Clodagh on domestic tranquility

The New York Times  recently went shopping with Irish native, Big Apple-based interior design hero Clodagh. In the daily, the feng shui illuminated designer is quoted as saying, "Your home environment should be your nanny." It should make you feel "welcomed and warmed" as soon as you walk in the door. I am in total agreement. I believe every room of your home should embrace you with its aesthetically satisfying harmony.

True to her feng shui training, Clodagh asserts in the Times and in all her writing that clutter, mess and disorder are the enemies of that warm and tranquil feeling we seek to create. Clodagh is also true to her f.s. lineage when she enjoins us to invest in a good, tranquility-inducing water feature in our entryways.

In the Times, Clodagh counsels us to evict furniture from a previous and negatively charged relationship, and to spend our money, wisely, on a mattress and a good dining table - the latter to encourage gathering and community. The table the one-named designer chose in the Times retails for a challenging $9,000, but I've seen some lovely ones lately at both Arhaus and Create and Barrel for less than a fourth of that amount. 

Clodagh's most recent book is Your Home, Your Sanctuary. I will have more to say on home as scantuary when I spend a few words on Barbara Brown Taylor's Altar in the World. 
Jo