Curated Home | Create a Little Sanctuary of Your Own
I think one of the things many of us struggle with-whether we’ve just purchased a new home or have lived in the same one for forty years-is figuring out how to make a house truly feel like home. We decorate. We arrange furniture. We paint walls, hang artwork, renovate kitchens, and tend our gardens. But creating a home is about more than how a space looks. It’s also about how it feels to live there. And sometimes, rather than thinking about an entire room-or an entire house-a wonderful place to begin is much smaller.
One chair.
One corner.
One little space that feels entirely your own.
Create a Little Sanctuary
I love the idea of creating small sanctuaries within our homes-indoors or out-where we can step away from the noise for a little while. The television. Social media. Kids. Piles of laundry. A messy kitchen. Family members working from home. Our own home office and the never-ending list of things that need our attention. Sometimes we simply need a place to disappear for fifteen minutes.
A place to enjoy a cup of coffee. Meditate. Journal. Curate the day’s to-do list. Plan meals for the week. Listen to music. Read a few pages of a book. Or simply sit in silence.
And it doesn’t matter whether home is a 500-square-foot studio in the city or a sprawling ranch in the valley. A sanctuary doesn’t require an extra room. It requires a little intention.
Start With a Space You Already Have
Look around your home differently.
Is there a chair near a window that no one really uses? A forgotten corner of a bedroom? A spot at the end of a hallway? A covered porch? A sunny patch in the garden?
Even the smallest city balcony can become something special with a comfortable chair and a few pots filled with greenery. You aren’t trying to create another room to decorate. You’re looking for a place where you naturally want to linger. Maybe it’s a lived-in armchair with a lumbar pillow and your favorite cozy throw. Add a footstool and a small table just large enough for a book, coffee, or candle. Outside, it might be a chair tucked among the hydrangeas, with a birdbath or feeder nearby.
The point isn’t what the space looks like. It’s what happens when you sit there.
Make It Personal
Once you’ve found your spot, resist the urge to overthink it. Instead, bring in the things that make you happy.
A favorite pillow. A soft blanket. A candle. Books you’ve been meaning to read. Flowers cut from the garden. A beautiful pot. Something you’ve collected on your travels. Maybe a little table where you can set down your morning coffee.
These small details don’t have to coordinate perfectly or come from a designer showroom. In fact, I think they’re often better when they don’t. The most interesting homes are layered over time with things that carry stories.
My Summer Sanctuary
For me, during the summer months, my sanctuary is a big black wicker armchair and ottoman tucked into the garden. I knew exactly the style of chair I wanted, but I couldn’t find anything quite right in the marketplace. Eventually, I found one on Facebook Marketplace. It wasn’t perfect. But I could see what it could become. I brought it home, repainted it, added a comfortable cushion, a throw pillow and blanket, and made it my own. Now it sits among my pots, flowers, and birds. And somehow, the fact that I searched for it, found it, and brought it back to life makes the chair even more special.
It’s where I take my coffee, where I think, where I write. And sometimes, where I do absolutely nothing at all.
That’s probably my favorite part.
And Then the Seasons Change
Come winter, my sanctuary moves indoors. There’s a cozy armchair near a large window that I can open just enough to feel the crisp morning air-and sometimes hear the sound of rain-while I drink my early morning coffee. At Christmas, that same chair becomes one of my favorite places in the house. From there I can enjoy our Christmas tree along with three lighted birch trees framed by the large front window.
Same house.
Different season.
Different sanctuary.
And I think that’s part of the beauty of creating these little spaces. They can evolve along with us.
A Home Doesn’t Have to Be Finished
We spend so much time thinking about what our homes still need.
The room that hasn’t been remodeled. The furniture we’d eventually like to replace. The landscaping project we haven’t gotten around to—the kitchen we’d love to update.
But perhaps creating a home isn’t about reaching some imaginary point when everything is finally finished. Maybe it’s about noticing what’s already there.
The window with beautiful morning light. The corner nobody uses. The chair you’ve had forever. The flowers growing outside. The blanket you always reach for. The little things that quietly make life better.
Curating a Home, One Space at a Time
A home doesn’t become meaningful because everything in it is new, expensive, or perfectly designed. It becomes meaningful because we live there.
Because we collect things. Because we change things. Because we make memories there. And because, over time, we create spaces that support the lives we’re actually living.
So before you start thinking about the next big project for your home, perhaps start with something smaller.
Find one little corner. Make it comfortable. Bring in something beautiful. Sit down. Have your coffee. Read. Write. Think. Dream. Or simply enjoy fifteen quiet minutes away from the noise.
Consider it a small gift to yourself. You deserve a beautiful place to simply be.
A Curated Home Reflection
Take a walk through your home today-not looking for what needs to be fixed, updated, organized or replaced, but for what might already be waiting to become something more.
Is there a little corner of your home-indoors or out-that could become a sanctuary of your own?
Sometimes creating a home that feels better doesn’t begin with changing the whole house.
Sometimes it begins with one chair.
About Curated Home
Curated Home is an editorial series from Rick & Suzanne Bell exploring the thoughtful details that make a house feel like home—from creating meaningful spaces to living more beautifully in every season of life.
Because a home should do more than look beautiful. It should support the way you want to live.
Thinking About the Way You Live at Home?
Sometimes creating a home that feels better begins with one small change. Other times, it leads to a larger conversation about whether your home still supports the life you want to live.
If you’re considering a move, downsizing, or simply wondering what your next chapter might look like, we’d be happy to begin with a conversation.
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