I practice a slow living lifestyle without a minimalist decor. My ideal slow living decorating is reminiscent of a lovely southern porch where one enjoys conversations with friends while sipping a cool glass of lemonade.

my favorite slow living area in my home is my sunroom/ playroom. It is where I take a friend to sit with tea for a chat. It is where I read or nap in the afternoon when the kids are at school and napping. It is far from pared down and decorated rather busily for it serves many functions but it is peaceful and beautiful to me.

Never heard this term before. But, slow living to me means a day of PJs and no plans for us or my three kids, and enjoying a cup of coffee by the fire without rushing people and in and out of the house to get places. I guess it's a literal interpretation for me;) It means actually enjoying a day in my home. Cooking, reading & not being rushed to be somewhere.

Yes, what rebeccamomof123 said. "Slow living" is, to me, coming home from work and immediately slipping out of my clothes and into my pajamas. It's padding to the kitchen where DH has prepared a casual supper, then going upstairs to wrap myself in a soft blanket and lounge on the sofa while catching up on our recorded programs. It's also just having the entire day stretching before me with nowhere that I have to be. Books. Tea. Cats. Endless possibilities for relaxation. Napping.

Such a pretty room, roarah! But I'm giggling at the thought of you slowly rocking on that pony :)

I'm not really familiar with the term, either. I guess that would mean my bedroom, on the weekend. I have a small coffee station in my room. Two comfy chairs by the fire for the cooler months, and hanging wicker chairs out on the deck for the warmer months. Some weekends, I could stay in my room until noon.

Here's a link to a blog that I enjoy, written by a woman in Norway. I think her home - and indeed her lifestyle, by the looks of things - say "Slow Living." Her photos are lovely.

http://miaslandliv.blogspot.com/

This is what I mean. This is me....slow living (for one hour at least).

Auntjen, The website nails my ideology of living slowly. For me it's an all day everyday way to be. It does not mean idle, for I am active all day, but I and my kids are not osoobusybusy over scheduled. We eat three fresh made meals at the table together everyday. Yes, my spouse and I both work full time, mow our own lawn, raise our kids, clean our own house and DIY many home projects. But we limit electronics, limit child activities to one sport per season and one musical instrument instruction and only volunteer for activities we love. This opens up much more time to do what we enjoy while also keeping our home and schedules running smoothly without ever being rushed.

I am definitely not a slow "liver", just like I'm not a slow traveler, or even a slow walker! An hour at most is all I want to see stretching before my eyes with nothing to do! (roarah and Rebecca, still love those rooms, just wouldn't relax in them for long)

I've never heard of "slow living" before, but I can't imagine living slow and drinking espresso in the same life style though. LOL
I think of it more as Roarah described it.
For the most part I live slowly. Until it's time to pick up our grandson at the bus stop or get all the laundry done while hubby's home and get all the things done in his two and a half days home a week.

rebeccamom that is a very inviting picture!

I've never heard the term either, particularly applied to decor. But if I think about what it might mean to me, I think of living with intention. Slow down, smell the roses, drink the coffee (or tea) and savor the moment, nurture yourself and those you love, allow things to fill your senses, live in the moment. But none of that has anything to do with decor unless you think of it in terms of creating a home environment that allows you to do those things - a home that you can fully live in and use that doesn't own you in terms of requiring you to avoid what you love in order to support the house.

Never heard that term...I have a term "slow walkers"...when a pedestrian is crossing in front of you and they are walking like they have no where to be...It's like "um, I'm waiting here...move people"....I think there's room there on Rebeccas ottoman for more slow living!!

I've never heard of the term "Slow Living", but am familiar with the Slow Food Movement. I've copied a sentence describing that movement from their own website:

"Slow Food: The History of an Idea. Slow Food was started by Carlo Petrini and a group of activists in the 1980s with the initial aim to defend regional traditions, good food, gastronomic pleasure and a slow pace of life. "

So, with that in mind, " a Slow Living home" or "home décor" would be open to personal interpretation, don't you think? That said, for me it would be a home, or a room, designed by me to be a personal refuge from the world and the stress in my daily life. A place of comfort and peace. A place to relax, slow down and just enjoy . . . enjoy alone time, reading, listening to music, or being with the people I love. I've never thought of my home as a "Slow Living" home, but it is all of the above for me and mine, especially our living room, master bedroom and our front portal (veranda). I've filled them with very comfortable furniture, colors that soothe and beautiful artwork that makes us happy to look at. Nothing bold. It works for us, but as I said, it seems to be open to personal interpretation.

