Love the House You're In by Paige Rien

Author:Paige Rien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: 2015-05-06T04:00:00+00:00

A smile is the universal welcome.

—MAX EASTMAN

DEFINE THE SPACE

Entryways in older homes rarely accommodate the complexity of modern life and all of our stuff. If I had a dime for every time I heard a mother of school-aged children say, “I need a mudroom so badly,” or a nickel for every time I’ve heard someone in an older home say, “In my house, we walk right into the living room,” I’d be on a beach somewhere. If you’re working with the space you have and adding more space is not in the cards, at least for the moment, do not shoehorn an entryway function into a room that’s already chock-full. Don’t hang a hook on the wall with a floor mat below and say, “This is where I put my stuff when I come in,” unless you are extraordinarily neat and tidy, live alone, and enjoy an environment that allows you to wear flip-flops year-round. Instead, devote a substantial space to all the things either you or your guests may need when entering and leaving your house, even if this means compromising living space.

There are the obvious needs—a place for keys and mail, a place to hang a coat per person, a place on or near the floor for shoes. Then there are the less obvious, or only obvious when they are missing, such as the seat for putting on shoes, the space for outgoing shopping bags or gifts, and places for seasonal items like beach towels or mittens. A good rule of thumb is to give each occupant a place for all his or her things throughout the year. Perhaps the swimming-bag spot and the winter-hats-and-gloves spot are interchangeable. Keep it organized by going preschool: give everyone their own cubbies, hooks, and bins. Be generous, and give each person in the space ample room to get dressed and gather belongings, as well as get undressed and put away belongings. Make it attractive with bins and boxes you enjoy looking at—they can be rattan, Lucite, aluminum, wood, or whatever you like—and it won’t seem like you’re encroaching on your living space undesirably. Know yourself well enough to determine whether you’d prefer to look at your stuff out on hooks or put it all behind the closed door of a closet or an accommodating piece of furniture with cubbies and drawers.

Use the whole height of your walls, and choose an interesting area rug to define the entryway and corral outside dirt. In our house, I opened up the back wall of a closet that previously served our adjacent TV room. Now that old closet serves the entryway as an open mudroom of sorts. I closed the original opening up, losing the closet and its original purpose. I willingly robbed Peter to pay Paul by doing this, but I would much rather have order in the comings and goings with four children than give up the random-stuff closet that, as it was, was tucked away and not useful.

Because I could use space

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