Creating My Personal Space

I bought a home a year and a half ago. What a liberating experience for a single woman. I promised myself that no matter what life served me, I would find a place to call "home" by the time I was thirty. My twenties served me my fair share of bullshit, and at 29 I realized it was time to come home to Cleveland and make good on my personal promise. So it begun, the search for a canvas that I could paint and call home.

My home is small, three bedroom / two bath...no basement. Its a ranch with vaulted ceilings and an open floor plan. Luckily I am situated on a horseshoe street, and I pride myself on the fact that for a mere $100 a month, I do not have to mow, mulch, shovel, plow, water...I dont have to do anything to the landspace. I often wonder how soon it will be that Ill be looking for acreage.

I lived in my home for several months just taking it in. I slept on a mattress that was placed on the floor and took very little furniture or belongings from my past. Id like to try to be elegant and say I feng shui'd...but it was more like a complete overhaul. When I opened that storage unit that I crammed every personal belonging of mine that I couldn't fit into my one of eleven different living spaces through my twenties, I sighed out loud. How overwhelming. My entire past was staring at me. No way...so I loaded a truck and threw all the shit away.

After several months of appreciating my new "minimalist" approach, I started to find my inspiration for the place. I chose to take natural landspaces and incorporate them into the different rooms. I wanted my home to be a subtle representation of traveling through different landspaces.

The dining area, the family room and the kitchen are all open and accessible to each other. They are positioned in a triangle in relationship to each other...much like the ideal kitchen floor plan for appliances.

My home is decorated and furnished in neutral tones. I started with creams, beiges, light greens and have slowly incorporated blues...and will eventually incorporate yellow and terra cotta.
I think of my home as a journey through landspaces.

The family area is "beachy".
The dining area represents the sea.
My bedroom represents a mountain retreat.
The kitchen represents the desert.

Welcome to my blog, Simple Sophistication.

I introduce you to my blog by telling you of my journey in developing my personal space, as a representation of my committment to myself at 30 years old that I was going to take a simple approach to my life decisions...a reason well substantiated after endless bad decisions.