Home Holds Memories-According to LiLu Interiors
Home Holds Memories-According to LiLu Interiors
When we think back on the memories of our youth, often we remember not only whom we were with but also where we were. The kitchen that our grandmother had, the special room we picked the colors for in our adolescence or the super cool neighbors house. I’ve recently been helping a childhood friend design a new space for her mother in an assisted living facility and we have been going to her childhood home and selecting which furnishings to use and which to leave behind. The home is the place of so many childhood memories. It’s made me think about how the places of my youth are woven into my memories in a tapestry of many colors.
I’ve always thought about the spaces we design as important backdrops or perhaps stages for life to happen in but the truth is in my memory homes become an important character. The homes where I spent time as a child are inextricably woven into my memories as the people.
My friend had a very hip basement with a curved bar and daybed/sofas just like you would see on the Brady Bunch. Seating in the bar stools and pretending to be grownup while watching reruns of Beach Blanket Bingo was the most fun. The big open kitchen, with two Danish modern lounge chairs in the corner was so different from my early American inspired house. Both our mothers subscribed to Better Homes and Gardens, which I read for inspiration, even as a little kid. Because her home was more modern and more like the Brady’s I was pretty sure her life was a little better than mine.
Another family friend lived a little bit away in an A-frame her parents built themselves. In the den, her mother had painted a wall mural herself with a sailboat on a stormy ocean. I don’t know if she dreamed of the ocean, or of moving from MN but that room was magical through the eyes of a child. The care and concern she had put into the mural, the sheer talent was amazing. I will always remember that room and having long games of Royal Rummy in the den with my friends. Their basement had a Ping-Pong table and a rumpus room that we could be wild in. And we were. The laughter and shrieking in a space meant just for the kids was pretty awesome.
Both of these families seemed happy-go-lucky with their hip 70’s style. In comparison, my grandmother’s home was practical. Good craftsmanship and materials that would last and were chosen for the function not for aesthetics were the rule. Taupe the primary color. It spoke of the hard work and frugality that had taken my grandparents from a 6th grade education to a solid middle class family as entrepreneurs. Their home had a solid but not cheery feeling. Although I have happy memories from that home they mainly revolve around learning the practical things of life, baking, cooking, gardening and sewing. The home a perfect reflection of the values of the farm-raised occupants..
My own home as a child had a foot in both worlds. My mother’s choices for décor were both long-lasting classic choices but popular enough at the time to be considered fashionable. In the kids rooms however, we were given free reign to choose color, pattern and even whimsical furnishings that suited us each and wouldn’t last for years. In my room, I had a tri-color purple shag carpet and a floral drapery and coverlet in white, hot pink and purple and hot pink walls. My friends admired my room for it’s over all bold choices. We would hang-out in my room for hours discussing life and all its glories. It was a gift my parents gave me to be able to use my room as a place of self expression where I could truly be myself.
Today, when I design a home for a family, I think about the memories they will create there. The story the home tells about them and the legacy it will have in the minds of not only that family, but of the friends, neighbors and extended family who will gather their. Be mindful, when you are making choices for your home that they will be remembered for decades by those you hold dear.
