At Home - The Wabi Sabi home

With lockdowns and restrictions all around us, our worlds have become smaller.  To settle myself and make peace with it all, I’m trying to focus on what I can do and appreciate rather than what I’m not permitted to.  I have a friend who continually inspires me to really see beauty in the little things around me. We recently had a rambling forest walk, as the sun peeked out between rain showers, she encouraged me to marvel at the earthy scent of the air after the rain.  She has asked me to not to name her, so I’ll call her Lily.    

The Japanese term ‘Wabi Sabi’ is a hard one to translate or describe.  I understand it as seeing beauty in the imperfect and appreciating how things are rather than how they ‘should’ be. It takes a peaceful mind to reach this kind of acceptance and any time I visit Lily, I feel she and her home encapsulate Wabi-Sabi.

Lily is a collector, a trait she knows she picked up from her mother.  The things she collects have to make her feel something, she can’t use something or display it if doesn’t make her feel good.  Her home is a mixture of inherited or gifted pieces; a mirror that belonged to her Grandparents, a little set of yew vessels from her Mother, a wooden chopping board bought from a friend’s florist (sourced in France), and new pieces which have been carefully considered and not purchased on impulse.  

 It is a ‘thoughtful’ home.  A lot of where Lily places things is instinctive rather than curated. The pieces are all loved and that is what unifies her home and makes everything work together. Things move about all the time, nothing is static and the space changes as new things are welcomed, be they a foraged branch or a beautiful postcard received in the mail.

Enjoy these little snapshots of Lily’s beautiful home.

Love, Patricia