What makes a home?
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Posted by: Caféstudy
31st Jul 2019 01:38pm
A recent study released by IKEA revealed that homes don't always feel like home, and some people reported feeling more at home in their cars. With companies around Australia offering more and more products to make our homes look, feel and function better, we wanted to know what it is that makes a home feel like home. We took the question to our Caféstudy community to find out just what you think.
Your responses prove that, despite the millions of dollars spent every year on products for home, there is very little that can be bought that turns a house into a home.
Instead, it’s the people, pets, and memories that make people feel secure and comfortable. Home is a collection of emotional, rather than tangible, attributes.
"For me, my home is anywhere that my two furry companions and myself bed down."
"My home feels like a home when pieces of personality and stories are in it, whether it be pictures, something I made myself, furniture that I bought for varying reasons along the way, or goofy things that don't make it look like everybody else's house and more like "mine"."
"We only moved here in January but as long as we have our pets, my adult kids are here, then it has everything we need, it is home."
"The mess, the chaos, but most of all the family - my two daughters and our twenty year old cat make our home what it is."
So if the feeling of home can’t be bought, what can brands do to truly appeal to homemakers?
To be really successful and to appeal to the emotional, they must look beyond the functional and ensure that their products enhance and promote the emotional ties of home. This might be, for example, by delivering security, comfort, and familiarity, or reinforcing the personality of the people who live there.
"A home should be a place where you feel immediate comfort as soon as you walk in the door. Whether it be the look, the feel, maybe even the smells or the temperature."
"Home is somewhere you can put your feet up and relax. You can choose what furniture, what decorations you like. It's a place where you have privacy. When visitors come they know a little about what you are like from the atmosphere, surroundings etc."
It also means that the types of products that make a home go far beyond furniture and decorations. The smells and experiences that permeate a home create some of the most powerful bonds.
"It feels like home when there are good smells in the kitchen, music playing and wine in the fridge."
Comments 4
RainbowC
My home is where I've created my memories with those I love, those I've connected with along the way and the adventures I've had. It's the place where people feel relaxed, comfortable and loved, with my own personality and tastes entwined in it. It's the place that would tell my story if the walls could talk.
chickenman
home is a place where one feels content and safe. a place where happy memories are made.
Deb61
Home is where you have your own personalised touch and comforts and surrounded by family. A functional place where you can do the things you enjoy and feel safe.
Yqsymnx
Not only as a place of memories, but perhaps another way to think about it: the amount of time spent developing the place.
Akin to embodying organisational change by involving participants, being involved in changes around the house embody a person to claim their home. Intimately knowing the pros and cons, benefits and faults, best and worst parts, provides for an inhabitant to enjoy their abode and relate to it in a more holistic sense. This knowledge possession increases their awareness and security within their fortress and thus they feel the most comfortable here, which make it their home, their nest, their place of sanctuary.