The Wee-Small Adventures of Mini Clenney: A Room of Mini's Own

There is something quite intimate about creating a living space for someone you love.

Whether it's as simple as devising a reading nook or as complex as furnishing and decorating a house, "making" a home-dwelling for someone can be such a compassionate undertaking. After all, it requires taking into consideration the dweller's daily needs and tastes, as well as encourages them to take pleasure in the graciousness and beauty laid out especially for them. No matter how penny-tight the household, loveliness and order are always available to those who are resourceful and creative!

I feel very fortunate to have people in both Jason's family and my own who have communicated to me through example that home should be a welcoming, personalized space that can be a stabilizing influence on those who enter. It encourages those who live there to linger there together, and to bring in others who are in need of comfort. It can be a little microcosm of one's own to set in order when it seems that the world outside is ruthlessly chaotic. Best of all, it can be a reminder of the consistent care and concern of those who make it what it is.

In short, the loveliness of your personal space can be a gift to those who live in it.

Why do we love certain houses, and why do they seem to love us? It is the warmth of our individual hearts reflected in our surroundings.
~ T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings

One more application of paint, and Mini's nursery room will be wearing its permanent coat!

It went without stating from the beginning that Jason and I have wanted our little girl to have a space of her own where each detail will remind her of how much she is cared for. I'm no Doctor Spock (the child specialist, not the Vulcan/human Starfleet officer), but it's my conviction that a young child's surroundings influence him or her a great deal.

Speaking from personal experience, the thing I remember most clearly about my first home was the color yellow -- sunshine-yellow siding, goldenrod kitchen linoleum, my Winnie the Pooh mobile. Pleasant memories of the security I felt there probably weighed heavily on my subconscious when it was time to paint the interior of our current home. That's why most of it is as yeller as a big ol' stick of sweet cream butter.

Apart from that singular preference, I really try to keep from choosing decor in a themey, two-color palette style which seems so popular. Part of me likes the challenge of choosing a family of tones to work from instead of limiting the decorations to two or three specific colors. Perhaps this is also the part of me that thrives on spontanaety and likes to wind the toilet paper differently every time I put a new roll on the dispenser. As Bob Dylan elegantly stated, "Chaos is a friend of mine."

I think that this loose, instinctual feel of gathering shades and textures together will result in a truly one-of-a-kind room that our daughter will enjoy once she grows into an awareness of her surroundings. I can't wait to introduce her to the pleasures of putting her space in order in a manner that pleases her, whether that means giving her a dollar as I'm yard sale shopping and letting her pick out something that speaks to her, or choosing some outrageous color for her walls and teaching her how to paint her room.

As for now, she'll have to depend on us to decorate her small world.