I forgot to recognise that this home was something I once dreamt of.

It took me a while to recognise this, but a couple of years ago, I caught myself out on this. I realised I was neglecting to not only appreciate our home but to invest in it and our happiness here. For years I hadn’t done any big updates to the house because I felt it was pointless. It wasn’t our forever home and I really want to move, so why bother? But I was forgetting everything we had achieved whilst living here; job promotions, family gatherings, starting two businesses and getting married, to name a few things. These things were not ‘setbacks’ or things to gloss over, it was us living our lives and creating incredible memories.

Don’t get me wrong—it still took me a while to fully invest in my current space, rather than my future plans. However, I realised that the goal of having a bigger home in a location that’s closer to family is no longer attached to a deadline. I trust that when the time is right, it will happen, and that the bit I needed to focus on, was grounding myself in the now, not the next thing and that elevating our every day through trinkets and decor was not an expense, but an investment into our daily happiness in making our house our home.

Enhancing your environment has such a positive impact on your well-being, and even though I knew this, it took a bit of a disaster for me to really see it. A couple of months ago we had a bad leak in our living room. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but meant that we needed to spend money on repairs to fix it. The structure was repaired, then as we were planning to repaint the affected area, we thought we might as well paint the whole room for a freshen up… Which led to us giving the whole downstairs a freshen-up! It started as a coat of paint, but then we switched out the lights, swapping out the ones we bought when we first moved in, for something which aligned more closely with our style. Then the ball was rolling. The decluttering began and I said goodbye to the things I had been holding onto since I moved in—which sounds drastic, but when I moved into our home, I was 21 years old… So it’s fair to say my taste and style have changed a fair bit since then!

Since then, I’ve swapped out and replaced things I’ve outgrown. I was able to purchase some pieces of art I’ve been dreaming of, thanks to gifts from my family and I even had a custom-made shelf, created by the incredibly talented James (Affinity Designs Workshop). My previous shelf wasn’t quite hitting the mark but I couldn’t find what I was looking for in store and James could see what I was trying to achieve and saw (and created!) exactly what I needed and it’s perfect! This is my favourite update along with our new kitchen table and chairs.

We have a little nook in the kitchen, and for 8 years we have been trying to find the perfect kitchen table. The first one given to us by my in-laws for a temporary (lol) solution and didn’t go with our kitchen at all. But we recently found the perfect one and it’s made such a big difference! We also got incredibly lucky and had it shipped and set up within days. We ordered it through Cult Furniture and to say I was impressed would be an understatement. We ordered our table and chairs late at night on the 27th of December and were informed that our order would be delivered between the 4th & 6th of January. Perfect. We were happy. A little apprehensive as we’d never used the company before, but optimistic and it wouldn’t be too long to wait. But then it was dispatched the next day and arrived early on the 29th of December! I was still at my parents when it arrived but Dan assembled it all in preparation for our New Year’s Eve celebration. I was so excited to come home to see it and it didn’t disappoint. It has finished the kitchen off so nicely—and the quality is amazing. For the first time ever I don’t feel embarrassed when people come over or feel the need to explain that I’m aware my table doesn’t go with the décor! And it’s these small things that make all the difference and make a house feel like a home.

Now, when I look at the house, I’m able to do so with new eyes. I’m selecting pieces that reflect our style or are personal to us so that they stand the test of time and work for our future homes—and it feels good to invest in our home surroundings. After years of not doing anything, I feel (for the first time in a long time) happy and excited about my home. Loving it for what it is—not begrudging it for what it isn’t.

Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t perfect and yes there are 100% more things I would like to replace but want to save costs. But these little changes have injected new life into our home and made it feel like ours again—who we are now, rather than who we were 8 years ago.