French styled wall lamps, ceiling plant vines and paintings. Well Im glad that our house is so lovely diversely divided. Thanks for the informative article.

You did it again and this time I’m even more astonished by the timing you have making articles that talk exactly about problems I’m currently puzzling about. When meeting with friends I’ve always been a person that went a lot more often to the place of others instead that people were drawn to stay with me at my home. As a child it didn’t matter much to me but now I live in my own appartment and meet new people but it seems that its starting to develop in similar ways as then. I think it’s clear that this is not because of obvious reasons as a hygiene problem but I maybe lack something subconsciously that makes my home look less like home for other people. Maybe it reflects not enough of myself because I didn’t spent enough time with my home but instead resided too much in the home of others. I’m glad that I am possible to gain experiences now freely in that matter and can think in new ways thanks to your guiding. Thanks a lot! Again!

Home is your true safe place, its were your loved ones are, its an extension of your soul, its your family castle, its the one place where you dont have to put up with strangers BS, and its the one place you could truly be yourself with out judgment, i wouldn’t care if everyone had way more then i ever could as long as i could have my home ill be happy

Nails it! I’ve had a few different homes, from single family houses to apartments where I live now. As long as I have my books, my art since I’m a professional artist/composer, my piano which I’ve had since I was eight, a couple of plants and fresh flowers and a fireplace even an electric one and a kitchen to cook healthy meals in plus my two cats, I’m happy! Along with my grandchildren and my adult children now grown with homes of their own, “home is where the heart is”! My youngest is a real travel bug who is finding out now like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, “there’s no place like home”!! Thanks for sharing~

I absolutly love this. As a young adult, I often worry about the pulls of a materalistic world where I am sucked in, buying and improving its own sake. This really helped me separate that needless presure from an inherant part of the self that supports me developing, learning myself and gowing. My home is my grounding, my sacred place. I will grow, I will change, and I will need to “buy” things to reflect that. If I view the buying as a reflection of my growth, rather than a conciquence of a capitalist marketing mechanism, then change and improvement is a concious effort rather than an impulsive, subconsious (and potentially unsatisfiable) urge.

I couldn’t have found this article at a better time. I’ve realized my home is a representation of my inner psyche and I can almost always see my struggles reflected in the rooms I live in. My whole life i have existed in a space, and I never had a space that was truly mine. Even after marriage I saw my house as mainly my husband’s and I just existed within to tend and keep more like a maid (severe codependency inherited in childhood, not an overbearing spouse). But I’ve come to realize I desperately want to find my true identity and express it in my home, and create my desired environment, and that in itself shows that I’m on the path of gaining confidence and learning who I am.

“It’s not a house…it’s a home.” -The Castle. The Castle is an Australian movie about a family that lives next to an airport. The airport is going to expand. So the government is paying families to move out of their house. But one man says “no.” His house looks like a mess of do it your self projects. But it’s what makes his house a home. I won’t tell you the rest. I suggest everyone watch this lighthearted movie “The Castle.”

This is so amazing. I had not in my head but home designs before I logged in Youtube and this was on my recommendation. I finally thought I may see something in this website which will not make sense or uncool. But it turns out to be another very smart article. It makes a lot of sense and it’s not stuff you see on cringy memes or cheesy articles.

I just keep my home as simple and neutral as possible. Like a blank canvas. Muji-esque but simpler. No color except natural beiges and browns. No photos. No posters. No pictures. No trinkets. No flowers. Just two small stems with hardy leaves. Every piece of clothing can match with every other piece. Every dishware can be matched with another. That way, I remain untainted by my own emotions and biased perspectives, and am always ready to travel long-term and absorb the good things from other cultures. I’m a minimalist.

Hmm ok so I like this article, but I will say that the objects in my home do not reflect much of anything about me other than that I will allow my partner to select things to acquire based on how readily available or easy it is to acquire. When I eventually build a tiny home however, I will most certainly make my home exactly how both my partner and I want and then this article may feel relevant to me, but for most people, I think that they have little to no choice in their belongings or otherwise household items. I think that a home is what you have described but furnishings and items are probably not as close to your description for most people. Great content as always!

