by christina britt lewis and timothy dean lewis we are so happy to be working on another project for safe alliance. making a home for the hopeful was one of the best things we ever did. this time we are redesigning the lobby to make it warm and cozy and happy. we want these courageous people to walk in and feel safe and loved. we went to a benefit lunch for safe alliance partners and supporters the other day. a couple told their story. strangers passed each other tissues as hundreds wept hearing about their grown daughter. she was smart, fun, kind, brilliant, successful, and beautiful. a sweet soul who called her grandfather every veteran's day to thank him for serving our country. she was the kind of child we all hope to have. and she was murdered. domestic violence crosses all boundaries. somebody you know is living in fear. children you know hide under the covers and pray to a God they are not so sure is there. sometimes you give and you give and you give and all you get is hurt. you know if this is you. please call the safe alliance hotline 704.332.2513 right now. you are not alone in this. BUT FOR MANY OF US... we don't fear being hurt. we fear being wrong. the life we say we want is right in front of us. we are our own problem. we are our own solution. stop waiting. if you want your marriage and family to change, be the change. do not keep hoping and waiting for the other one to make the first move. shock him. surprise her. wake him up. make her remember why she picked you. take him away for a long weekend. make all of the arrangements yourself and surprise her. you are POWERFUL. never underestimate your ability to change everything. marriane williamson said this better than anyone… our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. jesus, who taught shakespeare that brevity is the soul of wit, said… giving, not getting, is the way. this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home. click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george mirrors make a small space feel bigger and brighter. we hung them on inside walls opposite windows to double our view and bring the outside inside. we even hung one of those old sheet mirrors from a client's bathroom outside on the back of our garage to make our notsobig back yard feel bigger and brighter. it probably seems like a small thing, but catching a glimpse of sky and trees and nature when you are walking up the stairs is beautiful. there is no bad seat in the dining room because everywhere you look there is something meaningful, beautiful, or natural. the shaker rocking chair that tim built for me when i was pregnant with cole feels more important reflected in a mirror. the tight path behind the sofa feels big enough thanks to the illusion of space created by the mirrors. we have nothing in our home that we don't know to be useful or think to be beautiful, and to see that all reflected makes us happy.
this is one day of a 31 day series about living in a peaceful home. click here to read the rest of the series. peace be with you, tim christina cole camden george by christina britt lewis photography by angela statzer remember that wicked cool four story roof decked home with a view of the city? this is the first floor and the main entryway to the home. it's a small space that our client did a great job of cozying up with a comfy sectional and an officey sort of piece. only she wasn't spending any time down there, it feels very disconnected from the rest of the home and really more like a foyer than a family room. and as soon as i saw that sectional i knew it was going in the sofaless family room and we were not going to buy anything new. so there... don't ask me where i got the vintage phone, the sail fish, and all this cool stuff. i didn't. she is like the coolest chicky babe in the whole wide world and has lived all over the place and collected really fun and whimsical things that make her home happy and inviting. her home totally tells her story. we found the piece below in the garage and added some bins for some much needed storage. this feels right for the space. as does the mirror. also hers. here are her sweet words... The redesign company is amazing! I was convinced I needed a new sofa, coffee table, master bed and guest bedroom furniture - but after Christina and her crew spent a day in my house, it turned out all I really needed was one new bed and a dresser. The Redesign Company placed my furniture, lamps (they even fixed one that was wobbly), books, artwork and accessories in such a clean, smart way that everything just pulled together. I love coming home - I really do! when it comes to window treatments, i am a minimalist. we proudly redesign entire rooms for less than others charge for the window treatments alone. they just don't have to cost a lot to be beautiful. save on the window treatments and splurge on the sofa. or art. buy great art. or go away. adventure always trumps window treatments. there is nothing but a field with a little creek and lots of trees across the street from us, so we have no window treatments on the front of our house. the whole truth is, we USED to have window treatments here, but they were perfect for a client's home and ikea had stopped making them and client's homes always take priority over my own home...so i took them down early one morning on the day of their redesign. i never told that client that i gave her my beloved window treatments that they no longer make. i wonder if she can guess who she is. anyway...bare wood floors, bright light and wide open views feel simple, clean, and peaceful to us... we wanted this room to feel a little cozier. window treatments definitely do that. these are $39 per pair ikea panels hung on $3 rods from lowes. the great thing about ikea panels is that they come really long. these are 118". floor to ceiling feels important and custom. panels look best when they hit and break on the floor like men's slacks. and that's all i really have to say about that.
collecting things is fun and fills your home with happy memories. make your home tell your story. make it feel like you. so when people come they leave knowing you better, just from being in your home. the corks are as much a game as they are a collection. you know how everybody always sits at the kitchen counter? "toss the cork" gives them something to do aside from eat all of the pistachios. they also nicely fill that awkward space where wall meets cabinet. and now i'm singing this. but anyway...this is like 10 years worth of corks. just so ya know. ahem...and stop looking at our ugly cabinets. i spent many summer days collecting sea glass on a tiny island off the coast of marblehead, massachusetts. i was a nanny for two boys who changed my life. their family taught me about peaceful parenting, doing what you love for a living, and living happily ever after. standing at my kitchen sink seeing this sea glass every day reminds me why we do what we do and that we are not alone in this. we found those shells on trips that we took with people we love. some are from a tiny island off the coast of nicaragua. others are from a tiny island off the coast of honduras. they make me dream about what tiny island we will visit next. they fill me with calm and peace in the middle of doing dishes. cole went on a school trip to charleston when he was just a little guy. we gave him moolah to spend in the market there. he spent every single dime of it on that little sweetgrass basket for me. it's one of the very few things i would grab if the house was on fire. it's filled with sand dollars collected by dear friends on yet another tiny island. the two magnificent shells were brought back from africa from one of our best friends. tim collects the tabs from the tops of cans for his dad. we are not really sure what his dad does with them, but they make him happy. and there is no story behind the bottle caps 'cept that i had that mason jar. stones from a mountain stream in north carolina and smurfs from tim's childhood. his mom saved them. now they are in camden's room. when our niece, maggie, comes to visit, we get out the blocks from the cole and camden's childhood and the smurfs from tim's childhood and make little houses for them. sometimes i find smurfs tucked in the cracks of that tree stump we call a coffee table in the family room days after she leaves. these things make us happy.
collect things that make YOU happy. it doesn't have to cost a thing. just make it meaningful. and make it fun. a big bowl full of dominoes, legos, or jenga pieces on the coffee table is not boring. a big bowl full of those decorator balls is boring. know what i mean? of course you do. |