A Peek Inside: Designing for Moments

The importance of curating beauty in the smallest of ways

image of layered flower pots with bright green and purple flowers with zinc patio furniture

Today I’m sharing my "moments of pause." Whether it is how the flower pots are arranged, or the colors of particular objects together, I work hard to curate beautiful moments among the chaos otherwise known as life.

When we finished our renovation 4 years ago (feels like a minute), we moved back to our long-time home in the midst of chaos. A week prior to the move, we had pulled both of our kids out of a private school that shuttered in turmoil just months later. While preparing and packing the night before the move, I had fallen on the ice so hard that I couldn’t even sit down. I powered through those 24 hours on Advil, but the aftermath was a huge mess. We were homeschooling, I could barely walk, and everything was packed in a box. We were buried and shell-shocked but in our lovely new home. We made the kids’ rooms a priority since their lives had unexpectedly been turned upside down just one week before, but so many things happened haphazardly in those first few months.

It wasn’t until just a year later, in March of 2020, when the world shut down, that I even began to think about really designing anything. Luckily I had ordered a few pieces of furniture, but beyond that, I had done very little.

I decided to start with the bookshelves surrounding the fireplace in the family room. They were nearly bare, and we looked at them daily since we were working between home and the studio with the kids out of school. I had a plan from the start that everything on the shelves would be light blue, green with touches of silver and black. I dug through boxes of books to find the right ones, and in case you are looking at the titles of my books, I also purchased books by color, so the titles are random. I ruthlessly edited and kept everything bright and clean. It wasn’t much, but it made the room feel so much more complete and helped to tie together some new and old furniture pieces. I love my bookshelves.

blue and green books stacked on a shelf with a silver wishbone on top

bookshelf styled with buddah next to blue books with quartz on top

And then it happened. Life. In the form of Legos and books, and random photo frames. Not just a Lego mini-figure, but a bright red VW Van with a pop-up roof, front and center on my pretty bookshelves. I sometimes still try to keep them looking organized. I have moved the VW multiple times. It always seems to find its way back. Overall, the look is there, but things have a sneaky way of creeping back in. Lest you think I'm just kidding, here is the red VW.

red and white lego VW bus

I realized that between cost, supply chain issues, and red VW Vans, I had to design for moments. I needed to have places in my home that don’t get mucked up with daily stuff, and that just feel good when you see them. I call them “moments of pause” because it is nice to stop and just enjoy them for a moment. I still say we are not done, as a home is an ever-evolving project. But for now, there is enough joy to outshine the Legos that appear on shelves and the random figurines that spawn on my kitchen windowsill occasionally. Don’t get me wrong, I love a Lego as much as Will Arnett, but I had other things in mind when I started this process.

image of a carved and painted wooden horse in front of silver geometric wallpaper