Creating Calm at Home

Issue 01/June 2025

Welcome to the very first issue of the Slow Living & Design Journal — an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the spaces you call home.

This series explores soulful styling, intentional living, and the quiet beauty of simplicity. In each issue, you'll find short, thoughtful reflections designed to help you tune into your home and make grounded, inspired choices — whether you're styling a corner, resetting your energy, or simply learning to live with a little less, but better.  

In This Issue:

1. Creating Calm in Everyday Corners

How to turn overlooked corners into peaceful, grounding moments at home — using furniture, light, and small rituals.

“You don’t need more space to feel more peace. You just need a corner that holds you.”

2. The Case for Empty Space

Why less truly can feel like more — and how embracing a little emptiness can shift the entire feeling of your home.

“We often try to fill our homes the way we fill our time — quickly, completely, unconsciously. But empty space gives your home room to breathe.”

3. Styling with Texture, Not Stuff

A guide to creating depth and comfort through materials, not clutter — from soft linen and raw wood to ceramics and handwoven pieces.

“Texture tells a quieter story — one of care, touch, and time. It doesn’t ask to be seen. It invites you to feel.”

 

1. What Makes a Corner Feel Calm?

It’s not the square footage/meters. It’s not how much furniture you place in it. It’s how it feels when you’re there.

Here’s what I tell my clients:

“You don’t need more space to feel more peace. You just need a corner that holds you.”

That could mean:

• A warm chair and a linen throw

• A simple side table with a handmade cup and your current read

• A cushion and mat for quiet reflection

• A stool next to a plant you water every morning

It’s not what you fill it with — it’s what you let go of. A calm corner invites stillness. It gives your nervous system permission to exhale.

Start With What You Have

You don’t need to redecorate. Try this gentle reset:

1. Choose a spot that gets natural light or feels tucked away.

2. Clear it completely. Wipe it down. Breathe.

3. Add back only what feels good. A chair. A plant. A lamp with soft light. Nothing extra.

4. Try it out. Sit there. Spend five quiet minutes. Let the space shape itself around you.

A Calm Corner Becomes a Ritual

When we style with intention, we make space for ritual.

Maybe you light a candle there in the evening. Maybe it’s where your child reads. Maybe you simply sit for two minutes before opening your laptop.

That’s the beauty of small, soulful design — it supports how you want to live.

Final Thought

In a world that tells you to do more, fill more, buy more…
A calm corner offers you something radical:

Enough.

2. The Case for Empty Space

There’s a quiet discomfort many people feel when faced with an empty space at home. A bare shelf. A blank wall. A room that feels unfinished. We rush to fill it. A plant here, a picture there, a basket, a chair, something — anything — to make it feel done.

But what if that emptiness isn’t a flaw?
What if it’s a gift?

Redefining “Empty”

In design, we’re taught to balance space and form. But in life, we’re rarely taught how to live with openness — in our calendars, in our homes, or in our thoughts. Empty space often gets mistaken for absence. As if something is wrong. As if something is missing.

But I’ve learned — and I often remind my clients — that space is not the opposite of beauty. It’s the frame that reveals it.

An empty wall can give rest to the eye.
A clear tabletop can calm the mind.
A room with less can feel like more.

The Psychology of Breathing Room

We absorb our environment on a nervous system level. Visual clutter often registers as mental noise. Full rooms, stacked counters, and overfilled shelves may be beautiful in their own way — but they ask for attention. Constantly.

Space, on the other hand, asks nothing of us. It creates a pause. A breath.

This isn’t about minimalism as a trend. It’s about clarity. A slow, considered way of shaping our environment so it supports the way we want to feel.

How to Welcome Empty Space at Home

Here’s what I suggest when clients feel uncomfortable with empty areas:

1. Name the discomfort
   Ask yourself what feels so wrong about a space being bare. Often, it’s not about the room — it’s about the internal pressure to finish, perfect, or prove.

2. Let it stay empty for a while
   Instead of filling the space immediately, live with it. Observe it. Notice how it affects your mood, your movement, your daily rhythm.

3. Reframe “empty” as “open”
   You’re not neglecting the space. You’re letting it breathe. You're letting yourself breathe.

4. Curate consciously if needed
   If you do add something, let it be something with purpose or story — not something added just to avoid silence.

Design Is Not About Filling

True design is not about adding more. It’s about shaping experience. The most powerful interiors I’ve seen are not the most lavish or complete — they are the most aware.

Empty space is not a mistake. It’s a choice.
One that says: I value clarity. I value calm. I value being able to see and feel what matters.

A Final Reflection

We often try to fill our homes the way we fill our time — quickly, completely, unconsciously. But when you make peace with space, something unexpected happens. You start to notice light. Air. Shadow. Presence.

And you realize that in the quiet, there’s already enough.

3. Styling with Texture, Not Stuff

When a space feels flat or uninspired, the first instinct is often to add something new. A print. A pillow. A statement piece. But more doesn’t always mean better. In fact, it’s often the subtle details — the quiet layers — that create the most richness in a room.

This is where texture becomes your greatest ally.

Texture doesn’t demand attention. It invites it. It creates depth, warmth, and tactile interest — without clutter or excess.

What Is Texture in Styling?

Texture is how something feels, or looks like it would feel. It’s the roughness of linen, the softness of wool, the grain in wood, the cool touch of stone, the warm irregularity of handmade ceramics.

We often think of “style” as visual. But texture speaks to the senses. It draws you in. It slows you down. It makes a space feel lived-in and welcoming, even when it’s simple.

A well-textured space can feel full without being busy. Balanced without being symmetrical. Alive without being loud.

The Power of Subtle Layers

One of the most calming ways to style a home is to focus less on objects, and more on layers. Think of a space not in terms of how many things are in it, but in terms of how many feelings it offers.

You can create depth through:

• Textiles – a crumpled linen throw, a wool rug, a velvet cushion

• Natural materials – unfinished wood, hand-thrown ceramics, woven baskets

• Contrasts – matte and shiny, smooth and coarse, light and shadow

These details speak quietly — but they add up to a space that feels deeply personal and grounded.

How to Style with Texture Instead of Stuff

Here’s what I guide my clients through when they want to enrich a space without overfilling it:

1. Start with one natural element
   A wood side table, a woven chair, or a stone bowl can bring warmth without adding visual weight.

2. Layer with purpose
   Instead of adding more items, look at what can be swapped. A synthetic pillow cover for a linen one. A smooth pot for a textured ceramic. Let each choice enhance what's already there.

3. Play with light
   Textures respond beautifully to changing light. Positioning items near a window or in shadow can create a poetic sense of movement and mood throughout the day.

4. Don’t chase perfection
   Embrace imperfections — the fray of a natural fiber, the asymmetry of something handmade. These bring humanity into the home.

A Home You Can Feel

When you shift from styling with stuff to styling with texture, your home starts to breathe differently. You’re not performing — you’re expressing. You’re not decorating for impact — you’re creating connection.

And you begin to feel that your home isn’t just pretty. It’s nourishing.

So, here we are, please comment and let me know what your would like me to cover next. I'm always here to support, just get in touch.

Calm Home

Monika Griffith

Founder 

Viva Habitat 

Visit my group in LinkedIn, you’re invited to try the challenges, share your before & after (big or small!), ask for feedback, or simply say, “I’m stuck—where do I begin?

Link: Intentional Home Styling by Viva Habitat