At the end of 2020, amongst other significant changes in the world, my life changed drastically. I became an empty nester and a retiree. These changes led to a snowball effect of changes. I found myself purchasing a large dog, a standard poodle to be exact, putting my townhouse on the market, which sold in 5 hours, purchasing a new build home, and packing- up moving 1,263 miles landing in the great state of Texas. I really love my new home however, it is your typical cookie-cutter home. All brick outside and basic and bland color inside but just the blank canvas any creative and artistic person would love to dive into.
Being that my home is a three bedroom I decided to make one of the rooms into an office and the other into a spare room for guests. I turned to the trusty Pinterest platform for inspiration. If you want to follow me on Pinterest or just check out some of my boards click here. I found so many aesthetics for my office/glam room. I wanted to keep the rustic theme that I had already started creating within the rest of my home. I purchased from Amazon, The At Home Store, Wayfair, and Hobby Lobby. As the furniture pieces came in I was so thankful that the assembly was fairly easy. Once I had all the furniture pieces in place now it was time for the creative part…accessorizing. I don’t know about you but I have to be in the mood to shop for accessories. If I’m not in the right frame of mind things just won’t jump out to me, so the room sat bare with just the furniture for a few weeks. I didn’t put much effort into the spare room, as it was just a place for my guests to sleep.
Shopping for Decor
One fine day the sun was shining and the temperature was just right. What a great day for shopping I thought to myself. So I got dressed and headed to…you guessed it Hobby Lobby. Now let me back up for a minute. When I say I got dressed that is an understatement. When I shop for home accessories I too have to look the part. So I typically dress in very nice business casual attire as if I am shopping for a client’s home interior project. And I have found in my experiences customer service is more pleasant from store employees. I guess it’s just something about helping a nice-smelling, well-dressed lady with a huge smile.
Anyway, off to Hobby Lobby, I went.
I like to arrive at the store when it first opens. You know the old saying, the early bird catches the worm. And on this day boy did I ever. I caught a whole slew of worms. Typically when I shop I’ll walk around the entire store first up and down every aisle to scout out new inventory because I know eventually, it will go on sale. I hit the clearance section last because I tend to spend the majority of my time there. But on this day, I didn’t make it to the back of the store, down any aisle, or the clearance section. Right there in front of me was a display set up of beautifully decorated end caps filled with office accessories. And the best part was the store associates were marking all of the items on sale. Not 50% off, not 60% off, but a whopping 70% off. I couldn’t believe my eyes, so I asked the store associate if the mark down on some of the items was correct. She assured me that they were and she informed me that the entire line was being marked down and moved to the clearance aisle to make room for the new inventory that day. She then added today is your lucky day. You better grab a shopping cart. And that is exactly what I did. Now I have to be honest with you, had this particular line of office accessories not been on sale, I would not have purchased them. I would have walked right past because it wasn’t the color scheme I had in mind. But for this price, my mind quickly changed and I was quite pleased with my purchase. Among the items purchased was a beautiful and inspiring picture that read “ She Designed A Life She Loved ”.
The picture resonated with me so much, I adopted it as my theme for the year 2023.
Anyway, back to shopping, after the items were rung up I was anxious to see my receipt to see how much I saved. Even the cashier smiled when she rang the items up, entered the discount codes, and saw the new price.
I rushed back home and placed and hung up all of the decors. Everything came together so beautifully.
The Mediation Room
After a few months, I was desperately craving a space to meditate and pray. In my last townhome, I had an extra walk-in closet that served this purpose. But here the closets were smaller in the spare rooms and the walk-in closet in the Primary bedroom, well let’s just say it was not serving up peace and serenity vibes. I am bravely sharing a picture of that space here.
So I decided to do away with the spare room altogether. I thought if I had a guest they can just sleep on the mattress in the meditation room. it was everything a yogi, meditating, spiritual being such as myself could imagine. This picture doesn’t do it any justice but here is a glimpse of the space.
Life Interrupted
My home was now complete for the time being and I was very pleased with the spaces I created for myself. Now it’s time to start in my backyard, well at least that’s what I thought. Unfortunately, my newly designed spaces that served all of the purposes intended had to be redesigned. Both of my Sons decided to transfer from the college they were previously attending, enter the transfer portal and move in with me. I was elated by the fact they were both coming home. To my home. Their father and I divorced while they were still in high school, so it had been years since we all lived under the same roof. After hearing the news I immediately jumped into action making the rooms inviting and welcoming to my Sons. However, I had no idea what I was going to do with the furniture and decor I had. Not just that, but I still needed a space to work and spend time in solitude.
ReDesigning
First up, my office space. I had a niche in my living area that served as a coffee bar. I ended up moving the coffee bar cart to the kitchen dining area and replacing the coffee bar cart with my office desk and chair. It was a perfect fit. That was pretty easy. Now for the hard part, where was I going to carve out an area to have solitude? To kneel and pray, talk with the Holy Spirit, meditate, and just be one with my thoughts. I knew I would need this space more than ever now with sharing the house with my two young adult Sons. I tried moving the area to a corner of my room, but it just wasn’t aligning with my needs. So I entered my dreaded walk-in closet. I sat in my closet and meditated until it came to me. To create the space I needed for glam, dressing, and praying I needed to purchase a closet organization system. This time I took my search to YouTube. I thought about investing in the Pax closet system from IKEA but quickly decided against it after watching tons of videos on installation. I then turned to custom closet organization companies. I found one that was offering a 40% off sale plus an additional 15% off and made an appointment for the consultation. On the day of the consultation, I explained to the designer what I was looking for in the closet system and how my new space had to function. I even shared the back story as to why I was doing this change. Entirely too much information but I felt comfortable sharing the details.
She quickly went to work on the design. She even offered up an idea to me for my vanity area. Such a brilliant mind and I was grateful and pleased with her design services. So much so that I booked the installation right there on the spot. Of course, the installation couldn’t happen right away. My Son helped me with the demolition process of my closet. My bedroom was a mess. Anyone that knows me knows I have a difficult time functioning in areas with such disarray. So thankfully it was only for a few days.
The installation process took an entire day but the results were well worth it and I am in awe of my new space.
Oh yeah and here is the area in my bathroom where the designer suggested I remove two shelves and place my vanity. Which turned out to be a perfect fit.
My new arrangements of having my Sons come to live with me while on winter break from college forced me to think outside of the box, create and redefine spaces. Hence, Designing A Life I Love.
Have you recently had to reset and Design A Life You Love, please share your experience in the comments. I’d love to read them.
Stay Blessed and Blissed,
Dr. Lorraine