419: The Foundation of Decorating a Home and Transforming It into a Sanctuary
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Release Date: 02/04/2026
Un Moment de Méditation: No. 6 — What the Future Can Never Possess
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life -
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419: The Foundation of Decorating a Home and Transforming It into a Sanctuary
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"My Four Tenets of Good Design are not rules to follow, as much as they are a framework to help you think about design, not just as something pretty to look at but as something that inspires you to be the best version of yourself in the moments when no one is watching." —Nate Berkus, A feeling of immediate release of any tension, letting the day wash away, and a trust that the comforts and reminders of love and bounty of a beautiful life lived surround you is what a thoughtfully decorated sanctuary gives us each time we cross the threshold. The truth is a sanctuary can be found...
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Un Moment de Méditation: No. 5 — Letting go of Comparison
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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No. 4 Un Moment de Méditation — Less Thinking, Deeper Breathing
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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418: Neighboring — How to Do It and Why It Will Enhance the Quality of Your Everydays
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
"There's a sense of comfort and safety that can come with knowing [our neighbors] — and building a safe and caring community is a valuable way to stay connected to the place you live." —Diana Opong and Janet W. Lee, in their article "" Being a good neighbor is a daily practice in awareness. Both in what and who surrounds us, as well as how our own choices might affect others. Tune in to episode to discover 7 ways to strengthen your neighboring skills and also discover three significant life benefits when we put them to practice. Find the Show Notes for the episode on The SImply Luxurious...
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No. 3: Un Moment de Méditation — An Ease in Everyday Life
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
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No. 2: Un Moment de Méditation — How to Heal
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417: How Our Relationship with Ourselves Sets the Tone for the Health of All Relationships
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“The relationship we have with ourselves is the most important relationship we will ever have, and we will have to continuously work on that relationship to break through the barriers that prevent us from true emotional intimacy with another person.” —Jillian Turecki With a new year's beginning, the idea of love may be dancing about on our intentions list. But in order to successfully experience real love, we need to build a foundation to be able to identify it, choose it, and then nurture it. Jillian Turecki's successful podcast shares advice on how to build healthy and...
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No. 1 Un Moment de Méditation — Courage and the Mind
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Welcome to the first mini-episode of TSLL's new limited series, Un Moment de Méditation/Moment of Meditation. Find the complete text on The Simply Luxurious Life blog -
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Introduction to New Mini Series - Un Moment de Méditation/Meditation Moments
The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style
A new limited series begins in 2026, offering guided meditation to help listeners deepen their mindfulness practice. Learn more by listening to this trailer. Un Moment de Méditation is a weekly limited series that will run for one year, sharing one mini-episode each Sunday afternoon, about 5 minutes in length. This new mini series is in addition to the regular episodes of The Simple Sophisticate podcast that will continue to be available on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month. I invite you to enjoy me when we begin on Sunday, January 4th, both here, where you enjoy your...
info_outline"My Four Tenets of Good Design are not rules to follow, as much as they are a framework to help you think about design, not just as something pretty to look at but as something that inspires you to be the best version of yourself in the moments when no one is watching." —Nate Berkus, Foundations
A feeling of immediate release of any tension, letting the day wash away, and a trust that the comforts and reminders of love and bounty of a beautiful life lived surround you is what a thoughtfully decorated sanctuary gives us each time we cross the threshold.
The truth is a sanctuary can be found anywhere, and in fact doesn’t need to be a place, but as we talked about in Monday’s Motivational post, can be people or even ineffable things – concepts, ideas where we rest our mind. However, most definitely, our home can be a sanctuary, and today, we’re going to explore 7 ways to transform your home into just that.
Because a home isn’t always a sanctuary. It may have four walls that keep us warm and shelter us, but the definition of a sanctuary is that it is a reliable place of refuge to rejuvenate ourselves. As defined in Buddha’s Brain, a book written by Rick Hanson and the inspiration behind episode #327, a sanctuary is anyone or anything that provides reliable protection, so that you can let down your guard and gather strength and wisdom.”
So with that definition in mind, when American interior designer Nate Berkus’ new book, Foundations, was released this past November, I found a helpful companion resource to help each of us identify what would make our home a sanctuary and where to start the journey of gradually decorating a nest that feels far more than just a home, but most definitely a sanctuary.
The guiding premise of Foundations is Berkus’ four tenets of good design: make it personal, embrace history, introduce character, and develop your vision. These will guide us through today’s episode/post. Let’s begin exploring how to lay the foundation of our decorating journey so that as we progress, adding pieces, making decisions along the way, we have clarity and trust what we choose.