Michaels - Make Room for What You Love

What Readers Are Saying About

Love the Home You Have and The Inspired Room

Melissa shares how to be content and happy in our home, inspiring our home with the things we love and the people we cherish.

Ann Voskamp, New York Times bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts

Melissa Michaels book The Inspired Room is full of smart, practical advice and packed with inspiration to spare. The photos are gorgeous and accompanied by helpful tips and details, and the writing lifts you up and makes you excited to dive into home decor headfirst!

Sherry Petersik, New York Times bestselling author of Young House Love

I just love Melissas approach to decorating to give yourself time to let the process of decorating happen in your home, give yourself grace, and enjoy the process. She really speaks to my heart and brings out the best in me when it comes to my home.

Rachel Dowd, Sweet and Simple Home (blog)

Ive read The Inspired Room cover to cover, and its going to be one of the most useful books Ive ever owned. Melissa is a great teacher, and designer, and is so very humble, and she just has that you can do it spirit about her.

Sandy Coughlin, Reluctant Entertainer (blog)

Love the Home You Have is what all overwhelmed moms needconfirmation that they can find joy in the small things no matter the size of their home or the amount of stuff they have (or do not have).

Susan Heid, The Confident Mom (blog)

Love the Home You Have speaks not only to the well-organized mom who wants to create a beautiful and lovely home, but to the disorganized, stressed, often-overwhelmed mom (me) who just needs some reassurance about what a home truly is. Melissa has a passion for life and beauty that translates into one of the best (and most needed) books I have read in a long time. Well done!

Amanda Rettke, I Am Baker (blog)

Melissa feels its important to use what quality pieces you have to become the building blocks for your style. There are so many welcome tips in The Inspired Room to help guide you when uncertainty with your decorating process steps in. The helpful hints prod you to gently move forward with your changes but remind you to stay true to yourself and your family. I love that.

Kristy Wicks, Kristy Wicks (blog)

If you are stressing out about how your home looks and feels and want to make it the best it can be, then Love the Home You Have is the book for you. It doesnt matter if you live in a tiny basement apartment or a grand, 5,000-square-foot home. The ideas and tips Melissa shares can be done by anyone, in any decorating style, and even on the tiniest of budgets.

Diane Henkler, In My Own Style (blog)

After reading Love the Home You Have , Ive felt an overwhelming sense of contentment and joy in my home. Melissa has a way with words that really changes the way you think and leaves you with inspiration (true tips to put into place!) to make it a lasting feeling!

Corinna Henderson, A Designer at Home (blog)

Melissa puts into words so many simple, straightforward, real-life, functional ways to embrace your home. Plus, her ideas include and account for children, pets, and even sometimes husbands! (wink-wink)

Shannon Fox, Fox Hollow Cottage (blog)

Melissa shares real ideas and simple approaches for working with what you have and moving toward what you really want your home to be.

Laura Putnam, Finding Home Farms (blog)

The Inspired Room is a gorgeous book. I know Im supposed to love the home I have, but I want to climb in and live in this book! Okay, seriously, its filled with beautiful inspiration but also practical tips that someone (like me) whos not quite as gifted in the decorating department can handle. Melissa is warm, down-to-earth, and exactly the kind of friend you want to come beside you and help turn your house into a home you can love and use to love others.

Mary Carver, author of Choose Joy

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Verses marked TLB are taken from The Living Bible copyright 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Cover by Nicole Dougherty

Published in association with William K. Jensen Literary Agency, 119 Bampton Court, Eugene, Oregon 97404.

MAKE ROOM FOR WHAT YOU LOVE

Copyright 2016 by Melissa Michaels

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-6317-6 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6318-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Michaels, Melissa, 1967- author.

Title: Make room for what you love / Melissa Michaels.

Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, [2016]

Identifiers: LCCN 2015042561 | ISBN 9780736963176 (pbk.)

Subjects: LCSH: Storage in the home. | Orderliness.

Classification: LCC TX309 .M53 2016 | DDC 648/.8dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015042561

All rights reserved. No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys-tem, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, digital, photo-copy, recording, or any otherwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copy-righted materials in violation of authors and publishers rights is strictly prohibited.

Contents

Y our home should be your sanctuary, your safe haven in this crazy world. It should be inspired by what you love, the memories youve made, and the people you cherish. These lovely sentiments may describe the home you already live in, or at least the place you envision when you picture the dwelling of your dreams. Certainly you want your home to feel comfortable and welcoming, like a warm hug on a chilly day or a refreshing cool drink on a hot summer afternoon.

Whatever our style, our home should be life giving and soul refreshing, a soft spot to land on a hard day and a beautiful place to recharge and rejuvenate. The things we bring into our home can be a reflection of who we are and the life we live.

While a brand-new, empty house may be as inspiring as an artists canvas, excess white space never feels quite cozy enough until it has memories and creature comforts that invite you to nestle into that place called home. A house filled with curiosities and treasures collected over time, layered with character and expressing personal style, can be so inspiring, endlessly interesting, and warmly charming and inviting.

But somehow in our quest to make ourselves at home, things multiply, and the chaos of living can overwhelm and overshadow the very sense of sanctuary we want to create. We begin wasting precious hours of our life trying to wrangle unwieldy hangers from our overstuffed closets and replacing lost tools because we can no longer find what we need among miscellaneous piles. Soon we become discontented with what we have, and the place we live in is no longer our sanctuary. Its now a storage room where we have become caretakers of stuff and managers of transient things.