[edited to add that I've decorated our master bath with this same philosophy, as well]

Roarah's description doesn't sound slow at all. How do you have time to make 3 fully cooked meals a day while working full time, without a lot of juggling?

I get the feeling the idea is living your life, and not feeling a need to compete with the world. But then giving it a term, which implies judgement of other lifestyles, seems to contradict that.

And I don't see how this applies to decor?

I take it as a "stop and smell the roses" approach. I think it sounds romantic, comfortable, cozy, and dreamy. No bold paint colors, lots of texture, nothing distracting, candles..... And the bathroom needs a soaker tub!!! (This is just my interpretation!)

I've not heard the term before, but our entire home is designed largely around what I'd call comfortable, cozy and relaxing. In fact I've had many visitors describe my home as very relaxing or almost like being on vacation.

Some of this was achieved:

• in the home design which uses light to help welcome people into spaces and in a floor plan that functions well for multiple purposes
• by the warm and cohesive color scheme where shades of golden tones flow from one room to the next with different accent colors to define the spaces. Some of the rooms have natural woodwork which also lends a natural warmth to the rooms
• by designing rooms to be smaller, though they feel larger, by the use of open spaces that are defined by things like soffits and flooring and lighting, a la Sarah Susanka. So the rooms give off a cozy vibe...not like so many mc mansions where the rooms feel more like a hotel lobby than a home. E.g., each bedroom has a nook as a welcoming space
• by maximizing the views around the house...every window has a view of a pond. But the main view is to the south which is also where we have the most windows...part of our solar tempered design...and where most of the light comes from
• with the use of eclectic furnishings including a lot of hand me downs that have special meaning or memories for us, so our 1930s rococo coffee table can play nicely with our 70s avocado green chairs and our antique school house clock
• speaking of clocks, we have several pendulum clocks throughout the house, some which chime, and to me, there's something very soothing about the tick tock (back to mama's womb and hearing her heart beat??) which I think lends a certain sense of relaxation to each room they're in

As an aside, I've been binge watching Breaking Bad, so the TV does not necessarily equal relaxing!

:)

I live "slow" living most of the year in that most of the year I work PT and then have a couple month period of 18 hour days. We were forced into that and actually enjoy it.

My two slow-living places (one in winter house & one in summer house) are both outdoors. Nothing better than sitting outside in a beautiful spot w/ a good book and a puppy or two for company!

Oh goodness. This seems an effort to monetize another lifestyle movement. Unfortunately those who really need to practice slow living for health and wellness reasons are those who cannot afford to. I would only suggest slow living to those who don't have the time management skills to realize they can actually do it.

I live in a fairly rural area. We do have a few local restaurants and family owned little shops of sorts. We are finally getting a grocery store and that is so exciting! I definitely feel like I enjoy slow living. It is simply the way out here by the lake. Here is a pic most of you guys have seen. I think it shows my slow living!

This sounds a bit like Christopher Lowell's latest stuff on rightSize living and intentional living: "In essence, they have exchanged excess material possessions and wealth for a richer quality of life experience." Fundamentally a rejection of the mcmansion lifestyle.

His stuff seems to be getting very woo-woo, but the core point is a good one...don't be a slave to your things and working nonstop just to maintain your stuff...instead pare back your stuff and your wants of material goods and downsize your life so you can make time for the people and the creative activities that will give you a more fulfilled life.

One more. My cozy living room this morning.

Not knowing anything about this movement, I would guess in my mind, a slower life for many people would be having less things that require maintenance. Even the yard would reflect a natural carefree design that wouldn't eat time.

It is nice to see pretty spots to rest, they are all beautiful, but the slow part comes from the housekeepers and gardeners.

Something as simple as the mums on my screened in porch require quite a bit of maintenance/watering and not having them would slow me down some as would getting rid of most perennials. But that's what I love even if it's frantic at times.

My home is my slow living place. I haven't heard of the term before either but to me, it's crazy to call "relaxing" a "movement" (because that's what it really is). People have always designed their living spaces to be relaxing, cozy, warm, inviting. I think calling it a "movement" is silly; it's just a term someone in the decor industry came up with to capitalize on relaxing by giving it a new name.

Did a little slow living with some old friends a few weeks ago at some property my family owns. Friends, dogs, a little vino...aaah.

How fast do you have to work to make enough money to afford a "slow" lifestyle? I work two or three part time jobs just to keep a roof over my head and also care for my aging father in my spare time. I am all about fast, because the amount of time I can afford to spend at home in minimal. Plus, who cleans the slow home and does the yardwork? I mean I know that slow is about having places to relax, but I imagine only getting to spend about a half hour there tops at the end of the day after you had cleaned and maintained all the spaces! Maybe I can slow down if and when I retire.

