The power of white space

[Picking up the thread from previous posts]

I've also been cleaning up and organising my computer files, like images, bookmarks, folders and so on. In doing this I came across a blog I had bookmarked a number of years back but then never really kept up-to-date with - it's called Down to Earth and its author Rhonda Hetzel was featured in one of the Slow Your Home podcasts. I am now following on Instagram (and toying with the idea of buying her books). I love the welcome blurb on her blog: If you haven't already discovered the power of your own home you are in for a delightful and beautiful shock. 'Come closer and let me whisper in your ear, because if everyone knows this, it will cause a revolution. The work you do in your own home will enrich you and make you a different person. It saved me from a life of ridiculous spending and mindless acquisition and slowed me down enough to allow me to see the beauty surrounding me.'

I read this post of hers on Instagram recently and it really resonated with me because much of what simple life is to her has been what I've been doing too, though am sure it looks completely different for both of us. I think it's important to understand that this will look different for every individual but I guess there may be some guiding principals, i.e. these are what I recognised in my own life once I listened to the Slow Your Home podcast and read Rhonda's Instagram post, and I realised this is the framework for how I choose to live.

I am such a home body and though I don't always enjoy the process of cleaning and organising I always love the end result and the utter satisfaction of having done good work. It shifts the energy in the home, it really feels like stale energy goes and new, expanded fresh energy takes its place.

As a work-at-home mum my mother always drilled into me that you need to be organised and have a clutter-free, clear work surface to begin work... no disorder. This helps your headspace, let's the work flow once you start and makes you more productive in the long run. In graphic design 'white space' is the area between design elements - a tool used to balance the design elements and better organise content to improve the visual communication experience. White space calms us, lets us breathe and gives the eye a place to rest. I take this theory and apply it to my home and garden, and drilling down further I apply this in my work space as well.

So, it was with absolute pleasure that one of the biggest achievements this weekend has been to get my studio set up. Yay! Even though the space was filled with all the studio stuff it was yet to be edited, fine tuned and set up to be an efficient space to work in. In doing this I actually needed to expand into two spaces. This house has a quirky but large loft space above the garage. The garage isn't actually a garage... as a 1950's cottage the garage wouldn't fit a modern day car, so one of the owners before me had the wisdom to convert it into a room, but unfortunately it's half-way between a garage and a room and needs a major overhaul before it can become my studio.

In the meantime I have taken over the spare room (sorry visitors) and the loft space, which you can access from the spare room. As I've said in a previous post, it's not my ideal set up, it is one of the compromises I made because I love just about everything else about the property. When the studio proper is set up it will be the garage and loft space above. The garage is quite a bit larger than the spare room so I'm looking forward to being able to spread out more. For now though I am beyond thrilled that my studio is set up and ready to go... this is a big step forward. Once these niggly renovation works are done I will finally be able to get back in the studio. I am bursting with ideas and just can't wait.

NB: I thought I was pretty clever coming up with the reference to white space, but a few days after writing this and in my daily process of listening to previous episodes of Slow Your Home podcasts (to catch up after only recently discovering it), Brooke actually refers to white space... funny, though, the constant discovery of similarities with other people on this same journey.

[Image by rawpixel from Pixabay]