How Our Family Set an Intention For Our Living Room
Updated: May 16, 2022
Video Transcript
So thankful to be coming to you live from outside. I am on my phone hotspot. So, hopefully it comes through okay for you and I am just about ready to dive right in today. It is a gorgeous day. We're in Michigan and it's May and it is a gorgeous day here. So, I just wanted to take some time to breathe it in and come to you from outside. It's just still setting up here. So, making sure that it, that it works on my hotspot. There it goes. We're all set. So, yeah. I started my morning off with a soccer game like a lot of parents this morning. Savannah, my second, actually scored a goal. She's been working so hard this year and went down the field and just snuck it in the corner. It was so perfect and I was so grateful that I got to capture that time together with her, but I'm just going to take a deep breath in. This gorgeous weather today, like I said, May in Michigan, you never know what you're going to get. So, we're going to take these beautiful days as we get them. Today, what I wanted to talk about is another example of how to bring intention into your space and how we do it for our family. I figured there's no better example than how we personally do it. So, yesterday, I shared a story from a client. Today, I'm going to dive into how we do it in our home and then we will call it for a day. So, today, I'm taking you on our personal journey in our home and I want to be honest, we are still in this process. I have four girls. I made a slight career change from engineering, project management into interior design this year. So, I'm giving myself grace in where we are on this journey and I hope you guys do too. Just know that it is not be perfect. It may not be quick. We're all on our own journey and I have found that when I've done this for other rooms in our house that it has proven so effective which is why I use the same process for Lykke Haven and we are in the middle of it actually for two rooms in our home. We are working on a bedroom for our older two girls and then we are also working on our living room. So, giving myself grace, there's lot going on in our life and I like to take time to just breathe in this gorgeous weather and spend time with my family. And that's okay. We're all on our journey together. First, what kind of words do we describe our family as and this is where we begin, right? This is the family mission statement or like I said, we just use words. I don't like to box ourselves in with a formal mission statement. So, we use words and some of the words that we use to describe our family are that we're intentional. We are Christian. We are welcoming, lovingly accepting of others, faithful, traditions, we're silly. We love to celebrate. We celebrate seasons. We celebrate birthdays hard. We do a lot of celebrating because that's what life is for us. It's a big celebration. We're inquisitive. We love to explore whether it's topics or outside here in our woods. We love to be and we homeschool. So, those are just some of the words that we use to describe our family. And this was the action step to take on, I believe it was, Wednesday, was to come up with your family's mission statement or intentional words. Then from there my husband and I sat back. We looked at that list and we're like okay. Where in our home do we have the biggest gap? Or where in our home do we feel not supported in these intentional words? What would help us bring these intentions forward more often? Where do we spend a lot of our time? We kind of just start asking ourselves these questions. We were inquisitive. That's one thing we like to do, and then we took some time to pray on it too. God, how can we be a good steward of our home? You have blessed us with this home. How do we be a good steward of it? How do we bring these intentions you place on our heart forward in our home. We took probably two weeks honestly to decide where we wanted to start in our home. There's a lot of different places that we could have started. our outdoor area for instance or our living room or kitchen. There's a lot of places we spend a lot of time. But like I said we only took two weeks and I want you to know, please do not get caught up in the paralysis by analysis. Trying to really figure out that perfect room to start with. Because in all honesty, whatever room you start with will be beautiful. Will be perfect for you. Just make a decision and move forward. We with our living room and when we decided to start with our living room, it was because it was the center of our home and we have a lot of kids. We host life group in our living room and we needed it to support the things that we do. We even home school sometimes in the living room. Wherever it works out so that the the youngers can play while I'm working with one of the olders on their lessons. So, we felt that the living room was the perfect place for us to start. And then the key intentions for the living room. So, we've now figured out our space from our family intentions and now, we're figuring out what are those intentions, how do we want to use the space to support us in the family that we want to be. So, the family intention or the living room intention, sorry, that we had come up with for this were, it's all about togetherness. It's all about connection. About nature as it overlooks our woods here, and the biggest one, is simplicity in the chaos. Like I said, we have four littles we need a place that was so restful within the chaotic and to make those two things work together really well. So, our intention statement that we came up in our living room from those words was:
"The room is filled with abundant life. There is giggling that overcomes your soul. We gather together in the space whether it is for movie night or centering ourselves with life group and life-giving conversations. The room easily goes from enchanting play to a calming simplicity throughout the day. Through God, we are grounded and connected here. His natural naturally created beauty surrounds us both inside and as we longingly gaze out, the picture window. We live life here unaltered. Together, simply joyfully full."
