Home.
A little tiny word with enormous meaning.
What feelings and emotions does the word ‘home’ evoke? What does it mean to you?
I’ve been thinking about this long and hard and I can’t think of a single straight answer. Home means so many different things to me. I can’t narrow it down to just one thing. So here are the first things that spring to mind.
Home is feeling safe and secure.
It’s pulling up outside the house and feeling relief and excitement wash over me, that I’m back in the place I feel the happiest.
It’s hearing my boy’s key turn in the lock — then hearing him whistle. Something he’s done ever since we’ve been together. That two-tone whistle is synonymous with home.
Home is our funny, beautiful cottage with it’s wonky walls and tin roof. And no, I’m not joking. It really does have a tin roof ;)
It’s sitting around the kitchen table, listening to the radio, with the warmth of the AGA enveloping us.
Home is snuggling in our giant bed, strewn with books and magazines — on a Saturday morning — with my three lovely boys (tiny boys and big, man-shaped boy).
Home is bimbling about in the garden, safely enclosed by mellow brick walls, listening to my babies laugh as they play around us.
It’s the excitement of choosing a tree from the farm, then decorating it with all of the trinkets we’ve collected over the years, with Christmas music playing in the background.
Home is the big Chinese cabinet that we’ve had in every house we’ve ever lived in. It’s our cats and chickens. It’s our house-plant called Gerald.
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Home is Wherever We are Together.
‘Home is Wherever We Are Together’ is really what home’s all about though, I guess. It doesn’t matter where I am really; as long as I’m with my little family, I am home.
I’ve designed the above image as a free printable, so you can print it out and pop it in a frame if you like it. Click on the link below to download the high res PDF.
What does home mean to you? Would you have written another quote? Let me know! I’m always looking for inspiration for new designs for my shop! :)
Caro Davies is a former art-director turned writer and content-creator, and editor behind UK lifestyle blog The Listed Home. She writes about home-related topics, from interiors and DIY to food and craft. The Listed Home has been featured in various publications, including Ideal Home, Grazia, and Homes & Antiques magazines.
This is such a lovely post and I agree – as long as I have my family with me then that is where my home is.
Thanks so much Karen. Yes — I think that’s the ultimate answer isn’t it? Home is wherever your family are. When all’s said and done, material possessions are just that. Home is a feeling more than a place.
What a beautiful post, love all the little things that mean home to you sounds pretty idyllic. LOVE your print, it is so cute and I have downloaded it hopefully display soon! xx
Thanks so much lovely! I could have written LOADS of things! I had to cut it down! The things I wrote are definitely the ones that spring to the forefront of my mind, that’s for sure x
Oh me too. I adore my home. You write such beautiful things Caro – I totally agree and can relate. You make me want to move in with you! Please adopt me. Jess xx
Thanks so much Jess — what a lovely comment! And yes — bring the family — we can all live in a commune :) My best has always wanted to do that!! LOL! Buy a massive mansion and all live together!!! Ha!
Your home sound so lovely and cosy – I love that you have a tin roof!!
Please can I come stay?!
The print is ace, thanks so much for sharing Caro! :) xx
HA, yes! We really DO!! It was put over the thatch in the war to stop the bombs setting the roof on fire.
And yes — DO come and stay!! We love a houseful of people and always have an open house policy! You’re welcome any time! :) x
Gorgeous post! And absolutely adore that printable. #HomeEtc x
Thanks so much Kaye! There were SO many versions of the printable!! Couldn’t narrow it down so ended up with my favourite colour!! You can’t go wrong with yellow!! ;) x
I love the print, Caro! I’m almost in two minds about home being where you are with your family. We lived in Switzerland for seven years and while it was lovely and my husband and two boys were there, it never, ever, ever felt like home. I think sometimes your heart is intricately linked with a place as well as people, and that place for me is the countryside where I grew up. Now that we’re back, it feels like everything is in place and I’m finally ‘home’.
Yes, I can see that if you were in a totally different landscape it still may feel a bit ‘off’. That said, I’m such a homemaker, as long as I was with my three boys I could be on the moon and make a nice little home for us ;)
You are right. Once you have your family around you, it doesn’t matter where you are. That said, I love my family home where I grew up and I love my own home one too. Both are quirky and cosy but completely different.
In Ireland we have a saying “Nil aon tintean mar do thinean fein” which means there is no fireside like your own fireside. I llove that one. It is our way of saying there is no place like home.
#HomeEtc.