This was my slow spot at my last house. When I was lucky I could have dinner out there or best of all, a quiet coffee in the morning. But a lot of time was spent maintaining it. I enjoyed that though. The thing with the blue cover is the firewood rack that SO's son made us, we had a portable fire pit, and also a grill against the house. Hardly ever used the fire pit. The little lattice "house" holds the compost bin, to keep critters out of it. The orange bowl is a fountain with pretty rocks inside from Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. That ended up being just an algae farm so we dismantled it. We loved it, but spent way more time cleaning it than it was worth. The next year SO got me a little red maple in a pot to put in that space. There are raspberries against the garage wall that you can nibble or watch the catbirds hang out in.

My mom lived a very slow lifestyle before she died. She was a retired librarian and her dream retirement was a bookcase full of books and a comfy chair, which she had in her house. In fact, she had three reading retreats in her house. I may soon inherit her house and intend to keep all three, but don't have photos for now. Below is my reading nook at my current apartment. There's a rocker there now where the guitars are leaning. I don't have time to read any of my books though, but I keep schlepping them from place to place where I live, hoping for someday . . . Another thing that would be part of my "slow" lifestyle would be a huge, used kitchen. Even more, a canning kitchen!! And a huge kitchen garden. My quintessential "slow" memory that I would love to recreate was grandma's summer porch. My cousin and I both have wonderful memories of napping out there as little kids. It had an old daybed covered with a wool blanket that had been on the sleigh at one of the aunt's farms, and both my cousin and I remembered it as being smelly and itchy when you were forced to stay on it and try and sleep. There was an old round fold out table with the big cookie jar on it (I have that jar) usually filled with molasses or sugar cookies. Then there was the pantry with jars of canned food and the freezer next to that. And then the nook with the garden tools and sprayer with the malathion and pyrethrum dust that you weren't supposed to monkey with, then the door leading to the little stone path to the huge garden, and in the final corner, the loom, where grandma made rag rugs. Screened windows around three sides. My cousin has the loom. A room for slow pursuits. My current landlady has a huge garage and basement that have nooks for some of those types of pursuits, and sewing too, but neither she nor I can spend much time there because we are both on the road so much for work.

For me, slow living is spending plenty of time outside and coming home to comfort. Enjoying food, drink, family, friends, books, a little TV, peace, and quiet. Creating a home that is uncluttered, easy to maintain, and showcases your favorite things will help you with slow living. This room feels warm and inviting, has a comfy place to read, and displays meaningful art work from a special trip.

"But then giving it a term, which implies judgement of other lifestyles, seems to contradict that.

And I don't see how this applies to decor?"

I don't see it as being judgmental of other lifestyles, necessarily. It is what it is. Some people live faster-paced lives than others. Some people don't ever give their daily routine a second thought, just jumping in and DOING it, while other people are much more mindful and intentional as to how they spend their time. It's somewhat of a luxury to be ABLE to make a choice, mind you, but I think there are still countless small ways that any person can choose to "live slowly."

I think the concept can definitely relate to décor, particularly for those of us here who are admittedly obsessed with that aspect of our lives.

My living room represents slow living for me: cozy furniture, a light and airy cottage vibe, smaller square footage and beautiful and meaningful things that have been collected over time. It's the ideal place to light a candle and kick back to read a book.

I enjoy yard work and even like to organize and clean so I do my own work and do it happily in my free time and that is slow living to me. Again, slow does not mean relaxed it means I choose how to fulfill my time in the most meaningful and less stressed way I can. I refuse to ever say "I am sooooo busy" even if I am because that expression is so over used as an excuse to not enjoy our lives. The expression also causes stress just by saying it.

Everyone has only 24 hours in a day and no one is more or less busy than anyone else. My family has opted out of signing our kids up for hundreds of extracurricular activities and allow them to pick just one at a time. I say no when asked to volunteer for such and such if I do not want to be on a certain committee. I never say "I can not because I am too busy" for that excuse negates someone else's importance by suggesting that they are not as busy as I, so I just say "no thank you". People wear their "busyness" like a badge of honor when In actuality it is their own choice.

I only go online for fun for less than one hour per day and never when the kids are near by. I do not use my cell phone ever unless it is an emergency and my kids will not have phones till they can pay for them. This is because I do not enjoy texts, email and phone calls that are non essential they are headache inducing to me.This frees a lot of my time to enjoy the things I like better, like cooking, yard work, volunteering at the school, working fultime, taking care of older family members, entertaining and every so often relaxing.

