Simple House made Home - Inviting light in

One of my most treasured memories is the one of Pedro and me, sitting in the middle of the empty living room of our recent purchased house with a paint catalogue. We were only choosing wall colours, but in my head that moment personifies our commitment to a life together, our a private "I DO" moment, where dreams and daily decisions intersect with one another.
Back then, we choose to paint the fireplace wall in a very strong colour we both loved - Indian yellow. OUR colour. Could I dare to paint it over?

I did, but I debated it in my head a lot. We give a depth of meanings to something as simple as a wall colour, and... it’s hard to let go.
“We can just paint it again if we don’t like it”, he said. He meant if you don’t like it, but he is sometimes sweet to use plural so I don’t feel such a weird.
I’m glad I went through with the all-white idea.  It is the perfect canvas for our home and it seems lighter than before -  goal achieved.
Realising that pure white goes so well with our wood trim was a pleasant surprise! When we first moved, we choose a warmer white (ivory), because we believed it was the way to go with wood trim, creating an adequate tone to match all the wood. It turns out I prefer a cool colour. It doesn’t blend, it makes the wood stand and looks nicer (thank you rule nº 3 – trust your instinct!).

Besides paint, our biggest investment was to add mirrors strategically. We never care much for mirrors, living well with the mirrors of the bathroom and one in the closet. Truth to be told, they were sufficient for our living. It was only when I started to look for ways to let more light inside, that I considered adding mirrors.
I Think that the secret of living simply resides on our acquisitions rather than on our declutters. When we´re decluttering we’re merely responding to an issue, not addressing it from its roots. So, it was not without pondering that we decided to go forward with this purchases.
In the end, the mirrors do make a big impact on the quantity of the light inside the house, so I feel very pleased with this addition.

So far, we went with white walls, the use of mirrors, and less furniture with a special attention not to block the windows, so that the natural light flows inside. Do you know any other way? I would love to know what works for you!

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