Christmas Contemplation
December is probably the month in which we think about our homes the most. For one, many of us spend the month frantically tidying up before a multiplicity of guest, friends, family members and assorted well-wishers descend on us (there’s a lovely old English word scurryfunge which perfectly describes this act) but also, either due to the holidays or the wintery weather and dark nights, we tend to spend a lot of our time indoors. It has been my experience that people have specific habits and traditions they follow during December, often unrelated to their other festive routines, which revolve around the home and it’s the time of year when many gain an opportunity to stop and evaluate their surroundings. For me, this often starts a bit earlier, sometimes coinciding with the packing up and putting away of the Hallowe’en decorations. This simple act (and the knowledge that I will have to go back up into the attic to get the Christmas Decorations down in only a few short weeks) sets my brain thinking about the spaces in the house which either need to be cleared or need to be made more inviting. This year, for example, I’ve had a strong urge to declutter the living room and kitchen shelves – not to make space for new things, but to ensure that when I do get time to stop and relax, I can do so in a space which is neat and free of ‘visual noise’. Like a visitation from seasonally appropriate Spirit, this decluttering exercise has also given me a glimpse at the possibility of what an uncluttered house – free of the set dressing of Christmas decorations and tree – could look like and the Scrooge in me secretly looks forward to the New Year when everything is once again boxed up in the attic.
One other positive that spending more time indoors over the festive period gives us is a better understanding of what works in our home and what doesn’t. Spending more time in my living room over the past couple of weeks has highlighted to me the mismatch in several of wooden items of furniture. These have accumulated over the years at such glacial pace that the differences in them has never really stood out to me however, spending a bit of time decluttering the bookshelves has led me to see these with fresh insight. As such, one of my New Year’s resolutions (probably the only one I will end up keeping!) will be to move or change these items and make the room more harmonious.
For many, this process of rediscovering our rooms unearths deeper-seated problems. It might be lack of sunlight in a room, especially pronounced around the winter solstice, or a lack of flexibility in particular space (made even worse by the looming presence of a 7-foot Christmas Tree). Some will be shown the difficulties in cooking and entertaining in the same space, or the disfunction of a poorly laid-out kitchen, while others will long for a space where muddy boots are stowed away and not walked across that freshly cleaned floor (don’t even get me started on muddy paws…). All of these little aspects of a home which tend to get ignored in the other eleven months of the year seem to come to the fore in December and I often find when I ask clients about when they first started thinking about their design projects, I get an answer along the lines of, “well we sitting down on an evening just before Christmas and began to wonder about what we would do differently”. This small act of Yuletide reflection can be the seed which grows into the wonderful transformation of a room or home, and I often have a busy start to year helping to nurture these ideas to fruition.
As an Architect, I love it when clients come to me with an idea born from a period of deep reflection. Some know exactly what they want to do (often bringing along drawings and floorplans they have been working on) while others simply start with a feeling or an image. Both approaches are valid; my role is to tease out or provide alternative ideas (to think of the layout the client hasn’t) to make the end design the best possible. The architecture and design we espouse at Open House Architecture is never about maximising property values or ensuring a good return, it’s about transforming thoughts and feelings into tangible spaces. Whatever reflections you have over the next few weeks, I hope you have the time to sit in stillness and silence, in comfortable surroundings with those you hold dear.
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Open House Architecture.
John