6 September 2007

Changing rooms

This is the shambles that I call my sewing room storage. Soon I'll have much more room for my fabrics, cottons, yarns and ribbons. By next week, all this will be in a new place in another room.

We are reorganising our home again. Just when things seem stable and fixed, circumstances change and we modify our home to suit the new circumstances. In this instance we’re taking apart H’s office, which he used when we had the shop and it will soon be my new sewing room. My old sewing room will be turned into a small guest room. Now that we’re older, we seem to have many more visitors. I’m not sure if they think we have more time now, or if it’s because our sons have left home. Whatever the reason, I like the idea of family and close friends visiting and I like the idea of changing our home again. I love change.

This change got me thinking about how we express our individuality in our own spaces and how the character of a home changes many times during the stages of our lives. When we moved here with our teenage sons we needed bedrooms for them and one for us. Then we built an extension of our current bedroom and en suite, and our old room became a guest room. Later Kerry went to live in Canada for a year and H got his office. Shane moved out and I made a sewing room for myself in his bedroom. Now there is no further need for an office, I’ll move my sewing in there as it has much better storage and the former sewing room will be our second guest room. We are geared up for guests instead of teenage boys but it’s wonderful that our sons will continue to sleep in those rooms when they visit us. The first time the new set up will be used is when one of Kerry’s Canadian friends visits with him in a couple of week’s time.

These transformations, either complete room changes or smaller changes within a room, are what make your home uniquely yours. Over the course of your time in that house, especially when you have your children at home, your home will mold itself around you and change according to the needs of everyone in the family. The changes you make to accommodate your shifting family needs will give a cosy, lived-in feeling and provide a practical way to express your creativity and uniqueness. This is where the frugal talents of home sewing and crafts come in to play, as well as the ability to paint furniture and walls. Over time your changes make the house your home, instead of a show house, a copy of something in a magazine, your friends house or your mother’s. Creating your own home style piece by piece is one of the creative tasks we all take on – some do it with flair, some don’t, but overall as long as everyone is happy with their own efforts, it’s all good.

This is an Airedale tea cosy I made a few years ago. For some reason is was sitting in the sewing room waiting to be photographed.
SHARE:

6 comments

  1. I've enjoyed my time reading your posts, they are very useful. Thanks for sharing.
    Have a nice day.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post!

    When we bought our house, people said it was a great "starter" place, but that kind of shocked me. I plan to live there for fifty years or more, shifting things about as our needs change--just as you said. I'm glad I'm not alone in this thinking.

    Adorable tea cozy, by the way!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rhonda,
    I agree with you about loving change but sometimes it is tough. My oldest got married in June at a very young age and it was hard to have her leave our home. But now as I see her blossom and mature and I am seeing her more often than before it is great. I also love to change my room decorations to follow the seasons. We are coming upon Fall and this is my favorite time of the year. Enjoy your posts!! Keep up the great work. Hugs, Bobbi Jo-AZ

    ReplyDelete
  4. There must be something in the air - maybe it's Spring. We're in the process of changing things too but I seem to be making more mess than order.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm the same as Polly ~ creating a mess in the process of organising a couple of rooms. We have only lived in this house for just over 6 months and are still making it into "our home"

    ReplyDelete
  6. I absolutely love what you said about home cooking versus fine dining which makes for a cozy home.
    I am always afraid someone will
    try to change you and what you stand for.

    ReplyDelete

Blogger Template by pipdig