Someone else who likes talking and texting more than house work and cooking may choose that over my choice and if that is what they enjoy more then it is also within the slow living philosophy. It is about owning our own life and accepting that we do have choices and control in how our time is spent and to embrace that " busyness" is a choice not a necessity. Everyone has free time and that is where slow living happens and only you can know what is your best way to fulfill it.

Living "slowly" is very active but oh so much more productive than my previous life was before I read about this " movement" in 2010. It is not an idle existence but rather a very organized and prioritized way to live as fulfilled and individualized a life as possible.

Roarah, I love your post and will reread a few times...much to think about as I am in a similar stage of life I think. If you wouldn't mind - would appreciate even a couple tips as to how you manage to get prepare three homecooked meals in a day. We both work also, and this piece has been lacking in our home the last few weeks since school started. I think it's very important and know I need to get back to this.

People wear their "busyness" like a badge of honor when In actuality it is their own choice.

Isn't that the truth! The fact is that we are ALL busy in one way or another, but I know a few folks who seem to gain self-importance by repeatedly telling others how overwhelming their schedule is.

I'm thinking too of a single mom, raising three kids and working two jobs to make ends meet. She's busy in a way that most of us will never have to be. I think "Oh, I'm just so BUSY" should be reserved for someone in those shoes, instead of by those who have much more of a choice as to how they will spend their time.

Golden doodle, I must admit the home cooked meals began out of necessity, my DD was born with multiple allergies, which she luckily mostly out grew, but we had no choice but to cook and after a few years I realized it worked better for us. The crock pot is my friend as is simple fresh food.

My favorite tip for breakfast is to use steal cut oats at night add boiling water to a pot, cover and let sit over night and in the morning just quickly reheat for a minute on the stove. I do precook pancakes too.

For lunch I do lots of soup, chili and pasta in a thermos, salads and quiches. My school age child hates school bought lunches and does not love sandwiches so this is more out of necessity.

Dinner is usually a crockpot meal or fresh veggies grilled with a nice cut of meat that taste good without a lot of prep and grilled outside to cut down on mess. On Sunday I do a roast basically a one pot meal with carrots and potatoes. For an easy entertaining dish I love to do a salmon with fresh rosemary, balsamic, halved raspberries, minced garlic and a blue cheese wrapped in foil and grilled for about 12 minutes or until flakey. I truly like to try to cook with a less but fresh is best mantra.

Slow living for me is being happy with the things that I have in my life and not chasing the next trend in clothing, home furnishings, cars. It is a lifestyle choice of "not trying to keep up the Joneses" in terms of vacations, going to the trendiest restaurants or not wearing the latest fashion. It is buying things that will last and to heck with the current trend.

It is sitting in my home and being happy and contented in it and with the people in it. It is being happy with my children and their chosen paths as long as they're happy. I don't have a doctor or a lawyer as a child and I don't care - but many parents do and many wear that as a badge of honour. I love my children regardless of their chosen paths. (OK - jail time wouldn't go over all that well)

We don't chase that kind of stuff and never have but we live in a neighbourhood of people that do. I would find that kind of lifestyle very stressful and unfulfilling. We can easily afford to but don't see any added value to our lives by doing so. We have tried to teach our children that as well.

I have been on my soap box before about this attitude of "I'm so busy, I'll call you when I can" - well I just crossed you off my list of people I chose to hang out with because I chose to hang with people who want to hang out with me. This "I'm so busy" badge of honour, irritates me beyond words.

When we moved into our home nineteen years ago I always felt it was like a retreat from the world. Our home is about a football field away from the road and our property is surrounded by trees. No matter where my travels took me coming home was the best part.

We had a cookout at our house for about 50 people last Sunday and one of our guests told me that my home was so charming and relaxing that she could move right in and feel quite at home. That was truly the best compliment I could receive.

Now that I am fully retired I have a much more "slow living" lifestyle but I can't say I am any less busy than before retirement. It's just that now I am doing things I love to do. Spending time with my family, being with my DD and her DH when my twin grands were born, cooking, organizing my home, and planning some renovations to our home. Life is good!!!

“There is no social stigma attached to the frenzy, no peer motivation to slow us down. Rather it is the opposite; busy is popular currency, traded among members of modern society like a precious commodity. Busy is the silkiest cloth at the emporium, the most well-travelled spice. Living with a full schedule speedily typed into a pinging, vibrating device is a highly valued state of being. And, as with any addiction, it becomes self-perpetuating. We feel a rush from being in a rush; we take pride in the breakneck pace at which we travel through our days.”
― Gillian Deacon, Naked Imperfection: A Memoir

Here is a pic of Toby (one of my new rescue kitties) modeling the "slow living" lifestyle.

