Change Your Home, Change Your Life

Designer/Author Moll Anderson tells us to take the first step toward a happier life.

“It’s never too late to be who you might have been,” says Moll Anderson—pointedly quoting George Eliot, nom de plume of 19th author Mary Anne Evans—herself pretty much the poster woman for decisively redirecting one’s destiny. Rather than masquerading as men (it being the 21st century and all) Anderson suggests we seize control of our lives by taking a proactive approach to our surroundings. The title of her newest tome says it all: “Change Your Home, Change Your Life.”

Practical and personal, the book is a useful design guide, but also a joyful chronicle of Anderson’s own journey of self discovery, a quest that started with a single can of paint and blossomed into a colorful new life. Mired in a lackluster existence outside of work, the successful Emmy award winning entertainment reporter decided one day that beige was not her color—in a house or a marriage. “I grabbed the nearest paint can and began painting like an obsessed person, taking out all my anger and frustration on the walls,” she recalls. “It actually turned into this fabulous Old World finish, but more importantly, it started my energy flowing. I realized that I started a chain of positive change just by getting up and doing something. I was literally painting my way out of a corner.”

Newly divorced, and armed with only her lifelong musical aspirations, the re-energized Anderson left Arizona and headed for Nashville. She did indeed manage to carve a place for herself in country music, just not at the Grand Ole Opry. “I realized that I had been designing homes for years, for friends and for myself, just for the love of it,” explains Anderson, who took a part time job at a furniture store and began cultivating high profile design clients from the music industry— like Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts, singer/songwriter Phil Vassar, and Keith Urban and Bon Jovi producer, Dann Huff. “I started doing my own version of ‘extreme makeover’ for Nashville celebrities,” she laughs. “I felt like I was finally where I was meant to be.”

Since the relocated and remarried Anderson has found her true path, she is eager to share the wisdom of her experiences. Her most basic advice to clients seeking self actualization through design involves what she calls the five essentials: paint, lighting, fresh flowers, fabrics, and your favorite music to create just the right vibe. “If you do nothing else, modifying those five essentials will effect constructive change to any space,” she assures. “These five must haves will help you bond emotionally with your environment.” And remember, she says, we’re seeking identity and empowerment, not chi chi magazine perfection. “The idea is to find inspiration from that which is meaningful to you, whether it be trees and waterfalls or the colors of your favorite football team.” No, she did not do University of Tennesee football coach Phillip Fulmer’s office entirely in UT colors, but did integrate the orange tones into the black, silver chrome and cream color scheme.

To this ultimate cheerleader, clearly it is not what we do that is critical, just that we do it.

“Making any change to your home means that you have taken the first steps in a new direction,” she emphasizes. “Your home reflects who you are. Is it who you want to be? If not what are you waiting for?”

The Not So Big Life

“Not So Big” series author Sarah Susanka continues her search for quality in a quantity-oriented world in her new book, “The Not So Big Life”

Less is more. It’s the simple truth on which architect and author Sarah Susanka has predicated the philosophy that has made her a household name. Her maverick approach, outlined in the bestseller, “The Not So Big House” eschews the fashionable “McMansion,” urging us to put our money where our heart is, not where we think it will impress the neighbors. “We’re all searching for home with the wrong tools…more size, more stuff, more speed,” she laments. “When, in fact, the quality of home has almost nothing to do with square footage and volume.” Quoting Einstein, a man who could surely count, Susanka says, “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything counts that can be counted.”

Speaking of relative theories, Susanka’s latest installment in the not so big series takes the, um, not so big leap from designing a better home to crafting a better life. “The Not So Big Life,” (www.notsobiglife.com) advises us to pursue a lifestyle that echoes Susanka’s architectural principles; one dictated by quality rather than quantity. “The book is about feeling as at home in your life as you do in your house,” she explains. “We need to show up in our own lives, stop running in circles and really be present and focused.” Ironically, though her first book addressed the more concrete precepts of her posits, it only came to fruition after she rose to the more esoteric challenge outlined in her latest effort. Her epiphany dawned as she began to honestly examine her own frenetic existence: “My life was running me like a program. I was on automatic pilot, building a successful architectural practice but missing the boat on making time for the things I loved, especially writing” she emphasizes. “It wasn’t until I started living a not so big life that I was able to sit down and write the first book.”

She’s been walking the walk. Now she is ready to talk the talk. “I knew that I was using my own life as an experiment,” she explains. “It’s taken me a decade to articulate the ways to actually redesign the architecture of our lives.” As Susanka explains, the new book is the spiritual manifestation of the “Not So Big House” architectural premise. It’s a practical approach to a more rewarding existence—minus the New Age bent. “We’ve dealt with the dimension of space, now we’re addressing that of time,” explains this decidedly un-guru like author. “Modifying your life architecturally is only part of the story. How you spend your time in that environment is equally as critical to your quality of life.”

Consistent to both versions of the Susanka’s theory: Our solace is found in the light. For example, in our homes, we will be physically drawn to a lighted painting at the end of a hallway. “In our lives,” says Susanka, “we seek the intangible equivalent of that lighted object to walk toward; that which makes us feel alive. When your heart longs to do something, you’re naturally pulled toward it.” Just as she was drawn to writing.

The ever-practical Susanka suggests we begin our search for true bliss by devoting an hour to an elementary exercise. “Every 15 minutes just stop and look around you for 10 seconds,” she advises. “Try to experience  the moment 100 percent. You may gain a new perspective on your circumstances and surroundings.” This is a not so big step that might be the start of something huge.