Interior

Homestory Part One

At home. What does it actually mean to feel at home? And what makes the place where we live our home in the first place? 

When we look around within our four walls, it's honestly the many memories. Memories that we have selected together over the years, collected in distant countries or gathered from an early age. In every room. Small and large. Old and new.

Be it grandma's patterned small plates and the matching cutlery, of which we already tasted crumble cake and fruit tart as children. Or our own favourite cuddly toy, which despite a lost eye and the worn out plush cannot be missing. Or a fine antique bureau and masks made of wood, which welcome us daily at the entrance and as heirlooms remind us of the beautiful days in our parents' home.

This nostalgic collection is of course growing from year to year with a number of well-chosen travel souvenirs: for example, an emerald-green carpet that we discovered in Lisbon and immediately knew: "It has to go home with us!“ Love at first sight was the painting of a Thai artist from the Chatuchak market in Bangkok, which we still can't get enough of. But our Achilles' heels are cushions, which we can only too rarely resist to fill our own home with even more cosiness. Our ongoing passion is also the search for the perfectly imperfect magnets that attach to our refrigerator as amusing memories of distant travel destinations.

But also the changing seasons require the one or other extension of existing companions: in summer, for example, the fresh flowers from the market, whose delicate scent reminds one of grandpa's rose garden. And dried berry twigs and mossy branches, as delicate arrangements in autumn, revive past walks in the forest. Winter often brings a change of taste – especially on the table. Here, inherited recipes are recooked, refined or reinterpreted and, when it comes to dumplings and cookies, they proof that it still tastes the best with the parents and grandparents. With the scent of peppermint and musical evergreens, spring moves into the living room at home – a successful mixture that immediately brings to mind roller-skating and chewing gum from teenage days.

It is exactly these moments, heirlooms and souvenirs that make our house a home. A place we love to return to from work and travel and where we can withdraw – surrounded by beautiful details that remind us of the past every day and make us look forward to what is to come.

At Home, since we are living here. | All words and photos by The Sturgheons.