The one rule I follow in every room

Every Room Needs Breathing Space

There’s a quiet kind of luxury I’ve come to love—one that isn’t loud or over-styled. It doesn’t rely on expensive pieces or dramatic gestures. It’s something much simpler, and harder to fake: breathing space.

Every room I design—or live in—follows this rule:

Leave room for pause. For stillness. For space to exhale.

When I walk into a room that feels right, it’s rarely because of what’s in it. It’s because of what isn’t. There’s a kind of calm that comes from not filling every corner. From letting a single piece—whether it’s a linen-draped bed, a ceramic vessel, or a shaft of natural light—have room to be noticed.

Breathing space isn’t about being minimalist for the sake of it. It’s about allowing your home to feel alive and generous.

A clear stretch of bench.

A chair left intentionally unstyled.

A quiet space beneath a window where morning light gathers and nothing interrupts it.

In our home, I try to give each room one or two moments like that.

Something undone. Something open.

It’s how I find rhythm between the pieces I love, and it’s what keeps a space from feeling visually overwhelming.

We live in a world that’s always asking us to do more, add more, be more. But in my home—and in the spaces we create for The Sustainable Life Co—I want the design to say the opposite:

You’re allowed to rest here.

You don’t need to fill every gap.

You can just… be.

And sometimes, the most beautiful thing in a room is the space that’s been left alone.

— Nancy

Founder, The Sustainable Life Co