At this interesting age, hovering at three quarters of a century, I’ve engaged with a studio space. Because I’d lost most of my previous possessions such as they were, I’ve had a new chance to clutter a small space that drives most people wild with a lot panic. I’m undaunted. The decisions of placement have been, to this Virgo mind, logical and beneficent to the humble tasks and pleasures of bachelorhood. Though I mount efforts to paint and play music, the garden i husband and continues to expand is delighting in accumulating real estate. This is a shift from accommodating guests and the thousand dinner parties et al. This is more in the mode of a Yogi’s cave. There are risks to entering this sanctum. I quite like that. This is no longer set to please in the usual ways I’d emulated before. No. This is for the soul. For depth. For ease of function. Eclectic beauty. Well, you asked…

My home is like a walk through my brain, what I think about and how I feel and is emotionally important to me. I get quite a few comments about my ‘great style’ which are nice but it never occurred to me whether it’s ‘stylish’ as I created it just for me not anyone else. Meaningful gifts/items from my travels, art/books and comfort, art I’ve created or friends have. I have a special dislike of ‘cookie cutter’ bland ‘good taste’ homes that tell you nothing about the inhabitants, like a personality bypass/the fast food of decorating. I think a home is meant to be an authentic expression of self, even it’s a messy dump that at least feels real to me. I’ve been in some older people’s homes where nothing has changed since the 70s, like that point of their lives is trapped in Amber. I am fascinated by other people’s homes and what they tell me about them usually unconscious.

I don’t remember perusal this perhaps I wasn’t home I might have been in God’s garden or I could have been in his wine vineyards! I love my home… My home is so tinyyou throw a sock in the middle of the living room… It looks like a tornado hit my place! I went from my parents apartment to a one-room studio then a one bedroom and then a two-bedroom. And then I bought my home… And like I said it’s very tiny I have two bedrooms one bathroom and no closet. It is my home my peace my sanctuary my escape and most of all my isolation my world! If I lived in a cardboard I would make it my home as well and believe me I had been close to that cardboard box many times! 💓✌️ Without peace and serenity you have nothing! Namaste

Home is not where you live, but who you live with. When my wife and i were traveling, the longest we ever stayed in one place was like 4 days. We slept in new beds almost every night. But since we were together, that felt like home to me. When we came back to our actual house, i didn’t feel like we were “coming home” because i had been home the entire time we were in other countries. “A house is made of brick and stone. A home is made of love alone.”

Athena is the goddes of war, wisdom and negotiations. When she was born she sprouted out of Zeus’s head in full klad armor and spear. She favored the intelligent. Her devine counciling to Odysseus springs my favorite epic. Hestia is the godddess of hearth, home and architecture. She recieved the first offering of a new home.

I think commodity might aide you in solidifying your identity, but ultimately it is the wrong bet. Identity should be based on oneself, on one’s inner world, not based on outside material. They are transitory, one could argue the identity is transitory too, but the more you rely on your innerself, the firm your core will be. The ache we get to return to our homes when we sleep in the hotel at a friend’s place is independent of what furniture we have, and how is expresses our personality, but it’s just the familiarity we have with everything inside our home.

People nowadays fill their homes with how they want to be perceived. Following the trends. The desire to be normal, or ‘different’. Everything is shouting in society nowadays. From shallow opinions,tattoos, clothes to interior design. Many people have become generic (but perceived as ‘being different/alternative’) brands. Promoting that brand everyday on IG,Facebook etc..also by how showing how they filled their home. But what happens when all those shallow fractions of shallow identity is broken down…..

Art is life. I love this!! I had all these superhero dolls and collections of religious artifacts and my ex wife asked why I kept them in my basement room when no one was ever going to see them? And I said it was to remind me who I am. So this article rocks. I believe that this has more meaning than anyone suspects… 🥰

Hate my home. Everyone keeps their stuff from the past and took up the entire space in the house. We have way too many drawers and cabinets filled with unworthy stuff. In the end, those stuff are usefull, have no values, and becomes garbage. They all out, it’s just me and my mom in the house and makes me want to get rid everything just so we can have a fresh new environment in the house.

