Function
In the last post I introduced you to the creative
power of choosing how we want our homes to feel,
rather than how we want them to look. Don't fret that I might not care about appearances. I do. I could never create a home I loved without caring about the
way it looks. One of my favorite quotes is from Winston Churchill:
We
shape our dwellings,
and
afterward our dwellings shape us.
I dipped into the vast world of internet research on
this quote to find other’s ideas about it. Here are a few:
- “Be careful what you have designed….” ~Felicia
- “…it will shape us, so make sure [it] is shaped well so we will be shaped well too.” ~ Yasmin
- “As a designer…this quote hints at the truth that within the oft-perceived “superficiality” of design is the very real affect an environment has on the people who dwell in it—for better or worse.” ~ Moorea Hoffman
- “… the circle goes on and on…” ~Auriani
- “…how can a home be a haven when the room in which you spend a significant portion of your time is working against you?” ~Morrea Hoffman
Looks matter immensely. But before we dive into how
our homes look, I want to help you build a solid foundation. Over many years of
personal working, research, learning, listening, studying, reading,
experimenting and experiencing, I pulled together what I had learned and then shaped
it into a succinct triangle—a great foundation. Let’s look at common forms
using a triangle:
- A common milking stool in the olden days had three legs for stability.
- Children learned to ride on three-wheeled tricycles.
- The basic number when designing and decorating is three.
My designing and decorating philosophy begins with the
number three as well—with three foundation walls creating a home to love. The
foundations are:
Feelings
Function
Flow
If you skip one foundation you’ll witness the other two collapse. The previous post touched on choosing
your most desired feelings in your home. Today’s post introduces function.
Unlocking
GREAT function requires three keys.
1.
Physical
functions of the home.
2.
Personal
and lifestyle function within the
home.
3.
Feelings
or emotional functions because of the
home.
FIRST:
The physical function of our homes.
True story: One evening I heard and felt a “whump.” I crawled
out of bed to investigate. I searched each room in my home, but
found nothing. By
chance, the following morning I opened the French doors leading into our formal
living room, the only area I hadn’t checked. A huge chunk of ceiling had fallen
down in one soggy heap onto the loveseat and carpet. Scattered everywhere like
a mini-bomb had detonated was damp blown-in insulation. Restoration work took
over our lives for several days as an unknown roof leak and the ceiling and
walls were repaired.
Every feature in our homes, from our roof to our
foundation and whether the soil beneath it is affecting us is included in the
physical function of our homes. Just
have your furnace die in the middle of a snowstorm in January, or your air
conditioner quit on the hottest day in August, and you know first-hand the
importance of function. We had a water heater leak, and we were not only required to
replace it, but also needed to dry out the adjacent bedroom, including
the carpet, if we wanted to prevent mold and further damage.
Replacing appliances, making repairs and basic maintenance
keep our homes functioning. Whether we like it or not, or whether we do the
majority of the work ourselves or hire it out, functioning homes need attention
now and then. Sometimes more than we’d like to invest.
The home we’re currently planning isn’t designed
specifically for us. Most people are like us and don’t have that luxury or
option. Sure, I’d love many features I won’t have, but the budget won’t stretch
that far. The final product will have the feelings we want, rather than all the
features. Despite that we expect it to function beautifully, but not because we raided the
piggy-bank.
Perfect function, or great function, requires
sacrifice from time to time, and also decision making. Even without
top-of-the-line appliances and other features, our homes can still be
“perfect.”
Perfect is a feeling, not necessarily an absolute.
While on this point I want to say about ten times, or
maybe 20, “Don’t let anyone—not friends, family, strangers, sales people,
builders, designers, decorators, magazines, Pinterest, or anyone else make you
feel bad if you can’t have every single dream you want in your home, or even a new home or bigger home or better home. Love
yourself and respect yourself enough to make the decision to say “NO!” if a
different choice will stress your family budget, create friction in your
relationships, or require you to work more or longer hours when you’d rather devote
that time to yourself, your family, your marriage, your hobbies, your talents,
your commitments, or your life!
