Daydreaming About Your Home Makeover Projects

Most of us enjoy daydreaming about our perfect home. Do you ever think about your home just before falling to sleep? Instead of worrying about your tasks for tomorrow, try this exercise tonight: imagine you're arriving home. When your head hits your pillow, close your eyes and daydream about your homecoming. What do you see that greets you?

Daydream about easy changes or additions you can make that would make you smile when you get that first glimpse of home. Perhaps a few white flowers planted by the walkway or a refreshing tropical fern by the door or....

Think about your front door. Could a fresh coat of paint in a happy color help you feel joy? Visualize colors like snappy apple or silver pine green and rosy coffee au laits. Imagine your home from the curbside viewpoint and play with new colors for your front door.

Maybe you come home and park in a garage for security. If so, paint your connecting door a welcoming color and create a mini-entry inside with a mirror. Make your entrance just as welcoming as your formal entry for guests.

Next, in your dreams, open the door and what do you see that immediately greets you? What can you do so that the first glance makes you feel happy to be at home? Carefully examine the first thing you notice when you take your first step inside. Most of us look down to watch our step. A soft area rug makes your feet feel pampered. Look up. What catches your attention? People get so used to their accessories, they don't even notice them after awhile. Rearrange your pieces so they grab your attention anew.

Where do you go when you arrive home? Each of us has a ritual when we come home, whether we're conscious of it or not. Think about your first activity upon arrival. Make sure it's a pleasant task or change it.

Try to envision changes that you can make to achieve a harmonious home-coming. Besides organizational changes, home decorating changes can help you, too.

Keep daydreaming about your spaces and visualize your desired changes. Think about how you want your spaces to make you feel. For instance, if you want your kitchen to make you feel organized, take out cluttering accessories and repaint the walls a calming muted green. Maybe your dining area needs a facelift to bolster family conversations and a new large mirror would reflect shimmering candle light and happy faces.

Most home makers enjoy shopping for that perfect accessory, daydreaming about colors for their rooms, and planning a new look for their home. I'll bet you fall asleep before you get to your bedroom in your dreams.

Copyright © 2005 Jeanette J. Fisher

Jeanette Fisher, author of Joy to the Home Journal and interior design and real estate books, has researched the effects of environment on emotions for over 15 years. Besides flipping houses, Jeanette teaches college courses on Design Psychology and professional real estate investing seminars. For free Design Psychology reports, visit http://designpsych.com/

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Israeli Armored Personal Carriers drive to the Gaza Strip, near Israel's border with Gaza, southern Israel, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009.  Israeli tanks, infantry and aircraft hammered dozens of Hamas targets overnight Wednesday as Israel's leaders discussed whether to expand the 12-day operation meant to stop rocket fire into Israel. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)AP - Israel resumed its Gaza offensive Wednesday, bombing heavily around suspected smuggling tunnels near the border with Egypt after a three-hour lull to allow in humanitarian aid. Hamas responded with a rocket barrage. Despite the heavy fighting, strides were made on the diplomatic front with the U.S. throwing its weight behind a deal being brokered by France and Egypt.



President-elect Barack Obama gestures during a news conference at his transition office in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, where he introduced Nancy Killefer, not shown, to the newly created position of chief performance officer. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)AP - Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see," President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp down on other federal programs — even as he campaigned anew to spend the largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.



Illinois U.S. Senate Appointee Roland Burris, left, meets with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)AP - Senate Democrats beat a hasty retreat Wednesday from their rejection of Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama's successor, yielding to pressure from Obama himself and from senators irked that the standoff was draining attention and putting them in a bad light. Burris said with a smile he expected to join them "very shortly."



Workers put bullet proof glass on President-elect Barack Obama's Inaugural Reviewing Stand on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)AP - The upcoming inauguration of Barack Obama is an attractive target for international and domestic terrorists, but U.S. intelligence officials have no information about specific threats to the Jan. 20 event.



President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents, from left, George H.W. Bush, Bill  Clinton, and Jimmy Carter.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP - Confronting a grim economy and a Middle East on fire, Barack Obama turned Wednesday to perhaps the only people on the planet who understand what he's in for: the four living members of the U.S. presidents' club.



Vice President Dick Cheney waits for senators to arrive to administer re-enactments of the Senate oath, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, in the Old Senate Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday it would be a mistake for President-elect Barack Obama to scrap the Bush administration's terrorist-fighting policies designed to prevent future attacks on the U.S.