This is a really refreshing article on an interesting topic. I’m a big fan of The School of Life, but lately I’ve found your articles seem to be rehashing old ground just under different titles; how, in love, we need to remember that we are all children; how we should be conscious of how childhood experiences affect our adult lives. But this article focused on something else entirely and I really appreciated it.

Seriously? For me every object in my home has to have a purpose and a function. No decorating stuff just because it looks good. I hate wasting my time dusting and cleaning stuff around the house. What’s the point of having plants in the house when you travel a lot and don’t have the time to take care of them? They end up being more a source of stress then something that contribute to your well being. Besides, I have a toddler and I’d much rather let him blissfully play football in the living room and entrance hall (with a soft fabric ball, just because of the noise) without any fear he might break a precious object then constantly stress over material possessions and constantly forbid the kid from behaving like a normal kid (who obviously doesn’t always obey when you say “don’t do this”).

Thank you for this article and the philosophy. This article has a strong impact on me, considering I am in the middle of moving our family furniture across cities to a new ‘home’. As a person who has always lived a life in rented houses, shifting every two years, the only thing common among the family is the old furniture that we move around everytime we shift, within and across cities. I had reached a point of frustration with moving furniture around, considering it’s bulkiness but I have lately realised that there is a strange connection to the way I have been brought up to the furniture that was part of the home.

Interesting. Many many years ago, a medium told me that I was also a medium, easily capturing energies, feelings, thoughts. He saw me catching my breath and as an example, he told me that when I walked into someone’s home for the first time, it spoke to me, it told me who the owner was, how the people living there thought, functioned, what drove them. It was the first time in my young life that someone explained to me what I was often experiencing, as if I had antennas picking up signals. It is true, a home is a reflection of who we are, a portion of our soul resides in it even when we are away, thus our longing to get back to it. But when we are no longer comfortable at home, when getting home weighs on us, we should listen and heed the feeling. It could be a call that it is time to move on in one’s life.

Tme, home is whereaoI can seek refuge from the world. I love the feeling of walki g in the frontdoorand slamminit shut, to blot out the external reality. I don’tcare what others think about how my jome is on the inside because only I live there and I receive no visitors there, other than authorised persons eg Police etc, showi proper authority. I entertain anybody I wish to see in other locations eg neat prim cafes etc. Because how I choose to live does not appeal to most, but this is my life I aliving, not theirs and they haveno business passing judgement ortelling me how I should live my own life, in mowprivate space. Though I do respect theirdesire for neatness, order etc. So, we meet in a cafe or other public space. Taccommodate their need, without it interfering with my need for privacy and my way obeing and living. Which is a forrm of creatively chaotic order, but no obvious rubbish, trash everywhere or things I am certain I will never ever need again and I do not tolerate dirti ess, though useful clutter is OK. Preferably nicely stacked, organised etc. But thisinot always possible and have more important priirities than to put everything ialpha numeric order and stick colour codednIsstickers etc on everything so I catell that a toothbrush is a toothbrush and anjar of coffee is a jar containing coffee etc, like many women with nothi better to do around the house like to obsess abiut eithe pantry. Though, if it were, say, a chemical laboratory or government office etc, it would obviously be important tdo such things as order and labethings correctly, organise them etc.

I decorate with my 🎸 guitars, keyboard, tools and camping equipment, kitchen tools displayed, I toss things I don’t use or think i may need, a few books of reference and some favorite classics, research etc. I have 3 chairs, two for guitars (no arms) one lazyboy. I have my bedroon as a storage room and food pantry. Other equipment, music displayed on shelves. It’s pristine and organized. I’m pretty happy with this set-up.

