The Interiors Edit: Embracing the back to school feeling at home
As autumn rolls around, embrace that new season feeling in your home with some simple shifts, says interior designer Tanya Neufeld Flanagan.
As summer sighs its last breath, we start hearing that it’s time to get focused again – at work, with our personal lives, and also with our homes. Gone are the carefree days of lounging in the park, going to gigs, weekends away and summer weddings abroad.
So when it comes to our homes, how can we make this inspiring, rather than guilt-inducing?
This summer in Ireland was unlike few others. Endless sunshine, the kind that makes you suspicious when you leave the house without a coat and delighted when you walk home in just a light dress after a night out.
After a season so full of lightness and escape, September arrives with its familiar whisper of routine. We should welcome that shift without punishing ourselves for having enjoyed the looser, freer rhythm of summer. That is the nature of seasons. Animals and plants follow this ebb and flow without chastising themselves.
The last thing anyone needs right now, between housing shortages, sky-high renovation costs, and the general cost of living, is a sanctimonious interiors checklist. Instead, what if “back to school” at home was more about creating small moments of joy, function, and comfort for the months ahead?
Here are six ways to begin.
Start embarrassingly small
Forget grand plans. Pick one corner. The armchair you actually sit in, the bit of kitchen counter that always ends up cluttered, the desk you abandoned in June.
Ask: how do I want this one spot to feel in October? A lamp in the right place, shifting where you dump keys and post, or bringing a spare chair from the dining room into an empty corner in a hall or bedroom can be transformative.
Edit, don’t acquire
Space is precious. Physically but also emotionally. Before you buy another storage basket, ask what can give you space. That bench no one ever sits on? The shelf full of chipped, mismatched mugs? Time to donate or re-sell.
Editing gives you the lightness you’re craving, without spending a cent. This can be especially rewarding when you re-style shelves, bedside tables, consoles, and the like.
Photo: HK Living
Photo: Hay
Rearrange the furniture
We underestimate how powerful a shuffle can be. Move the sofa to catch the autumn light. Pull the dining table away from the wall so it actually feels like a gathering place. Create a clear path between rooms. Your home will feel new, even though nothing actually is.
Embrace the season, don’t fight it
September is not July. The light is lower, the evenings draw in. Rather than mourning the late sunsets, lean in. A throw across the sofa, a lamp in a dark corner, a smoldering candle in a giant bowl. Consider where you can tidy away damp coats and where you might add some softness with a rug, mat or runner as you take off dirty shoes.
Seasonal updates > structural upheaval
With construction costs as high as they are, now is not the time to knock through a wall unless you absolutely have to. But you can still change how a space feels. An area rug, a large piece of art or a new colour on the walls can transform spaces. Lighting is another under-utilised element – a feature pendant and removing spotlights, adding dimmers, can all make spaces cosier and more flexible to different uses over the course of a year.
Check in to see what matters to you
Seasons changing are a great opportunity to take stock and figure out if where you’re living is inspiring you and driving you everyday. If not, what can be done? Is it time to part ways with a flatmate, to stop working out of the living room, or host more dinners? Often the way we feel about our spaces is so much bigger than furniture and colours, and perhaps this is the first question to consider as you commence any home improvement journey.
A “back to school” reset should feel supportive. It’s not about perfecting your home for other people’s eyes. It’s about optimising it to get you through the shorter days and longer nights with a little more ease.
So, rather than marching into September with guilt and a to-do list, approach your home with curiosity.
What small changes would make daily life feel better? What corner could become your landing spot? Even the tiniest adjustments can shift the mood of a room – and the mood of the person who lives there. That’s the kind of focus worth carrying into autumn.
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