This undated handout illustration provided by The Johns Hopkins University shows the massive 30-foot wingspan of the toothless pteranodon, left, was surpassed by that of Hatzegopteryx, right, at 40 feet or more. Pterosaurs, sometimes weighed more than 500 pounds, and yet they soared above the other dinosaurs. Experts couldn't figure out how  because no bird can get that big could get off the ground. A new study has figured out how they did it: By leaping into the air from all fours - unlike any other flyers in history (except the vampire bats). (AP Photo/Johns Hopkins University, Mark Witton)AP - The Jurassic version of jumbo jets — huge flying creatures weighing hundreds of pounds — is a mystery of dinosaur-era flight: How did something so big get off the ground? A Johns Hopkins University biologist thinks he has figured out the answer.



In this Nov. 23, 2008 file photo, singer and actress Queen Latifah poses on the press line at the 2008 American Music Awards in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)AP - "The Dark Knight" could soar away with several trophies Wednesday night at the 35th annual People's Choice Awards. The Batman film will vie for awards in such categories as favorite cast, action movie, on-screen matchup and superhero.



AP - An eastern Pennsylvania man may face up to 37 years in prison for tearing open a neighbor's door with a chain saw. Police say 34-year-old Robert Kane began sawing through the front door of Jamie Zaleski's apartment in Scranton while Zaleski and several friends ran out the back.

In this Nov. 30, 2008 file photo, New York Jets coach Eric Mangini looks up at the scoreboard during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The Cleveland Browns have agreed to hire Eric Mangini as their head coach, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)AP - Eric Mangini is the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns, a week after being fired by the New York Jets. A person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press that Mangini will be introduced Thursday at a news conference at the team's headquarters in Berea. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Mangini's contract has not been finalized.



An Israeli soldier stands atop a vehicle after crossing into Israel from the northern Gaza Strip January 7, 2009. (Amir Cohen/Reuters)Reuters - Israeli aircraft and tanks pounded the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and troops battled Palestinian guerrillas on the ground as U.S. backing for a proposed truce raised expectations of an end to the 12-day-old offensive.



President Bush greets President-elect Barack Obama at the White House, November 10, 2008. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)Reuters - The U.S. budget deficit will swell to a record $1.186 trillion in fiscal 2009, congressional forecasters said on Wednesday, the result of an economic recession that has cut tax receipts and caused massive government bailouts of banks and automakers.



Senate-designate Roland Burris talks with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as Senator Richard Durbin sits in Reid's office on Capitol Hill, January 7, 2009. (Larry Downing/Reuters)Reuters - In an abrupt switch, Democratic leaders began talks on Wednesday to swear in Roland Burris, appointed by embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to replace President-elect Barack Obama in the U.S. Senate.



United Auto Workers (UAW) President Ron Gettelfinger (C) addresses the media as UAW Vice-Presidents listen at the UAW Solidarity House in Detroit, Michigan December 12, 2008. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)Reuters - United Auto Workers bargaining teams are arriving this week in Detroit as the union gears up for negotiations with General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC, which are mandated to cut labor costs under a $17.4 billion federal bailout.



Reuters - U.S. cities are vulnerable to an attack like the gun-and-grenade assault that terrorized Mumbai for three days and killed 179 people, the White House homeland security adviser said on Wednesday.

Reuters - The case of Ali al-Marri, accused of being an al Qaeda "sleeper" agent and held for 5-1/2 years at a U.S. military prison in South Carolina, will be an early test for President-elect Barack Obama.

Eggs are stacked up at an egg farm in San Diego County, July 29, 2008. (Mike Blake/Reuters)Reuters - An outbreak of salmonella food poisoning has made 388 people sick across 42 states, sending 18 percent of them to the hospital, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.



Bernard Madoff is escorted in a vehicle from Federal Court in New York, January 5, 2009. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)Reuters - Accused swindler Bernard Madoff should be jailed for violating a court order by mailing $1 million worth of diamonds, watches and other jewelry to friends and family, U.S. prosecutors told a court on Wednesday.



Smoke billows following an Israel air strike in Rafah near the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombing of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700.(AFP/Said Khatib)AFP - Israel on Wednesday approved an even tougher war on Hamas, warning residents to flee southern Gaza ahead of planned bombing of cross-border tunnels, as the Palestinian death toll passed 700.



A local worker controls a gas valve and the gas pressure at the gas-main center of FGSZ Natural Gas, in Vecses, Hungary. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday laid down terms for a resumption of Russian gas shipments via Ukraine to Europe as tens of thousands of Europeans suffered heating cuts amid freezing weather.(AFP/Attila Kisbenedek)AFP - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday laid down terms for a resumption of Russian gas shipments via Ukraine to Europe as tens of thousands of Europeans suffered heating cuts amid freezing weather.




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