Home Comforts

 

 

After 9 months of living in my new apartment I finally got my curtains put up 😍 You're probably wondering if I'm about to write a blog post about curtains...well yeah, sort of. But these curtains are more than just long pieces of material that help keep the daylight out. My apartment is pretty small and cosy and from day one of moving in, it felt homely. When we went into lockdown earlier this year I was only a couple months into living here and the idea of having the foreseeable future to just chill out in my new home sounded great! Being a bit of an introvert anyway, I assumed I would love having an excuse just to hide away from the outside world, like most writers I had this big, shiny idea that when I wasn't working I could spend my hours writing and maybe get my novel finished by the time "all this" blew over. 

But the truth of it is that lockdown had the complete opposite effect on me. I found myself getting anxious and on edge all the time. My windows look out onto a busy road and I began to have this overwhelming feeling of being very exposed and yet trapped all at the same time. Almost like how animals must feel at the zoo, caged up but on show to the world. I'm not saying I had it hard during lockdown, in fact I had so much to be thankful for and was constantly grateful for that. But it suddenly dawned on my that if my home is going to be my sanctuary whilst the world outside goes a bit mad, then I need to surround myself with things that distract me from the madness. 

Dealing with all these new anxieties also meant that rather than spending those many free hours on my writing, instead I was curled up on the couch watching back to back Netflix series' to numb my mind of worried thoughts, or complaining of a headache or pacing the apartment infuriatingly because my mind wouldn't settle enough to sit down at my laptop or even just pick up a book. When I couldn't even escape to a book to zone out I knew something was wrong!

When I think of a calming place, my mind always takes me to the beach and the sea. The sound of waves and the feel of sand are two of the most soothing things in the world. I love to go down to the beach on a nice day and write and if my mind is feeling a little full of thoughts then an ocean waves soundscape is my go-to. So I've decided to transform my room into a little coastal paradise. And my first purchase were these curtains. Not only are they the colour of sand but the pattern and the texture are almost grainy (probably not the right word but they give off a sandy effect 🤷‍♀️ .) I'm going to get some small lantern fairy lights to hang on the wall, maybe make a little mosaic of seashells from the beach down the road to hang up and some new bedding to match the theme (maybe a calming blue colour?) Already with the curtains I feel so much more calm. When I want to, I close the curtains on the outside world and suddenly my mind is free to focus back on my writing!

Have you got any little home comforts that you couldn't live without or a favourite room in the hours to escape to?

For anyone looking for great curtains, these were from Dunelm and they are stunning! Such good quality, there were so many style choices in all different sizes 😊