It’s not just four walls. And it’s rarely just one place.
We often hear "home is where the heart is," but what does that really mean? If you're like many of our clients - global citizens, high-achievers, cross-cultural souls - the idea of “home” feels far more layered. It's less about geography, and more about belonging, identity, and memory.
In today’s world, home is not a static address. It's an emotional ecosystem - and understanding this can change the way we design and experience our spaces.
Myth 1: Home is a single, permanent location.
Most people associate "home" with one fixed place - often their childhood house or current address. But this thinking overlooks the emotional side of home, especially for those who move frequently. Home can, and should, evolve with you.
Myth 2: A minimalist home is a better home.
Minimalism is often portrayed as the ultimate design goal. But too much minimalism can erase personality, culture, and lived experience. Regardless of whether you're a minimalist or a maximalist, what matters most is intention - curating elements that reflect your identity and story.
Myth 3: You need to recreate the same home feeling everywhere.
Trying to replicate your old home in every new place can actually hold you back. Instead of imitation, what if we embraced evolution? Every chapter of your life deserves a home that reflects who you are now - not just who you were before.
Rather than thinking of home as a static location, imagine it as an emotional ecosystem - a dynamic space that reflects your identity, honours memory, responds to your rhythm, and supports how you live now.
Psychiatrist John Bowlby, known for his work in attachment theory, suggested we all need a secure base - a place or person from which we explore the world and to which we can return. In this sense, home functions not just as physical shelter, but as emotional grounding. It doesn't need to be forever, but it should feel emotionally stable - a space to restore and recharge.
Place attachment theory supports this too: we bond with spaces through memory, rituals, and meaning - not just through ownership or duration. Simple details - a patch of sunlight, a cozy corner, a beloved object - can carry more emotional weight than you might think.
Across cultures, we see rituals that express this instinct:
The common thread? Home is an active experience, not just a static place.
Home doesn't have to be singular. It can be a network of places that hold different parts of you.
I feel this clearly in my own life. My home studio is where creativity, energy, and inspiration live - a space where ideas are born and shaped.
My living space invites a different rhythm: calm, slow, and reflective, the place where I pause, recharge, and connect.
When I visit my parents’ house in Amman, stepping into the room where I once lived, I’m wrapped in waves of nostalgia and reflection. It’s not my childhood room, but it holds pieces of me - old photographs, jewelry, and small objects I kept, even in my most ruthless decluttering phases, because they carry the memory of who I was and the journey to who I am now.
Similarly, many of my clients move fluidly between homes that nurture different facets of their lives.
One client, based in Geneva, brought his favourite artworks to his beach villa here, allowing the emotional resonance of his primary home to flow into his retreat space.
A Saudi family, who escape to their downtown Dubai apartment during the cooler months, chose to commission a piece of art inspired by the vibrant cityscape around them — a way to root their Dubai home within its unique context.
And a French-South American couple, whose Abu Dhabi apartment overlooks the ocean and golf course, wanted their space to feel like an extension of their global life - elegant, welcoming, and infused with the spirit of their experiences.
Each home is different, yet each holds a thread of identity — evolving, adapting, but always rooted in feeling.
Here’s the heart of it (pun intended):
1. Accept that home evolves.
You don't have to define it once and for all. Let it grow with you.
2. Curate intentionally.
Your art, books, textures, and keepsakes - the soul of your space - can travel with you.
3. Don’t replicate; respond.
Rather than copying a past home, let your new space speak to your present self - and the context around you.
4. Define what home feels like for you.
Is it stillness? Energy? Belonging? Safety? Curate around feeling, not just furniture.
Maybe this feels too fluid or "woo-woo" for you. Maybe you’re thinking:
“I travel too much to feel at home anywhere.”
But that's exactly when having spaces that emotionally anchor you becomes most important. One client we worked with - who rents an apartment and spends more than 60% of the year traveling - found that coming home felt “like an exhale” and made all the difference in restoring his energy when he wasn’t traveling.
“Does having multiple homes mean having to own multiple properties?”
Not necessarily. Home doesn't have to be tied to ownership, or even permanence. It can be found in the way you inhabit a place - whether it’s yours, borrowed, or temporary. And even within a single home, you can create spaces that respond to different parts of your life: a place to work, a place to gather, a place to dream.
“I want to keep it minimal.”
Minimalism can be beautiful - but minimal doesn’t have to mean empty. Even one meaningful object - a painting, a family photo, a textured throw - can hold your story.
“I don’t know what home feels like.”
That’s okay. Start simple. Pay attention to spaces that make you breathe a little deeper. Where you feel most like yourself - that’s the beginning of home.
Home isn’t just a place you arrive at.
It’s the feeling you create, intentionally, wherever life takes you.
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