Laid-back Space and Life Lessons


Designer Chris Barrett’s home is full of laid back charm!

I imagine a lot of lounging around in Havaianas happens around here!

I used to live in a place that looked similar to this. Not as snazzy, of course.

 It was a tiny California bungalow with a riot of roses in the front yard, a white picket fence and a yellow retro kitchen that hadn’t been redone since the 1950′s.  Our refrigerator was  a  FORD!

Who knew they made appliances!

 Anyhoo, one day, I fell ill with some sort of super flu. You know.. the kind that every bone in your body aches, you cannot get out of bed and all you want to do is to go home to your mom’s house, but you can’t…. coz you have a small child and live in a different country?

I had no appetite for anything but some homemade chicken soup.  J agreed to make me some. So, I wrote down a list of ingredients for him to pick up at the store.

10 minutes later, J shows up with a bowl of piping hot soup. I immediately felt suspicious. That wasn’t enough time to even wash the leeks and carrots and chop up the onions on my list!

“WHAT.IS. THIS?!” , I crankily ask him.

“Chicken Soup”, he answers nonchalantly, blowing on a spoonfull of metallic-smelling liquid.

FROM. A . CAN?????,  feverish red eyes are trained on J like a laser from a sniper .


I must not have realized the volume of the rant that I delivered thereafter. I am sure it was full of  despair, self-pity , loud snivelling, probably an enumeration of the times I cooked him his favorite dishes when he was sick  and  a vengeful promise that I would NEVER EVER do so again as long as I lived… which was even doubtful because I was sure I was not going to survive this flu. Also, there was a lot of : I  JUST WANT MY MOMMY!!!!

I exhausted myself shouting that I think I may have passed out for a few hours.

 J had rushed out of the room to take care of the baby, who was  crying hysterically and  was now also shouting: I JUST WANT MY MOMMY!

The next thing I know, the doorbell rings. J walks into the bedroom with a box from our next-door neighbor.

In it was: a big pot of Homemade Chicken Soup, some magazines, a coloring book and cookies for mini-sassy.

I cried into that soup like you cannot imagine.

I cannot look at a picture of a California-style bungalow without recalling this moment .

 It was the moment I realized that, like

Ford Refrigerators, kindness to our neighbors was becoming so rare. It was the first time in my life I had ever seen it!  It’s one of those values that I read about in novels or saw in old movies, but I hadn’t actually experienced it myself.  And you know what folks?  I think it’s one of those things we should definitely bring back!

Spread the love in your Havaianas, sistahs!






(image:House Beautiful)

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