Got that? You don’t need $50,000 of appliances in your
kitchen when you can only afford $5000! You don’t need $5000 in appliances if
you can only afford $1000! You can function happily despite the picky relative or
gushing friend who tries to convince you otherwise.
So, having a functioning home matters, but it’s not
the only element of functioning that makes a home pleasant.
SECOND:
Personal and lifestyle function within
the home.
I taught my kids and little Grands how to get onto and
off the kitchen counters because my lifestyle included them actively involved in
the kitchen. Part of functioning in my home includes keeping a
stool handy and only a bare minimum of decorative or useful item on the
countertop, providing more room for little helpers and learners.
Each individual and family has their own needs and
preferences when it comes to personal function in a home. Because life isn’t
stagnant and constantly changes, the functions of our family will change as
well. If we set strict, unbreakable and unbendable rules for how our home
functions, we may become frustrated and hate the space between our outer walls.
Sometimes my husband has complained, “but I like
things the way they are” when I suggest a project. It’s happened enough times
now that I know it is coming and I prepare for it when planning something. I use (kind) persuasion and
allow him time to digest the change and accept it. Some of the changes we’ve
made include adding a laundry chute, moving a stairway, adding built-in
shelving, fencing the yard, building and hauling in sand for a sandbox,
increasing the number of electrical outlets on the main floor before finishing off the basement,
etc. The final results have created a better functioning home (which he thanks me for later).
But, I don’t get every lifestyle function I ask for.
Sometimes the budget gets in the way, and other times something less involved
will work well enough.
Look at your resources and lifestyle, then make the
best decision you can with what you have to help you and your family function
as best you can within your home.
Love your home and persuade it to feel the
way you want it to so you live in it the way you want to.
With each home we’ve moved out of, part of the reason
for leaving has included a lifestyle function change. None of them have been
because the house no longer functioned. Not one of them has burned down, been
carried off in a tornado or washed away in a flood. Those reasons would have forced
our evacuation because our home no longer functioned at all. Sometimes not functioning well enough has made us consider changes when we couldn't make it work for us.
Some of the possessions we think we need, décor we
think we have to have, or spaces we think we deserve are really illusions. We
can do so much more with what we have than we sometimes think. What we actually
need to focus on is making what we have function for us as best as we
can—making our space as wonderful as possible while we live there.
THIRD:
Feelings or emotional functions because
of the home.
Winston Churchill said it succinctly:
We
shape our dwellings,
and
afterward
our
dwellings shape us.
What we create matters. Profoundly. It impacts our
lives in more ways than we can imagine.
I had a friend with a beautiful curved stairway
leading to the second floor from her front entry. She loved decorating each
step leading up and down with holiday and seasonal décor--packing each step, actually.
After visiting her one afternoon I returned to my home and found my beautiful
stairway appearing bleak and boring. For several day I stewed about my lack of
crafting abilities, lack of flexible spending money, lack of creativity, lack
of everything because of my
plain-Jane stairway. Then it hit me. I had four sons and a daughter forever racing
up and down my stairs. Honestly, did I want them continually knocking a tiny
elf or bunny or sparking star-spangled decoration down each time they passed?
Did I want to always caution them, scold them, and beg them to be more aware, or to
reposition, not damage and replace things? My husband and I lived upstairs as
well. How about scolding him each time a tiny leprechaun tumbled to the bottom?
Exactly how happy would we be in that scenario?
Yikes!
As time elapsed I realized what I really wanted, and
it wasn’t cute and clever décor like my friend, but a more quiet, uncluttered,
family-friendly stairway. And that’s what I already had. All the envy I felt, and all the lack rumbling inside of me vanished and I once more loved my home.
The photo below, taken when temperatures were in the single digits, doesn’t even hint of the bleakness of winter you'd see if you were sitting in a rocker and looking outward, but it still suggests comfort and conversation. On a January day (notice there is no flower in the planter), that is this scene's purpose—to remind us that Spring will eventually return, and until that happy day arrives, all will be well. Those kinds of feelings, mixed with function, help us create a home we love.
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