If you’re poor enough, you’ll just accept any house with any working mismatched furniture. Decorating your own home only works if you had money for the furnitures. That’s my entire life. I’ve never had the luxury of decorating my own bedroom or something as simple as choosing the color of my bedroom wall. I even sleep with my mom and sister in one room up to several years after I finished high school. Now I had my own room but my sister would snatch it when she’s going back home (she’s recently working in another city). I’ll sleep the living room when she’s home so basically I’m bedroomless. The reason she has the right to snatch my room is because the house is under her name. My sister and my mom (now deceased) are the one who joined their money together to buy a house for the rest of the family because her firstborn aka me is such a huge failure. I swear if I had money 99,9% of my life problems would be solved

Home is… where we feel safe enough let down our mask and be ourselves. We can be as slouchy, lazy, crotchety, eloquent or religious as we like. Chairs and couches are outside things that someone else made – for the purpose of selling them, not particularly for US, there are probably hundreds of similar chairs / couches/ houses that look basically like ours. But. They are NOT ours. They don’t smell the same they don’t creak the same they don’t have that particular little cushion that has to be – there, just there – for our sore back/ hip/ shoulder. Our furniture is not us, it is part of our lives but it is not us… The above article concentrates totally on the physical things that make a home – but – isn’t our home really what we IMAGINE and NEED it to be? Like our head that contains our thoughts, fears and wild imaginings, Our Home contains US, plus our loves, hates, annoyances and yearnings.. Our home is a spiritual need trapped where we are.

“Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct. If I saw something clever like the coffee table in the shape of a yin and yang,I had to have it. I would flip through catalogs and wonder, “What kind of dining set defines me as a person?” I had it all. Even the glass dishes with tiny bubbles and imperfections, proof they were crafted by the honest, simple, hard-working indigenous peoples of wherever.” Fight club

This is very thought-provoking to me. I have been trying to define what is home and why do I need it. Though, I do not like hotels at all, due to it being a shared personal space with strangers, many strangers. So, I do not stay in hotels unless required, such as a business trip. I spent two years traveling, which I was glad when that ended. I eradicate all my stuff except what was needed for my RV. Now, I am opening a factory. And when I first started to buy stuff for myself that was not packable, it felt odd. Why did I need these things? Why was I buying them? Was I just conforming? Yes, it did feel comfortable to sit on a large couch, but I had plenty of those, yet, I bought another to put in 2nd space where I had created a seconded office next to my sleeping quarters. Did I really need more than a bed and a food preparation area? Did I really need a food prep area? I decided I was, in fact, uncomfortable with dining out or ordering in for every meal. I still debate over the food prep area. It seems more a hassle than it is worth. I am still challenged at why I need more than a bed and a desk. This article. Really help shed light on that need. Thank you.

My home, the latest one, is too small for me and my stuff. My little memory invokers. I finally feel Home, here. I actually have hung up my few Family pictures, and other special things that have meaning to me. But, not ALL the other special things made it up to the wall. Only some. The last time I hung my Family pix, was during my 1st LTR of 16 years, first, in our apartment, then, in the Home we were buying out her brother for his half. And I don’t remember that I hung those pictures since then, until 3 years or so ago, when I moved in here alone with one older Cat, Benny. I didn’t like this place at first. And its quite small/crowded for me. But, I’m still grateful to be here, and I’m beginning to love living here. As for a place to qualify to be Home for me, it must have a certain amount of clutter. But not dirt or filth under the glorious clutter. And I must be able to have at least one animal/pet to take care of. So. I must be home!

At 48 years old I bought my first and forever home. Complicated life lived so far well and hopefully long…adopted as a 60s scoop kid in Canada (Google that) and so I have never had a long term home…until now. Lived in for 5 years now. Longest I have lived in my homelands this time…7 years. Never decorated. Had a breakdown when deciding on flooring….because flooring would last for up to 25 years and that put into frame what commitment is…I have 3 different flooring upstairs. I painted my bedroom a deep green. My living room red and golden yellow. Bought furniture to match. Bought a “good bed”. What home has meant to me has always been a safe place…for all that enter which I did not have growing up. Now am protective of this space. Plenty…too many perhaps plants. 2 cats and a dog. It has two living spaces…one in the basement that I have renovated as a step out the door for my children to move into as they move away. It’s alot of work but I have the rest of my life to make it what I hope it to be. I’m sad though it took me this long to have and hope my children continue to have a different experience than I did.

