Creating a WFH Sanctuary: Step 3
So far in our adventures of creating our WFH sanctuaries we’ve carved out our own special little spot, gotten ourselves as close to natural light as possible (plastered our faces against the window), added sunny accents for blah days, and started traveling through our noses.
We’ve made some pretty major progress!
Now, it’s time to talk about the actual design elements that make a sanctuary feel special.
3. Add Texture, Color, & Pattern
Feeling good right now may not be the easiest. Feeling fabulous among all the weird and scary is even less easy. You may even feel guilty if you feel too good knowing that a lot of other people just aren’t.
Try to remember that when you feel good, when you are able to offer up a smile, you help other people feel good too. It’s important to respect what others are feeling and going through and to have compassion and empathy, but it’s also important to focus on caring for yourself so that you can take care of others.
We can’t pour wine for our people from an empty bottle, friends!
So, we’re gonna keep working on our sanctuaries so that we can bring our very best selves to the world in order to help make it a little better for everyone else.
“A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.”
When a space makes us feel like we’re living our best luxe-lives, it’s because the textures and finishes somehow get inside of us and make us feel as amazing as they look.
Basically, what’s around us gets inside of us. Our surroundings leak into our brains and souls and if what’s around us isn’t that great, we start to think that we aren’t that great. Even worse, that we don’t deserve anything better. Eeep.
Think of how plush velvet, warm gleaming gold, crisp linen, soft cashmere, sterling silver, supple leather, shimmering-faceted crystal, and swanky acrylic make you feel. Somehow all of those textures and materials bring on all those good-life, lavish feels.
We’re gonna go on a little scavenger hunt and collect all the best, most cozy, and most luxe textures you’ve got for your WFH space.
Mission 1 starts with a hunt for luscious books…
You can buy books just cuz they’re pretty too. We won’t judge.
Dig out your favorite leather or fabric bound books, journals, or albums. Stack them, line them up in size order, or turn them backwards if you like the texture and the colors of the pages more than the spines. Amass a little collection because when the colors and textures come together, they’re going to create magic feels…
Pink pages? YES!
Magic feels like….
Warmth & Coziness. There’s just something special about books. The more you add, the more warmth and coziness you get. Adding books to your decor is like adding a fireplace and hearth. No one really knows why. They’re just magic like that.
Abundance. Seeing a collection of something you love tells your brain that you have plenty. It’s calming to see that you have plenty of anything in hard times. Except bills. Put those away! They are the devil! Anyway, your brain sees there’s no need to stress out about getting more. Even better, seeing that you have plenty and feeling like you’ve got enough to go around leads to sharing and sharing is how we all get through times like these.
Elevation. In the spirit of sounding like a quote on the side of a bookmobile, “books take us places!” Let the beautiful images, gorgeously triumphant stories of the people you admire, and the adventures of the bold bring you up and out of your own mind. To new thoughts that take you to new places.
Bust Boy says: “Damn. If books were dollars this betch be hella rech.”
Mission 2:
Go get your softest, coziest throw blanket, favorite sweater, plushest robe, and your prettiest vessel (vase, mug, glass, whatever). We’re going to make use of them in your sanctuary because they are things you love.
Take your favorite sweater and wrap it around a throw pillow. Hide the arms and bunchiness in the back. No one will ever know. You just got yourself a new throw pillow. It’s probably even a color you love.
If you don’ really have a place for a throw pillow in your WFH space, I guess your feet just got a promotion.
Next, we’re gonna drape your coziest, most luxe throw blanket over your shoulders, the back of your work chair, or across the seat. This is just to engulf yourself in that fabulous feeling of being draped in the luxury of comfort.
Since it’s probably inappropriate to wear your plush robe during conference calls, we’re gonna use it to create a plush throne for your tush. What office chair can’t stand a little more plushness? Got a silky robe? Those are just fab, drape that anywhere and you’ll feel like Beyonce about to go on stage.
Grab that beautiful vessel and fill it with flowers, if you can. Grocery store flowers, flowers from the yard, flowers ordered online, handmade flowers (tutorials online)...Wherever flowers can come from, they are always an excellent gift to yourself and your sanctuary. If flowers aren’t an option, how about pretty pencils? OR filling a little bowl with your favorite lipsticks, jewelry, rocks, whatever you can gather that is beautiful and full of colors that you love.
This is another trick to get you into an abundance mindset. Seeing a vase of flowers, a bunch of colors you love, a cup of pretty pencils or any vessel filled to the brim with things that make you happy is sure to stir up that feeling of plenty.
Another reason we’re going around, shopping your house, is because moving things around, shaking things up a bit will keep your senses stimulated. Since our scenery isn’t changing so often, we have to change it ourselves. Research suggests that we need a little sensory stimulation to maintain normal cognitive functioning. In other words, we have to stimulate our eyes and noses in order to not lose our minds.
Now that you’ve gone around the house and collected the best of what you love and put it all around you.
You’ve got your sanctuary decor!
I hope some pattern followed you into your WFH space because pattern is an excellent thing for your eyes to see. Especially patterns that go from dense to sparse and back again because the visual transition from dense to sparse has great energy. Kinda like how the contraction of breathing in and breathing out creates rhythm. Rhythm creates energy and we want all the good energy we can get!
Designer Tip:
Mixing patterns with varying scale and density and coordinating colors is how you mix patterns in a way that creates harmony.
Here’s an open, larger scale pattern mixed with a smaller, dense pattern…
Textuuuuuuure
Remember to treat yourself to the best whenever you can and that luxe-life feeling is sure to follow!
P.S. Don’t let my pretty pics fool you…That throw blanket is so old it has holes in it. I’m talking holes big enough to put my head through! But it’s so soft and has such pretty ruffles, I refuse to get rid of it. I guess I’m still five year old me refusing to get rid of my blankie…oh well.
Feels awesome to be five again!
And in case you’re wondering if I really NEED all those big pillows on that tiny bench….
Doing my best spring break imitation
…Why yes, I most certainly do.
Want to take your new WFH sanctuary that’s filled with all your best to the next level?
Dress like you own the place.
Because at home, you do.
That’s not always the case when you go into work. It is now. Use it.
Being surrounded by the beauty you chose and making the best out of things boosts confidence. Own your actions in your new WFH space and that will positively influence your productivity and quality of work.
That’s how things are better on the other side of this.
By bringing out your best you.
The next step in creating a WFH sanctuary has more to do with inner thought transformations than outer decor transformations, but they’re just as relevant to improving our WFH situations because INTERIOR design is about all that INTERIOR stuff.
Not just the decor stuff.
I’ll see you in Step 4!
Stay well!
Psst: The next post also has a giveaway in it!!! Eeeeeeeee!!! Who DOESN’T want a present right now???