155:Reasons to build a den.

A couple of months ago, my other half and I were taking a stroll through the wooded area of Roundhay Park. It was a beautiful spring day and despite the birds and squirrels bustling around, it felt calm and peaceful.

We rounded a corner and came across a den.

It had been carefully made with sticks and branches, interwoven into a kind of Tepee shape and it looked pretty sturdy. It was a great den but it got us talking about our childhood.

When he was a kid, he had built dens and forts out of sticks, bedsheets, and pillows - you know, standard den things.

Whilst I occasionally tried to make some kind of den, my choice of play was often in the “home” corner in the reception classroom (usually accompanied by a princess fancy dress) and I had a toy kitchen at home that I loved playing with.

I was also given a pretend vacuum cleaner (cheers Dad, appreciate the early gender stereotypes) but unsurprisingly, that didn’t get touched.

When it came to Barbies, I had a whole Barbie Dream House of furniture that I used to carefully lay out and rearrange whenever I felt like it.

As children, we created, imagined, and had fun playing with our sense of home. Whether that was Barbie’s home or building a den to keep us safe from pirate intruders.

So it got me thinking about our adult lives, and where our sense of fun has gone.

I get it, life is busy, and sometimes fun is the last thing on our minds. But remember that exhilarating feeling, when you’d run back to base and hide in your den in a game - you were safe.

And that’s how our home should feel.

Safe.

It should be that space where you can close the door on the outside world and you feel a sense of peace and gratitude to be home. Our environment has a massive impact on our psyche so it stands to reason that coming home to more chaos is going to make us feel chaotic.

But, by being playful with our design and finding a style that truly feels good to us, I think it gives us that same sense of enjoyment that we were so attuned to in our childhoods - but that as adults we often forget about.

For me, you’ll know that I love a neutral interior - but it’s accessorised with treasures.

Some of my choices are obvious, like my favourite colours or small trinkets that bring memories.

Some of them are less so - for example, the panelling on my walls reminds me of those beautiful French apartments and it appeals to my sense of adventure.

So whatever your preferred design style, remember to have fun with it - it shouldn’t be show-home perfect - but it should make you feel really good.