Change in living situation is a time to reflect

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” — Hal Borland (1900-1978), American author, “Sundial of the Seasons” (1964)

As another year has come to an end, I once again want to take this opportunity to thank you for reading Inside Spaces over the years and for sharing your decorating issues with us. Enriching lives through our home environment is foreign to some, but not to me and not to you, our readers. We know how important it is to have just the right lamp, the perfect color in the floor tile, the most luxurious throw on the sofa and exactly how high to hang those pictures.

And while making sure the traffic pattern works in the public spaces of your home may not contribute to world peace, it will surely help those in your household achieve harmony. Being organized in your domain will add clarity and ease in your life.

Never underestimate the value and impact of a beautiful home. And that’s whatever “beautiful” means to you. We may not share the same views on that, but we all agree that it’s very personal. And thank goodness, we don’t all like the same thing.

We know also that it’s not about the things, it’s about the comfort and serenity our special belongings bring to us.

Over the years at this time of year, I have written a list of what I called “fun tips” that have served me. I’ve decided not to do that list this year but to just talk about something that might be happening in your home.

Additions and reductions: people

Certainly, families change and the number of people living in your space does as well. We add to our family, our family gets reduced and sometimes, based on either of these happenings, we want to live in a different place or in a different way.

It’s interesting to me that a lot of my friends have said to me that now they want different kinds of furniture — less or more — or want to change their environment totally: new furniture; change window coverings and change flooring or floor coverings. And a lot are interested in changing baths and kitchens.

It’s been my privilege over the years to help people do it all. When children move on with their lives, their parents may want to downsize or move to a different location — beach, mountains, golf course. Or they move into a senior community where they can have their own home or into a facility where they live with lots of others.

There are options for all of us and my suggestion has always been to try to achieve your goals, taking into consideration your budget, locations and time frames. In reality, there are options for us all; it’s just up to each of us to make up our minds where we want to be, how much money we have to spend and, basically, how we want to live our lives. The options are plenty.

So I would like to wish each of my readers a wonderful new year. And I believe that as the year progresses we will get to have a lot more discussions about how we live our lives and decorate our homes. Happy New Year!

Carolyn Muse Grant is a design consultant and creator of beautiful spaces. Questions can be sent to her at creativemuse@cox.net.