Why Your Home Should Feel Like a Hug

Written by: David Mucci, David Mucci Interiors

Hello Dear Reader.  I have been thinking a lot about the fact that I can’t hug people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is hard for me because I am Italian and hence affectionate and hence a hugger!  Hugging is one of the most underrated and powerful things you can do to make the world just a little bit better.  That is why my Mom, God rest her, always told me to give away hugs freely and generously.  And I do.  Or I did.  Until March when the hug factory closed its doors.

The reason I bring this up, Dear Reader, is that I often say to my clients that, “Your home should feel like a hug!”  I have had more than one client burst into tears at the thought.  Why do they cry, you ask?  Well, the real estate industry has done a bang-up job of convincing people that real estate is a ‘good investment’ rather than your home.  We have been coached to look at a property, especially our own, as a thing with monetary and not spiritual value.  This is a false dichotomy!

Where do we go when someone dies?  Home.  Where do we go after a breakup? Home.  Where do we go when we lose a job?  Home.  Where do we go when we want to wear something with an elastic waistband and crush up truffle-flavored potato chips into our dulce de leech ice cream?  Home.  Where do we go when we want to binge-watch that new Jane Austin interpretation on PBS’ Masterpiece?  Home.  WE GO HOME… and yet… we hear, “You shouldn’t do purple carpet because of resale value – you’ll never get your money back.”

RESALE VALUE – FIGHTING WORDS FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS EVERYWHERE.

Designers, Dear Reader, are here to bring beauty, comfort and hence, healing into the world through three-dimensional space.  We exist to make your house into a HOME where you can feel safe, recharged and refreshed… HUGGED, if you will… purple carpet and all.

Painting your walls beige will not feel like a hug.  Buying brown furniture will not make you feel safe.  A grey kitchen will not make you feel recharged.

As a designer, I strive to make the built world transcend ‘resale value’ and mean something to YOU.  I want your space to reflect who YOU are not what Realtors want to see. 

Let me ask you this, Dear Reader – when you get to the end of your life, are you going to be glad that you used travertine in the shower and painted the walls taupe? 

OR 

Will you exclaim to all those gathered ‘round the gurney, “Remember when I upholstered the walls in caramel leather with bronze nailhead trim; put smoked mirrors on the ceiling; installed h22’, lined blue velvet drapes motorized so they could open with a touch of a button??!!!?”

And everyone smiles and says, “Yeah.  That was fabulous!!!”

And then someone, with a smirk and a twinkle says softly, “My favorite part was the purple carpet…”

Screw ‘resale value’ to the sticking place and let’s do this.  Let’s get to living! 

Let’s get to hugging!