Thanks for putting this together. Very well stated. I wonder how many people don’t live in THEIR Home ? I wonder how many people live their lives in Other people’s Home, or idea of Home ? I wonder how many people just survive in a structure or a roof over their head, a dry floor and a warm enough room. Thanks again for your article.

I definitely agree! I guess process of how you design your home also says a lot about one’s personality then.. Last year i moved with my boyfriend and it took me months to settle down, buy all the furniture etc. Bc I couldn’t decide on anything at all.. What does this show then? My personality is not fixed yet or so? 🙂 we broke up after a year.. home is where i feel i belong to, well, some kind of a feeling; family…

What a really limited view of ‘home’! It’s often just what will fit in the space according to what we need to do! A huge measure of home is reflective of economic status. There are SO many other things you could say about home… why limit just to choosing furniture and decoration? Seems like a really consumerist oriented view.

I love decorating a new home, but it’s important to try to have at least a few key things you can carry forward from your previous homes. I love looking around myself now and seeing things from all the countries I’ve lived in our even visited, and also the US states I have lived in too. Even though I’ve moved a lot, and my current home has only quest room and foyer furniture from the home that felt most like “home” to me, I can find “the comfort of the familiar” in things like the leather journal cover that I’ve had for decades that I loved enough to cart with me across 10 different moves. Still, there is sometimes something unsettling about having newly furnished a place, especially after longterm travel. I was thinking the other day that I feel like I’m living in an Airbnb right now, even though it is my home, because I bought all new furniture. I’m already used to where everything is. I’m just not used to WHAT everything is.

you said ” they understood that without architecture we forget what we care about and who we are” ( if i understood right). and i think maybe architecture create identity? i forget things i care about when i leave home, when i go hiking for exemple, and the furniture is reduced to the minimum vital and hygienic needs, and i don’t miss home, i feel like belonging to everywhere and everything. and i know we are very keen on naming things, so we create ourselves tones of identities for exemple, hey i.m frenche ( that’s for my bad english sorry), i.m a woman, i.m vegan, i.m a mum, i.m lebanese and brasilian from my parents, im antispecist, im “ecosocialist” or so, but none of that is reality, since i.m a fluctuent thing…

You forgot about the money factor – my home has boring furniture and whitewashed walls, not because I am dull and uninspired, but because thats what my landlord decided and i’m neither allowed to change it, nor do I have the money to do so. The level of personalisation you suggest is for rich people.

I can never understand the purpose of Interior Desgners for personal spaces.The outcome is always cookie cutter flavour of the day and lacking personality. To think they get paid is mind boggling as they have no idea what they are doing. It is all a scam. Look at what they declare as outdated the following the year . You guessed it, the same the design they just gave you.

I have known, and known of, a few people who got caught up in the craze for downsizing and decluttering. All of them regretted it and at least two were desperately unhappy at what they had done. They appeared to be grieving. I am not a hoarder, but I do have a fair bit of stuff because I have a wide diversity of interests. Books, art, tools, gear of all sorts for different projects etc. Furniture I like. Also a variety of objects from my parents. Objects collected as mementos of life events, gifts given out of love. Being a trained visual artist a lot of it has aesthetic, cultural and historic qualities that appeal to me. It also evolves over time with non important things being discarded. The several thousand books collected over a lifetime are a record of our intellectual and cultural development. They are ready to hand to when when renewal of spirit and refreshment of knowledge is needed. I don’t think I would be the same person without them. Our home is tidy and ordered but a bit cluttered. The house itself is very ordinary. It is what is in it and what we do in it that makes it home. My wife has similar tastes and feelings. In a world beset by problems our home is a haven and our ‘stuff’ is a reminder of who we are, and, most of all it speaks of our values. It is a sort of a social statement as well. It is also a statement of our character. It is source of comfort and renewal from where we can actively take on the world’s challenges with a positive outlook. This episode has it right.