If you haven’t yet subscribed to my Substack, it’s where I get a little more personal—writing from the heart about self-care, motherhood, wellness, and all things in between. My community loved this post there, so I wanted to share an excerpt with you here.

One of my favorite feelings in the world is walking in my front door after a trip. No matter how good the vacation, how beautiful the hotel, or how perfect the weather—when I step inside my home, it feels like a deep exhale. There’s the familiar scent (we’re always burning this candle, so that salty air and citrus have become the smell of home), I open up the sheer curtains in our living room to let in the light, and kick off my shoes to feel the soft rug under my feet. My shoulders drop, and I pull on the cozy sweats that tell my brain it’s time to relax.

I used to think this feeling was just about familiarity, but over the years, I’ve realized it’s so much more than that. The way my home feels isn’t an accident—it’s the result of hundreds of small, intentional design choices I’ve made with one goal in mind: to create a space that doesn’t just look beautiful, but actually calms my nervous system.

Most of us think about home design in aesthetic terms only. Does this couch look good? Do these throw pillows match? Is it on trend? But I’ve come to think of design as a way of speaking to all the senses and signaling to my nervous system how I want to feel.

Every room in your house makes you feel something. The visual noise, the lighting, the sounds, the scents, the textures—they’re all sending signals to your brain and body. And when you start paying attention to those signals and deciding how you want your home to feel, you can start designing in a way that doesn’t just look good on Pinterest, but genuinely supports your well-being.

The Five Senses Framework

I like to break it down into five categories: what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you touch, and what you experience (that last one is about bringing nature into your home, more on that below). When I’m making a design decision for our home (and lately, for our Malibu renovation), I’m thinking about how the entire space will speak to the senses.

This Substack post dives into the intentional design choices that make life feel calmer and more purposeful. When I follow them, I’m more present, less frazzled, and somehow the day stretches a little longer.

Unlock the full post by subscribing here.