I’m currently on a three-week road trip across the Northwestern states, stopping along the way to visit family and friends as I go. I’m the sort of person who enjoys traveling, but also cherishes having a home to return to after the long journey. There’s something special about having a space to kick your shoes off and put your feet up in comfort and relaxation, a sensation every well-traveled soul cherishes.

On this journey, I have experienced the warmth of home from the purview of others who invite me into their abodes and offer me a place to rest my head, fill my belly and warm my heart. This experience has been a welcome one in contrast to cold nights in my car or tent, eating canned and dried foods and processing my journey alone. It has highlighted to me the treasured bounty “home” offers and how I can use my own resources to bless others on their long journeys as well.

This is the art of home…how can we take whatever version of home we have available to us and transform it into a hospitable place where we can welcome others in and make them “feel at home”? What are the essentials of a home? Let’s walk through the practical details of presentation, decoration, and the ethos of home in such a way that each of you, regardless of the resources available to you, can create a sense of home for all who walk through your door!

I have always loved decorating and hosting ever since I learned to cook my first meal around eight years old. I recall arranging the pillows and blankets on my bed “just so”, collecting trinkets and treasures to display on my dresser or nightstand, and keeping an extra pair of swimsuits, PJ’s and clothes on hand for a friend who may want to spend the night or extend the playdate. I recall getting excited to cook for friends who would come over or bake delicious cookies with them as a fun activity. Hospitality came naturally to me and continued to grow and expand with time.

This became a value of mine that translated even into college where I would have an extra sleeping pad, sheets and comforter available to anyone who wished to spend the night and the extra camping gear I stowed away in my car so people could join me on my next adventure. When I left college and rented a room, I built a bedframe specifically so I could stow a trundle beneath it to host anyone with ease and even kept additional toothbrushes and food on hand in case someone dropped by or spontaneously decided to stay over.

These gestures were simple and practical, yet they became foundational to the way I planned the layout of my first home around beauty, functionality, and hospitality. I wanted my abode to reflect myself and what I valued, while also being a beautiful and practical place which would serve any guests who entered it and inspire + comfort them as well. This led me to a deeper study of what made people feel welcome in a space by examining my own preferences and experiences when I had entered the homes of others in the past.

There are a few key elements to making any space feel like home that you can employ in anything from a van or college dorm room to a 4,000 square foot home. The first is your door itself and the ways it speaks of welcome and safety. When someone walks to the entrance of your home, would they feel welcome? Once entering your space, would they feel secure and safe within? Elements of welcome and safety can be as simple as a wreath or sign on your physical door to aspects of safety within the walls of your home such as tasteful curtains by the windows, functioning locks & bolts on entrances at night, cubby corners available for a guest to stow their belongings safely, etc. Having cozy blankets and beautiful throw pillows available for guests to shelter under or behind offers an added aspect of security and comfort as well. Ask yourself if your home is inviting and if it feels safe – how does it reflect these qualities and how could you add to them?

The second element is light – a sign of warmth, hope and beauty. Light is a powerful aspect we can employ to make our homes feel warm, intimate, and cozy. Incorporating options for the lighting available to each room is a wonderful way to help guests feel at home by offering both bright and warm lighting. String lights, choosing “warm” lightbulbs instead of fluorescent ones and incorporating candlelight and other soft lighting throughout your home can immediately transform your space into something beautiful and cozy to all who enter your door. The bonus of candlelight or firelight is the delightful scents you can choose to add atmosphere and warmth to your home that relaxes people and allows them to unwind and rest. How well lit is your home? Are there little tweaks you could add by switching out a lightbulb or adding a candle perhaps?

Another key element is food – perhaps one of the most influential elements available to us in making a house a home. Food and drink are often the glue that brings us all together and initiates some of the best community and deepest heart to hearts of all time. There is a primitive element to food that strikes at the communal core of each human being. Gathering around a table or in a living room with anything from snacks and drinks to an all-out eight course meal not only fills our bellies, but beckons others to come close, open up and feel loved. There’s nothing like having a very practical need of ours like hunger and thirst met in a beautiful and tasty manner – this communicates love and care for the people we welcome into our homes and attention to the simplest details of their lives.

