Happy New Year y’all!  Do you make New Year’s resolutions?  Like drink more water, and lose weight, and finally organize the garage?  And why are pounds so easy to gain and so hard to lose??? 

‘Resolutions’ is such an aggressive word, it’s no wonder 92% of NY resolutions drop off the map by February.  I prefer to call them goals…that way I’m heading toward something instead of failing at something… 

And instead of resolutions for YOU how about a couple of resolutions for your HOME instead? 

These are smart ways to make life better this year, one room at a time…

Make your home a personal and welcoming place

I had one client describe this as, “I want it to feel like a warm hug when I walk in the door” 

Lighting

Create a welcoming environment with the right light. Yes, we all want a home with rooms flooded with natural light and beautiful views…very few of us are lucky enough to have even one of those and even fewer have that for every room.  And then of course, there are overcast days and after dark to consider even in the best possible situation. SO, light bulbs become an important ingredient in creating the mood you want.

Pro tip: overhead ceiling lights are the least welcoming and friendly light - save this for small spaces or work areas like hallways, kitchens, and bathrooms, and whenever possible add in other sources of light like lamps, pendants, chandeliers, or sconces as well. 

Rooms generally needed at least 3 different sources of light spread throughout the room to adequately light the space. 

Dimmers are you friend!  Being able to control the brightness of overhead lights and fixtures is critical to setting the mood you want at any given time.  And please note: LED light bulbs will need dimmer switches that are specifically made to work with them.  

Speaking of LED lights, do NOT be fooled into buying bulbs labeled “daylight”.  These have a higher Kelvin range (the temperature range that determines the color of light) and emit a mostly cool violet-blue light that is eerie, bright, glaring, and the opposite of welcoming. They are perfect if you are performing surgery.  Are you performing surgery at home?? 

If you need this really bright light intermittently for some reason (interrogations, finding a contact lens you dropped, surgery…) there are THESE smart light bulbs (#affiliatelink) that can be controlled for the Kelvin range you want at any given time.  If you are putting dumb 🤣LED bulbs in, choose 2700-3000K, especially for table lamps. THIS chart will help you determine what bulbs are best for what situation.

Room Inspiration

Just say no to copying catalog or showroom rooms.  Marketing works and these places are all selling the idea of a lifestyle - “buy this room and you will have this magical generic life”.  Taking inspiration from these places is fine, sure, it absolutely helps you define what your preferences are and offers some ideas to implement.  But there is a world of difference between a carefully staged photography project and real life.  

Your home should reflect YOU, what is important to your family, and how you live.  It should be PERSONAL - that’s what makes it a home! Catalog decorating is the opposite of personal and is, at best, lazy, and it inevitably won’t translate to your home.  

Falling in love with the Belgian linen sofa the size of Manhattan in a showroom with 20 foot ceilings and sales staff that fluffs the cushions every time someone stands up is not going to go well when you bring that behemoth home and shoehorn it into your family room with kids, pizza, and/or pets and a suspicious lack of furniture fluffers.  But it’s probably going to be uncomfortable and look horrifying in a year or two anyway so then you’ll have wasted your money on an overpriced and under quality piece AND have to find a way to dispose of the beast.  SOMEONE is funding those free catalogs the size of a phone book…and, *spoiler alert*, that someone is the customer.

Furnish your home responsibly and sustainably

Buy classics

If you choose classic style, you only have to choose it once.  Trends are interesting and every season there are trending new ideas in home furnishings.  Some of them will become classics, and some are just a resurgence in popularity or a new twist on a particular classic style. 

Adopt trends only if you love them and not just because they are trending. Honestly, almost anything goes in home furnishings these days.  So if you love it, go for it, but classics are classics for a reason.  

And by classics, I do not mean just traditional style.  Classics are, by definition, things that have stood the test of time and there are plenty of modern and contemporary classics too. 

Fads differ from trends in that they are quirky and usually extreme - like neon colors or exaggerated furniture lines.  Fads can be fun, but if you are streamlining your life, they are just another thing to have to get rid of in a year or two when you tire of them.  Try to choose fads for things that are small and easy to dispose of…like pet rocks…rather than fads like supersized bloated furniture.

For major furniture pieces, classics are, by far, the smartest choice.

Invest in quality

Just say no to disposable furniture and fixtures.  Most national retail chains have “value engineered” versions of upholstered furniture which they demand from manufacturers to be able to sell at a certain price point they have determined their customer is willing to spend. 

Value engineering is a nice way of saying they have to cut corners in the quality of the construction and the quality of the materials in order to make it cheaper to produce.  Value engineering may preserve the overall aesthetic, but has a shorter life span. These stores do have a vested interest in selling you stuff, after all…as often as possible. 

And the internet is an even riskier place to buy furniture - so much of it is knock-offs using stolen pictures from higher end manufacturers. 

This is true not only for upholstery but for plumbing fixtures as well - the identical faucet in the same style and brand at a big box store is less money than at a plumbing supplier not because that chain bought a boatload of them and got a quantity discount - it is less money because that buying power allowed them to demand a cheaper version with plastic guts in place of ceramic or brass, guts with a much shorter lifespan.

Buy the best and you only cry once…

Support local  

Local workrooms, furniture makers, artisans, and designers can create exactly what you need and deliver a high quality product often in less time than waiting for a large manufacturer with their historically long lead times right now. 

If you don’t want to or can’t have something custom built locally there are other options.  Finding pieces in antique and vintage shops, or on local FB marketplace and craigslist groups and then up-cycling them with new slipcovers, upholstery, finishes, or paint is an awesome way to get pieces that are uniquely you and most often higher quality than some piece of some-assembly-required new schlock from an online retailer.   

The bonus to all this is that by buying local, upcycling, buying quality, and buying classic, you are contributing to sustainability with less trucking and less furniture in the landfill!  And in the long run, making a smarter financial decision as well. 

Happy New Year from Our Home to Yours!