The Secret to Great Design? It Starts with Preparation – Here’s How I Get Ready for Real Life

There’s a moment in every home – usually around 4 pm – when real life quietly takes over. Backpacks get dropped in the entryway, junk mail multiplies faster than fruit flies, and toys somehow form a colony in the living room like they’re paying rent. No matter how beautiful a home is, living in it always brings stuff.

That’s exactly why designing for real life is less about chasing perfection and more about thoughtful preparation. A truly well-designed home doesn’t hide the signs of everyday life – it anticipates them, and creates spaces where they can exist gracefully.

The Storage Reality Check

Let’s start with the biggest, most relatable design question: where on earth does all your stuff go?

If you have kids, you already know – the stuff never stops. It arrives from school, birthday parties, sports, craft sessions, and grandparents who insist on gifting sets with 42 pieces. Babies have gear, toddlers have toys, middle-schoolers have hobbies, and teenagers have sports equipment – none of it small, subtle, or particularly cooperative with your carefully curated aesthetic.

Good storage ideas and home organization are not a luxury; it’s the backbone of a home that actually works. And here’s the secret: every home needs more of it than you think, and most of it needs to be hidden. Open shelving can look beautiful, but only if you have the patience of a professional organiser. For the rest of us, closed doors are a blessing.

Some of the most elegant storage is disguised in everyday furniture:

• Media cabinets with deep drawers for remotes, controllers, and the mystery cords no one dares throw away.
• Antique hutches that look like curated treasures but secretly house every board game your children have ever begged to play.
• Sofa tables with hidden compartments to catch the things that would otherwise end up on the floor – or under the sofa, where dust bunnies lie in wait.
• Storage ottomans that double as seating but are really clever toy vaults.
• Entry benches with baskets that swallow shoes, hats, gloves, and any object that defies categorisation.

A home has to do a lot, and your furniture should do the same – beautifully, quietly, and without fuss.

Make It Functional and Beautiful

Here’s a common misconception: functional furniture can’t be beautiful. That’s simply not true. Some of the most striking pieces are the ones quietly doing the heavy lifting – you just need to see them in a different light. Sure, it’s easy to hop online and grab the IKEA square console with eight matching baskets, but we can do better.

A well-crafted media cabinet can set the tone for an entire room. A vintage sideboard can elevate a dining space while secretly stashing a lifetime supply of birthday candles and themed napkins. A tall cabinet can even become a sculptural centerpiece if you style it intentionally – display your glassware, let it shine!

Function and beauty aren’t opposites – they’re roommates who actually get along surprisingly well. When everything has its place, your home feels calmer, cleaner, and yes, a little more grown-up… even if “grown-up” feels like a stretch most days.

Fabric Protection, Always

Once your storage is sorted, it’s time to face another inescapable truth of daily life: spills happen. Toddlers, teenagers, pets, dinner guests – or just your own love of red wine – will find a way to hit the upholstery. I promise it.

Which is why I say, loudly and with love: fabric-guard everything. Yes, everything. Your sofa. Dining chairs. Ottomans. Even that adorable mudroom bench everyone assumes is 'just for looking.' Protect it.

Modern fabric protectants aren’t crunchy, shiny, or tent-like – they’re soft, invisible, and genuinely life-changing. Pair them with performance fabrics, and suddenly a grape squish or a rogue paintbrush no longer sends you into panic mode.

A protected sofa isn’t just furniture – it’s a permission slip to live normally. And honestly? Permission slips are vastly underrated.

Break the Rules – They Weren’t Written for Your Life Anyway

Now here’s my favorite part of designing for real life: you get to break the rules.

Yes, designers talk about space-planning guidelines, ideal walkway clearances, and furniture placement formulas – but those rules don’t know how you live. They don’t know where the morning light hits just right, where your kids naturally drop their stuff, or the corner you gravitate to when you need a pocket of quiet.

And honestly? The rule-breaking homes are almost always the most interesting.

For example: right now, I’m sitting on the floor at my coffee table writing this. Why? Because I like sitting by the fire, and apparently this is where my creativity showed up today. Full transparency: I’m also procrastinating cleaning up the kids’ toy city behind me. Eventually, those toys will migrate back into the cabinet, but for now, they’re serving as inspiration.

Which brings me to that age-old question: ‘How do I make living in my home look good?’

Part of the answer is accepting that a lived-in home comes with signs of life. The other part is designing spaces that evolve, flex, and support whatever chaos the day brings. Everyone lives differently—your home should be allowed to follow your lead.

Homes Designed for Living, Not Just Looking

Designing for real life doesn’t mean lowering your aesthetic standards – it means raising the bar for how your home should feel. The most beautiful homes aren’t the ones where nothing is ever out of place; they’re the ones that support you through the comings and goings of everyday life.

A home where everything has a place to land.

A home where multifunctional furniture does more than just fill a room.

A home where spills aren’t treated like disasters.

A home that breaks a few rules – and looks better for it.

When design quietly works behind the scenes, life becomes the part that truly shines.