Aaah what a gorgeous saying! Maybe I should create a printable with that on for all my Irish friends ;) Thanks so much for your comment xx
Aw this is a beautiful post and certainly got me thinking about what ‘Home’ means to me and my family. I love our home which we have been in for 14 years. Its filled with wonderful memories and happiness, and maybe an odd argument. Its our place where we can be safe, be happy and be content. x
Thanks so much Tracey! Wow! 14 years is such a long time to be in one place! We’ve managed 5 years in one house — that’s the longest we’ve ever been in one home! x
True – it’s not always about the things, it’s about the people and the safety they bring. #HomeEtc
Yes — there’s a lot to be said for the ‘feeling’ of home rather than the place — or even the objects — that are synonymous with home x
Aw can I move in?!! You make it sound so cosy, I know what you mean though I feel the same about my home. My favourite time is getting home on a Friday night, putting my pjs on and looking forward to a weekend with my favourite people :) Stevie x #HomeEtc
Haha! That’s so lovely that the words have conjured up an image. I LOVE our home — weekends are my favourite too. Wish they lasted longer! ;)
Lovely post. I am definitely a homey person but loved to escape it as you appreciate it more then too! The printable is pretty and a little reminder too! #homeEtc
Yep I’m definitely a real homebird too! Although I agree — getting away for a bit makes you appreciate it all the more x
Open house policy I see mentioned up there…totes coming to stay! I have this very vivid image in my head of your house. I have no doubt that it is absolutely blinking beautiful! As you know, I only moved into mine a year ago and it needs a lot of stuff doing to it to make it feel like home. That said, there is still something so wonderful about putting my key in the door and opening into our lovely long hallway and then hearing the other half do the same (if he hasn’t beaten me home!). #HomeEtc
Yay! The door is always open sweet-pea — you’d be more than welcome to come and stay! ;) We still need to do a lot here too… kitchen… our ensuite bathroom… the roof… the windows… the list is endless! x
How beautiful is this? What a stunning post and what a great idea and how super kind of you to do the free printable. You are amazing! #HomeETC :) xxx
Thanks so much Kat — that’s lovely of you. I think printables are a lovely thing to be able to give to people. Nice to share :)
Lovely post and good use of the word bimbling! I love buying stuff for the home and moving it all around and filling it with flowers. But if my four boys weren’t there to rampage through it and mess it all up, it would feel pretty hollow. x
Yep — I totally agree. No point having a ‘show-home’ as mu mum would say! A home is a home because of the people in it; which includes all their noise and mess!! ;)
What a lovely post, and such a pretty painting too x #HomeEtc
Thanks so much Lizzie :) So happy you like the print too! x
Aw Caro what a beautiful post, home is so important to me too. Snd what is the most important is the people in it. xx
Thank you Sarah!! I’m such a homebird — love everything about pottering about at home. But it is definitely all about the people in it!
Lovely post! Home is definitely where the family are all together! :)
P.s. Love that you have a tin roof and an AGA! :) xx
Thanks Jenny! Haha! It sounds like I’m living in another century doesn’t it!! ;)
This is lovely, my home is my safe place, my families safe place. There’s always something to do or improve, the list is never ending, but it’s our home and I love it! X
Ohmyword — it’s endless isn’t it?! Like painting the Forth Bridge — once you’ve got to the end, it all needs doing again! ;)
Fab post and so lovely of you to include a print that we can download. I completely agree with your quote and can’t think of anything that says it better. Thanks for hosting this fab linky – I love it! xx
Thanks so much Jemma! You’re very welcome — if you email the PDF to a print shop, they can print it, or you can print it at home :)
Ahh this is a lovely post, and I think that last one really does sum it up – Home is wherever we are together – it is so true. Love the printable :-) #HomeEtc
Sabrina x x
Thanks Sabrina! I’m so glad you like it :)
What a lovely, lovely post and a beautiful graphic – so sweet of you to make it downloadable for us all! I agree with you that home does have a special place in everyone’s hearts – wherever it may be #HomeEtc
Aah thanks so much that’s lovely of you. So glad you like the printable :)
Thanks so much Heledd :) It is beautiful in a higgledy piggledy kind of way. So happy you’ll put the print up :)
Such a beautiful post, you are right home should be such a happy place, I think its easy to forget about the little things that we love about home when life gets busy and stressful.
I love that print, and it would probably work really well in our hall way, I might have to print it out :)
x
Thanks Caroline! SO happy you like the print! If you do frame it, take a pic and let me see! :)
I love that and will totally be printing it out to hang in my home, thank you for providing to us for free! I am feeling so homesick lately (I’m living abroad and being an expat can be SO HARD) and I need the reminder from time to time that home is where I am now with my two boys.
Aah DO!! It’s lovely to think of it hanging up in people’s homes! :) Yes — I can imagine that it’s hard… that said, it would be harder if you weren’t with your lovely boys x
I love this, what a beautiful quote, I have pinned to print later for framing, I will send you a little pic when I do xxx
Aah that would be lovely!! :) Thanks pet! :)