And that is the intention statement that we started with For our living room. And from here we started gathering those images to pull together. What kind of images bring about these words? What makes these words come to life? And from there we have been slowly selecting furniture. We got some of the bigger items first that we wanted and then we're slowly selecting and putting together the the design for this living room. Because as I said, our life is a little busy right now with me starting this business and just homeschooling and all the things and that's okay. Some of the things in our design that we have sourced to fill the mood board in the intention statement are things like a big sectional. We have almost like a 10-foot by 10-foot sectional. We're all able to fit and we're all able to cuddle together. We're able to have lots of room for a life group and that was really important to us. So, we chose this really big sectional that has a chaise that we can store things in so that you can store those blankets when it's cold at night. That was really important to us. That was one of our selections. The next one is we're looking at a coffee table, and right now, we just have a placeholder because it was really important to us to have something that was handcrafted and full of the natural beauty that God has given us. It is the center point of our living room. So, we wanted to make sure that it was made out of wood with deep tap root. We are grounded in knowing who we are in our Lord and Savior. We are grounded there and this is the true heart of our home. This is what matters. So, we are looking to have that locally and we're in the process of that and hopefully by the summer's end, we will have that in the middle of our living room and that has been a journey in itself. So, that is for another training, but just even selecting the look and the even the wood species has been an adventure and a journey and so, I'm really excited for how that's going to turn out. The other thing that we have at the center on top of this coffee table is our Bible Project book. Like I said, we want to know that we are grounded and centered around God in our lives. That's very important to us. And we chose the Bible Project book because it brings the Bible in a simple format. In more of a comic format. And so it's so much more easy to understand. There's a lot of context behind it in summary and description of the different books of the Bible for the adults. And then that comic strip where honestly it's led to a lot of conversations with our kids and we're able to pull open that book. In the center, the heart of our living room and have those life-giving conversations and it is just been amazing to have those conversations with the girls. Another thing that we selected for our living room is to have an olive tree in the corner. So, the olive tree representing peace and calm and honestly, it reminds my husband and I of our travels to Italy for our honeymoon of this simple life that we got to have a little bit before kids and the peace and calming of the we olive tree. It brings in natural elements and that sense of peace that we were looking for. We removed all the in toys from the main living room. You might say, well, don't you want them to play there? But, remember, we wanted a simplicity in the chaos. We actually transformed a nearby closet in our space. We looked at it differently and decided toy storage was perfect. Now the girls have so much more room to play and use their imaginations. Plus toy cleanup became easier. Another thing is we have large pictures of our girls in the living room. We center around family. We wanted a living room where our girls were represented, but not so kid centric. Another thing like I said, we have a big, large window that overlooks the woods and so we didn't want curtains to block them. We are very intentional in the design of our living room windows to not block the nature and being able to overlook our play area behind me. And then the final thing, we wanted to bring in nature and cozy elements. We love to cuddle up together. So, I mean, there's a fireplace that's already there that creates that coziness but like I said, the chaise allows us to store some of really great blankets that can easily be pulled out. Then we added some wood beams to our living room to create a natural look. They lower ceiling to create that coziness and then since it's a natural element, it just really helps us to feel connected to nature. Honestly, even though it lowers the ceiling, creates coziness, it makes the ceiling feel higher as well and I know that's hard to explain over a video with you but I'll try to post that picture tomorrow on my live feed so that you can kind of see at least a corner of our living room and how it's come together. Those are just some of the things that we have selected that go with our mood board, that go with that intention statement. As I said, of being together, giggling, and having life-giving conversations together. That is how we have brought it into our home. So, how are you doing on your action steps? Have you had time to pull together the family intentions to select a room in your house and create the intentional words and even start the mood board for that room? How has it been going? Carve out some time. It takes time and allow yourself grace in this journey but I urge you to take time, write it on the calendar, and hold that time sacred so that you can start to create your own Lykke Haven in your home. Your action step today is to continue this process. Get that mood board, pulled together from your intention statement, and start selecting some of the main pieces of your room. Start the journey. Find a piece that resonates with you, that matches the mood board and your intention statement and start pulling it together in your space. Tomorrow, I will be taking a day of rest. We actually have life group here tomorrow as well. Looking forward to those conversations and just pray that you guys take a rest. Take in this beautiful weather. Go for a walk. I hope you find these trainings helpful and I will be back on Monday during nap time, 1 PM on Facebook Live to go over the second word for Lykke Haven and that is mission. My favorite to talk about is why when we bring in mission is it so important in creating that Lykke Haven. I urge you to join me, share this event with friends, so that we can start having these conversations together, and I wish you all a very happy and beautiful weekend. See you Monday.
Lykke Haven Design is a full service, purpose-driven interior design firm serving clients in West Michigan. We work with clients from Ada, to Grand Rapids, to Holland (and the occasional out of state). Our mission is to create Intentional Interiors curated with a Meaningful Mission that Cultivate Connection. We do this through a process driven by Human-Centered Design. We would love to discuss your next project and how we can help.
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