ETA: his brother Simba is curled up on the other chair.

Low/no tech. No cell phones, no texts, no emails (unless you turn on the computer) and nobody contacting you and disrupting your relaxing vibe. When you live out of cell phone range (as we do on the farm) we still work a lot....but no unwanted interruptions. Unless they are the four-legged type :)

auntjen - thanks for posting the quote from Gillian Deacon.

Hi Trine, I did go to your company's website and also saw your company's slow living pinterest board. Do you have a target demographic? I think "slow living" can have a number of different meanings and I would guess that you would likely get different answers from folks who are relatively settled and already have stuff (furniture) vs. people who are at a different stage of life.

Fascinating post to me, because I first started posting here when I got my first home. I had been moving a lot, and then my folks moved out of the family home into a smaller space and I took in some of their cast offs. And I got to a point where I really wanted to decorate my home more intentionally to be both functional and restful. Meaning I could use it to do things I loved easily, and yet also as a haven from the hustle, bustle of what is now seen as the "norm" pace of modern life. I got some great advice here on de-cluttering and also I became a FlyLady devotee and she is big on purging.

I am an extremely sentimental person plus I am an environmentalist, and I have a hard time throwing things away. Now everyone is raving about that book, "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up." I'm trying to keep up with my organizing and de-cluttering, but since my mom died and I had to sell my house and move cross country with stuff in storage all over the place, it has overwhelmed me. Now I have to not only go through my own things and adjust to what is essential for my new life, but also my mom's things. It's hard to throw away things I still love but know I no longer will have any opportunity to use. Same for getting rid of some of my mom's things, the ones I know she loved but just don't work for me and my lifestyle. I don't mind giving them away to someone else who will love them, but throwing them out is more difficult. There are plenty of tchotchkes I can toss without a second thought, but some things have intrinsic worth, just not to me with my current lifestyle. To me it's a sin of modern life to discard so many still-useful things.

I also don't have much control over my time. I don't spend much time doing the things that are meaningful to me. But work and family obligations are really not negotiable. My current cluttered disorganized space reflects where I am in my life.

So it seems like I am always having to work at carving out space and time for a life with a more positive energy and more thoughtful, deliberate pace. It's been a real challenge to carve that out for myself. I am lucky, my landlady is going through a similar process due to a divorce, and she is very good at figuring out how to decorate in ways that are both functional in that they increase the ease at which you can take care of what is important to you, but also look great too! The best photos would be the "before and after" shots!! Here's an example of one from my old house. Hyperlink blue sponge painting, (which I inherited from the previous owner), did not give off a slow vibe in my guest bedroom. You can't see the carpet, but it was bright red shag! It's an old set of photos I posted on here ten years ago, but I think that bedroom rehab created a "slow" space for me where I could read and tend to my plants. Eventually I moved the baking rack out and replaced it with a little writing desk. Oh, and that's one of grandma's hand-loomed rag rugs on the floor. I can't wait to bring that out of storage!! Also the vintage quilt and afghan were made by my maternal and paternal grandmothers! And the doll was given to me when my folks got "their baby," my little brother. My SO's son always said the doll gave him the creeps when he went in there, so I guess one person's "slow" is the stuff of another person's nightmares!! :)

Before

After

What a lovely, warm, and welcoming room. I love the doll and the sweet story behind it too.

My idea of slow living is living mindfully, living "in the moment" and being aware that I do have choices (many in fact), on how to prioritize and really spend time on meaningful activities. How to make your home comfortable is subjective and will vary greatly. I have never heard the term "slow living", but did a search to find out more. I don't think the concept is anything new, but someone put their spin on it and wrote books/blogs that some people may find appealing and helpful.

.https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=%22slow+living%22+home

Excuse the kiddie (or in my case kitty) gate in the pic. The kitty twins are fascinated with the fireplace and had sooty paws so I needed to get creative to keep them out of the fp without spending hundreds on a beautiful fireplace screen from Frontgate.

Holly-Kay, anyone who is decent and kind-hearted to have rescue kitties need NEVER explain such things, at least to me!

Honestly I don't think it looks that bad. It matches your decor. I just wondered what you did when you wanted a fire in there?! :)

Thank you roarah! Going to try the steel cut oats overnight and premixing pancakes. The other day my son said the kitchen always smells good when he wakes up, that made me so happy. So I should answer the original question...slow living is all of us together in our family room at night. I am glad that we don't have a finished basement yet so it's the only option! I bought a handful of new throws for the fall and each kid chose a favorite. One is a $20 brown blanket from Home Goods that is faux fur and my kids love! I like my pumpkin candles lit. Simple little things that make us enjoy being home.