A Home
My dad, Dave Cox
April, the month I’ve dedicated to Cleaning, Purging, and Organizing our home. A monumental but necessary endeavor. A journey through the past as we live the present and prepare for the future.
Annalee innocently asked, “How does cleaning relate to your interior design business?”
The simple answer...
A well curated home is a personalized treasure chest filled with your memories, your interests, your loves.
Today, we treat household goods as disposable. Like them today, throw them tomorrow; material possessions with little meaning or history.
By cleaning, purging, and organizing I am taking an historical deep dive – childhood memories, wedding gifts, hand-me-downs, souvenirs – things Matt and I and our four girls have acquired while here on earth.
Matt’s mom, Adeline, passed before we were married. Inherited, we buried her carefully crafted needlework on a handful of pillowcases in the linen closet. Today, our fingers trace Adeline’s stitches in the many uneven squares sew into a beautiful quilt.
I have an ottoman made from my dad’s neckties. Used daily, this complimentary collection of colors and patterns provides another seat in our Family Room. My dad died in 2010; the ottoman, a treasured reminder.
You ask, “How do I Reuse, Renew, Recycle without looking ‘grandma-ish’?”
Vintage trophies and ice buckets easily hold houseplants. An old, red tool chest creates a fun nightstand. Great-grandpa’s chair, reupholstered in a fresh fabric, adds nostalgia to a corner. Old novels, displayed pages out, provide texture to a bookshelf. Defunct CDs with felted bottoms become coasters. Wool blankets, worn with holes, are cut, crafted, reimagined as decorative throw pillows. Steamer trunks turn into coffee tables.
All considered relics. All tell of a past life. All morph to compliment a variety of design styles.
Cleaning, purging, and organizing our home forces me to see, touch, feel, evaluate what we already own. Through this process, I