Not a fan of cooking? Know next to nothing about mixing drinks or brewing a pot of coffee? No worries! Food is much less about an extravagant presentation than it is the gesture of thoughtfulness and care for someone who enters your world enough to meet them where they’re at. This can be as simple has having canned or boxed beverages chilled on hand or a bag of chips, nuts, fruit, or popcorn available to munch on.

Storebought muffins & cookies will go just as far as homemade ones if that’s all you have time to “whip up”. Don’t let your busy schedule, lack of kitchen skills, or lack of money make you write off what you can serve your guests. A bag of microwave popcorn in a cute bowl for 50 cents will do the same trick a gourmet meal would if that’s all you can give. It’s the act of giving itself, the fact that you thought ahead to consider what your guest might need, that really makes the impact and transforms your house into a home. On the other hand, if you have the means and desire to cook a gourmet meal, shower your guests with these gifts and enjoy the process of blessing them as you do!

A fourth element is comfort – how can you make your home a place every visitor feels relaxed, peaceful, and content? This may seem complicated at first – how could you ever predict what makes someone comfortable or not in advance? Really its quite simple, you put yourself in their shoes. If you were to visit someone’s home for the first time, how would you feel, what would you be nervous about, what would make you feel more “at home”? Home is largely an extension of ourselves that will show others who we are, what we treasure, value, and how we enjoy life.

Places to sit, a quiet environment with simple music in the background for atmosphere, water and snacks on hand, a comfy bed with sheets and blankets you yourself would enjoy, having extra toilet paper stocked in the bathrooms and spare towels and toothbrushes on hand if necessary are all small touches that transform your guest’s experience through simple gestures of thoughtfulness. Don’t worry about what they would prefer, this is once again an opportunity for your home to be an extension of yourself to your friends. You are showing them the comforts you enjoy and, in many ways, this is an opportunity for them to get to know you better as they visit you.

The greatest element of making a house a home though is considering what you value and enjoy most and see if your home reflects that. Do you enjoy drinks or cooking? Consider having a drink cart or bar and focusing more of your attention on your kitchen and dining spaces so you can invite others to experience those elements you already love and enjoy personally! Are you a big reader or traveler? Perhaps having a special bookshelf or display shelf for your travel treasures would be a lovely touch that can start conversations and add beauty to a room when arranged creatively.

Are movies your thing? Perhaps an extra cozy couch and additional blankets with a thoughtfully set up television or projector screen is the touch you want to include in your home. Do you value a certain art style? Consider incorporating that style into the colors you choose for paint & furniture or the pictures you hang on your walls. The key here is that decorating and creating a home should be based on things you already love and enjoy so that you can invite others to participate in those things with you, making the experience enjoyable for both you and your guests.

Home should be an outward expression of your inner being. This is what transforms a “house” and turns it into a “home” – when you create a space that reflects who you are, what you love and becomes a place you can welcome those you love into your heart. Home is where we experience care and comfort. Home is where the theoretical walls come down and we can relax into our truest selves. When our homes tell our stories through our photographs, trinkets, decorations, food choices and furniture, our entire community benefits as they get to experience our hearts in a whole new way.

Perhaps this is why we’re sometimes tentative about inviting others into our homes. Sometimes where we live is such a refuge for us from the outside world that it’s scary to think about letting others see those more private and precious parts of us. And yet, is this not one of life’s most precious gifts? The power of communion with our community? Of personal vulnerability being the catalyst for deeper relationships with others? When we are brave enough to bare our hearts to another, we invite them to do likewise and lower their walls as well. This is the delightful power of home.

When my house becomes an accurate reflection of my soul, it becomes a tangible expression of my love and care for others. To invite you into my home is then to invite you into my heart and wrap you in the warmest of hugs. Such an act says, here I am, in all my mess and glory, and I offer it all to you in friendship. What I have is yours and I would love to meet your needs, care for your heart even as you have cared for mine. This is the gift of true hospitality and friendship.

Along my journey, I have experienced others sacrifice their schedule, space, privacy and preference to make me feel welcome. I have tasted firsthand what it’s like to be cared for in very practical ways and I can attest - it’s all in the details. What may be a simple gesture or act to you speaks volumes to a guest. A cold glass of water, a cozy couch to watch a movie on, a candlelight meal, a toothbrush offered when you unexpectedly spend the night, that extra blanket on a cold night – it tells others you love them, and what greater gift could we give each other?