Building your FORT
The natural desire to personalize our living environment and create a place of our own begins at an early age. As kids, we threw blankets over a couple of couches we had pushed together to build forts. We then carefully selected which items to bring inside and which items to keep out. As grown-ups, it is through this same careful selection process that we begin to curate furniture, kitchen utensils, art, rugs, cushions, vases, lamps and so on into a unique collection of items that we anoint with the word "home".
We never lose the desire to nest and create a space that is uniquely our own because "the process of building a home is interconnected with a need to stabilize and organize our complex selves. It’s not enough to know who we are in our own minds. We need something more tangible, material and sensuous to pin down the diverse and intermittent aspects of our identities." - The School of Life.
Even the smallest objects in our homes speak to us as well as about us. They offer encouragement, reminders, or consoling thoughts as we go about the day, and it is because we all need to hear different things that we are pulled towards different objects. There is a deeply subjective side to "beauty", so you should explore what styles/objects are "right" for your home based on how they speak to you.
We can (and should) be particular about the pieces we choose because objects are, in their own way, hugely eloquent. Two rugs for example, that perform the exact same physical role (to be walked all over) can articulate entirely different visions of life. This is why I have spent more time than I would like to admit deciding which books really deserve ongoing attention and therefore have earned the right to be displayed on my bookshelf. Yet, I have come to accept that my home won't necessarily be the most attractive or sumptuous environment that I could spend time in. There will always be hotels or public spaces, or other peoples homes that are a great deal more impressive than my humble abode. But I also know that as cliche as it may sound "there is no place like home".
We should avoid the tendency to compare our homes to the endless lot of perfectly staged houses on Instagram, or TV. It is fine to take inspiration, but never lose touch of which objects and items genuinely represent you. You'll thank yourself for creating a truly personalized place because above the material comfort that comes from having our own unique space, sometimes we need our homes to help us remember who we are.