When all is said and done, everyone wants their home to be a kind of meaningful refuge from the general chaos, drama, and hardship of the outside world. The dream is that you’ll be able to come home after a long day, enter an immaculately clean, warm, and life-affirming domain, and spend your free time rejuvenating yourself in the most meaningful possible way.
There are various conflicting viewpoints on the best way to structure a home so as to ensure that it fulfils this role to the greatest possible degree. Minimalism has been a big home-management trend in the last few years, with its emphasis on emptying your home of virtually everything that could be found within it, save for the essentials.
Then, some people strive to turn their homes into super-connected, high-tech replica spaceships from a time that yet exists in the future.
This article will take a different approach. Here are a few reasons why taking a “traditional” and broadly “low-tech” approach to your home can improve your life.
Traditional often implies craftsmanship and a degree of personality
If you asked most people, and if they were being honest with themselves when they answered, they would have to admit that there’s something of a qualitative difference between a finely crafted piece of oak living room furniture that’s been passed down through the generations, and the super-sleek, half-plastic, assemble-yourself production line kind of good that you’re likely to find in a modern design catalogue.
“Traditional” — especially insofar as it refers to furniture, simply implies a degree of craftsmanship and personality that is absent from a lot of what you’ll find on the market today. Traditional furnishings are generally built to last — which also means that they are likely to convey a meaningful story, and to have a line of continuity down the ages.
Your home is, in other words, less likely to feel like something produced in a factory, if it contains traditional vs modern furnishings.
Traditional tools and accessories may well be more robust than high-tech options
Consider this question: you own a physical, hardback book on one hand, and you own an ebook stored on your Kindle, on the other.
Which of these formats would you say is more robust? The super-modern, super-convenient option, or the traditional format that has been around, in one form or another, since time immemorial?
Well, perhaps the answer is pretty straightforward. We still have books from a thousand years ago, preserved in libraries, but it’s not exactly uncommon for digital services to become redundant or to expire, or to be subject to new legislation from year to year. Not long ago, the eReader service Nook withdrew its services from the UK market, leaving UK-based owners of its products truly high and dry.
A traditional book — or a traditional notebook, for that matter — is simply more robust and more truly “yours”, in some fundamental sense, than a digital equivalent.
Traditional furnishings give your home a timeless look and feel
There’s something meaningful and impressive — a certain degree of gravitas, you could say — in walking into a home which is traditionally furnished.
At the very least, it breaks the mould. It marks the owner out as someone who has something of a more timeless aesthetic, rather than being primarily influenced by modern style trends.
In some sense, taking the “traditional approach” in life can seem to anchor you to something a bit more timeless and real — and that, in turn, is certainly worth something.
13 Comments
Rosie (@greenrosielife)
Oh I could not agree with this more! I have always been a traditionalist and a firm believer in going for longevity through timeless quality designs.
Leila
Same here 🙂
Eva Katona
That is all so true – I like a little bit of eclectic mix of traditional and modern 🙂
Leila
I agree. Thanks Eva!
Amanda Blackburn
I love your ideas and your post is so lovely. I like traditional ideas mixed with modern.
Leila
Thank you Amanda!
Janet Yarwood
I definitely prefer the traditional look. It feels so much more homely.
Leila
Thanks Janet!
Tracey Kifford
I’m afraid I’m the opposite – I love new things. Brand new homes, new furniture that can be changed with changing fashion. I’m just not one for investment pieces I’m afraid
Leila
I know investment into new pieces can be expensive.
Rachel
Oh I definitely agree! I like a mix of modern and traditional x
Leila
Me too 🙂
Claire
I prefer new and modern for interiors. I like the mix of a traditional building with a modern interior