One Small Space
Give yourself permission to feel joy in your home right now.
A few weeks ago, I walked into my best friend Satchie’s house for a catch-up. We sat in her dining room, sipping our coffee from ornately painted mugs. We like to share this ritual together—we use our extraordinary dishes on very ordinary days. It sparks a lot of joy and is an instant mood elevator.
Anyway, as we were chatting, Satchie pointed to a room across the hall that was bothering her. She felt it wasn’t functioning well, it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t as beautiful as it could be (yet). She was blocked with a decorating vision for it, and the energy just wasn’t working. Rather than being a soothing space for her to work, which is what she felt it could be, it was mostly an empty room where her children occasionally rode scooters.
I walked into the room, curiously examined it, and all of a sudden, a vision for it possessed me. I asked her to take me throughout the house and show me all of her favorite things. Within two hours, we had gathered them all and suddenly rearranged her empty sitting room into her personal creative parlor using furniture and decor that she already owned.
The effects of this energy shakeup have been radical and magical in her daily routine. This happy experiment really has me thinking…how can one small space hold so much transformative power? And also, what if we just gave ourselves permission to feel joy in our homes as they are, with a little bit of editing and reimagining the items we’ve spent years collecting?
The fact is, it was just one tiny curiosity that we followed. We lost ourselves in chasing the next small decision after that, layering the room with items from around the house - one collected treasure after the next (life is art!). Over the course of a dozen tiny decisions, organically and authentically this space took shape. The colors all worked, the vibe worked, the whole feeling of it just worked. Satchie’s husband walked by once we were almost finished and he was lured into the space so strongly that he couldn’t help but to sit with us and chat for a few minutes.
This room (I have since named it Satchie’s Salon) feels so serene and inspiring that it is now the space where she spends her early mornings and any other time she can spare. She grounds herself in here, reminds herself of her dreams, seeks inspiration, finds focus, and practices peace.
My personal experiment with creating one small space in my own home started when, at the beginning of this year, I put a chair in my closet to define a tiny thinking zone for myself…a spot to retreat to at night and in the early mornings that would return me to my inner life. To reconnect with parts of the person I used to be before becoming a mother, and to keep defining more parts of the new version of me that I’m growing into.
I wrote about my tiny “cl-office” project once I finished it, and I was surprised by the response from other women (moms specifically) saying they’ve either done something similar, or have wanted to do this for themselves and were now inspired to try.
What was most shocking to me was that by defining one small space for myself, blocks in my creativity and in my work life started to shift and open up. Other dynamics in my daily life that seemed more complicated than they needed to be simplified. Tiny shifts caused major impact.
This whole series of events has been gripping at my soul. Maybe this is something I’d like to help other women do. Create their sacred spaces. I’m not sure where that thought goes from here, but all I know is, there is great potential already within us. And one small space has the power to gently inspire us to reach for it…one curiosity at a time.