Stephanie Pedersen - American Cozy: Hygge-Inspired Ways to Create Comfort & Happiness

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Text 2018 Stephanie Pedersen
Cover and illustrations 2018 Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

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ISBN 978-1-4549-3967-2

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Cover design by Elizabeth Mihaltse Lindy
Interior design by Gavin Motnyk
Illustrations by Mitch Blunt

To my dear husband, Richard Joseph Demler, and

our beloved sons: Leif Christian Pedersen, Anders

Gyldenvalde Pedersen, and Axel SuneLund Pedersen.

You are my favorite American family!

Americans are welcoming people. We love to useand shareour time, our resources, and our homes.

I call this American cozy. Its a celebration of our unique brand of comfort, personality, and togetherness.

I was introduced to American cozy when I moved as a child to the United States from Canberra, Australia, where my parents had been living, working, and attending university. Our first American stop was the small Nevada town of Logandale, near the Arizona and Utah borders. This was the home of my mothers parents, the Hutchings family. Their house, though overfilled with furniture and mementos, felt friendly. It was crowded with a mix of antique and new furnishings. Each roomfrom paint to flooringwas a different color. Each table and shelf displayed a mix of knickknacks. Framed family photos, religious sayings, oil paintings of the desert, and needlepoint hangings competed for space on each wall (even the garage and storage shed walls). The oversized chairs and sofas were draped with homemade afghans. And, best of all, their home was perfumed with the permanent aroma of pot roast and chocolate chip cookies.

If they werent cooking or eating, cleaning or wandering around outdoors, my grandparents and anyone else who was visiting would congregate in the living room, sitting on the sofas and chairs, using the organ and piano benches as seats, or (usually the kids) reclining on the shag carpet. Together, wed talk, watch television, play checkers, or even nap, as my grandparents would sit in their matching recliners and read scripture (my grandmother) or crochet (my grandfather).

Ever since then, I have thought fondly of American homes. The colors, knickknacks, and aromas may change depending upon the lives inside, but the homes remain places of warmth, comfort, and togetherness, decorated in the trimmings of lives well lived. In fact, from the stories my American friends tell, the Hutchings homestead wasnt that much different from their own families homes.

And theres a good reason for that. We Americans love places and things that feel inviting. Our sofas, for instance, must actually feel great to sink into. Our artwork has sentimental value. We like photographs. We adore showcasing our signature style, and we enjoy weaving personal interests into our space (be that our home, our yard, our car, or our office). Whether it is using mounted guitars as art, hanging a homemade quilt on our office wall, or painting a garage door with chalkboard paint so our kids can display their artistic skill, most American spaces comfortably show off their owners personalities.

American cozy is picnics, multigenerational walks around the neighborhood at sunset, barbecues, and pool parties. Its field days, chatting with neighbors over the hedges, holiday dinners, and houseguests. Its brunch, happy hour, and lemonade sipped on the porch. But we struggle to find the time for these elemental pleasures. In fact, Americans collective Achilles heel is too much: too much stuff crammed into spaces, too many activities, too many obligations, too much to do. We are so overscheduled that, while we have fond childhood memories of these comforting activitiesand we deeply desire to make them part of our daily livesfew of us are able to enjoy them today.

Despite the frenzied, adrenaline-fueled world we live in, many of us cant shake the feeling that there must be a slower, more magical, more comfortable way to get by in the world.

Speaking for myself, for years my life looked like most everyone elses life: get up, get the kids ready for school (frantically looking for keys, a sons missing tie, lost homework...), dash to work, get the kids, make dinner, clean, help with homework, do laundry, prepare for the next day, shower, go to bed. Wake up. Repeat.

Then one day I woke up and realized that I did not love my home, my work, my schedule, or even my life. All of these were crammed full of stuff: appointments, activities, and obligations that meant nothing (or very little) to me. I thought back to my childhood and remembered the quietude I had experienced when I looked out a window, weeded our kitchen garden, made cookies with my friends, or stretched out on the living floor to watch television with my siblings.

In an effort to retrieve some of that peace, I stopped answering my phone, texts, and emails. I avoided social media platforms. I said no to assignments that didnt pay well. I told my kids they could be in either the school chorus or the local opera companys fall performance. I set aside a 30-minute family cleanup period each evening so I wouldnt be spending precious time folding laundry all by myself. And I started using my slow cooker.

All this cutting back helped immensely. But even as my life became less frenzied, it still didnt exactly feel peaceful. So I went deeper, experimenting with lifestyle systems from other countries. First I played with feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of right placement. Then I tried the Kondo method of living that is so popular in modern Japan. And while these practices helped my home feel clean, clear, and more livable, they did not create those feelings of warmth and calm that I so craved.