A house, a retreat?

Whether you’ve found yourself working remotely, in a house that suddenly became your whole world, or if you’re a key worker who still comes and goes, but has spent more time at home than ever before, take a couple of minutes to think about how you really feel between those four walls.

Happy Retreat

Have you made your home the epitome of comfort, setting up separate work and leisure spaces, making sure it meets all your new needs and gives you the freedom you need for self-care?

Is your home, now more than ever, somewhere you feel safe and comfortable? The one place in the world that has you breathing a sigh of relief as you close the front door behind you, shutting out whatever else is happening out there. Because you can. And it’s what you need to feel at peace with yourself.

Is it a place that’s so perfectly you, it’s like someone dragged your innermost desires out of your soul and laid them out in perfect harmony, each room made to fit your needs; an aesthetically pleasing balance of beauty and functionality that bring a smile to your face whenever you see them?

Or is it on the other end of the scale…

Hard Concrete

Has it become a torturous dungeon you just can’t seem to break free from?

No, not necessarily literal concrete. When walls made of bricks and mortar (or anything else for that matter) start closing in on you, they might as well form a cell with bars on for how they make you feel.

Trapped.

As if the endless trips from room to room have you dragging your feet, hating every piece of carefully chosen furniture and every utensil that used to bring you so much joy. Like an angry tiger pacing inside its cage, ready to stick your claws in the next thing that gets in your way.

Do you feel like you just want to escape from your house, and be anywhere else?

If the answer is yes, and your house is anything but a retreat, think back. When did it stop being your home and become a cage? And what would help you transform it back into your one and only home, somewhere you want to escape to?

Here are some starting points:

– Redecorate

If you’re bored of looking at the same old walls, give them an update. Make sure your décor grows and develops with you as you move through life. After all, how long has it been since you got a fresh new look. And don’t you deserve one?

– Redefine

Your home is just a structure. But it could be so much more than that. What would you need to do to your house to make it something you’re genuinely proud of? Have you ever looked into making it more self-sufficient?
Can you imagine your house providing all the electricity you need? Or recycling water? Or always having the perfect indoor temperature, with no help from air conditioning units or heaters?
Reinvesting your time and improving on your home may be the touch of TLC you need to reconnect with it and make it truly yours again.

– Restructure

And leading on from the last point, when was the last time you stopped to think about the way you use your house? Do you make the best use of every room, or have you limited your home life to doing the same things, over and over?
Could you add a workstation near a window to get some natural light? Could you combine two rooms to create more open space and new flows of energy, or is the spare room just sitting there, waiting for guests when it could be your new escape room, filled with the things you love to do most?

– Reorganise

This may be last on our list, but it’s by no means least. If you’re feeling trapped, have you considered it may be the endless things around you making you feel that way, rather than the walls themselves? Sometimes, all you need is a fresh perspective to make all the difference and freeing yourself of things that weigh you down could give you just that.
Before you start, you might like to have a read of our blog post on minimalism, where we talk about re-evaluating which of your possessions you really need.

This year hasn’t been easy, but it’s certainly been a learning curve for all of us, in more ways than we could ever imagine. Take your pent-up energy and learning, and put it into expressing this new version of you, in a space that you can call truly yours.

Anabela CEO of CORE Architects
Anabela Macieira
Core Architects — CEO and Founder