1. Know The Purpose Your Lady Cave Will Serve?
Even as a child, Kiara always loved to draw and recently taken up painting. She loved getting to mix the colors and create an image she saw in her mind.
She enjoyed the feel of the paintbrush in her hand and the way the hours seemed to fly by when she held one.
But Kiara didn’t have a dedicated space for her art so she painted at the dinning room table.
She didn’t mind until her eight-year-old son spilled a cup of juice over her latest work in progress. She was bummed.
When she told a friend about it, Kiara’s friend encouraged her to create a “lady cave”. This is an area of your home that’s specifically designed for your personal use.
A Lady Cave becomes infused with your vibrant energy.
It’s a nook where you can reflect, be quiet, go inside, and get centered. This is your get-away-from-it-all while still remaining semi-present.
Here are three women who chose to create a Lady Cave in their homes…
Fran Created a Craft Room
Fran loved knitting, crochet, and just about everything to do with yarn. When she and her husband moved into a new home, she set aside a room just for her crafting.
She bought a collection of canvas cubes at a garage sale and used them to store her yarn.
Like Fran, you can use an extra room in your house. But don’t think you have to break the bank to create your Lady Cave. You can furnish it with flea market or garage sale finds.
Kiara Designed an Art Center
After her conversation with her friend, Kiara dedicated an area of her basement to create her art in. Since the area didn’t have a lot of natural light, she purchased several lamps along with a big collection of daylight bulbs. This gave her the kind of light she’d need to make more art.
Sometimes, you’ll have to get creative with your solutions. Don’t be afraid to look online for answers or ask friends. You never know what you might come up with!
Amber Wanted a Reading Nook
Amber always wanted a home library but her house was small. So, she decided to turn her walk-in closet into the reading nook. She moved her clothes to a different area of her home and installed bookshelves in the closet.
Just because a space in your home was designed to function one way doesn’t mean that you can’t change things up.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and ask yourself “what if…?” with your home.
The most important part of creating your Lady Cave is choosing the function of it. Once you understand what you want and need from a space, you’ll start looking at everything in your home differently.
2. Get Creative When Setting Up Your Lady Cave
You love the idea of creating your Lady Cave. But you don’t exactly have an extra room in your house that’s not being used. This means you’ll have to get creative.
The space you choose may not even end up being a room. It might simply be an area that you’ve dedicated for your specific use.
Here’s a few possibilities to consider when looking for your lady cave…
The She Shed
Sometimes, you really do need a home away from home. If you have older kids who can be left alone in your house without constant supervision, then a “she shed” might be the answer for you. This is a regular shed that you put in your backyard but you decorate and design it to be your own personal haven.
If you need inspiration and ideas, look up “she shed” on Pinterest or Instagram.
The FROG (Finished Room Over Garage) or the Garage
Another possibility is a room over your garage or even the garage itself. You may have to make some adjustments.
If these spaces aren’t insulated, you may find yourself breaking out the fans in the summer and turning on a portable heater in the winter, but with a little creativity, you might be able to make it work.
The Attic or Basement
If you have a finished basement or attic, this might be the perfect answer to your lady cave. You may have to add additional lighting in these spaces, but you can do that with a few quality lamps and high-wattage bulbs.
Depending on the size of the room, you may be sharing the space with other family members. If that’s the case, you might want to get a room divider to create the feeling you have a dedicated area.
The Walk-In Closet or Pantry
Some women have turned their walk-in closet or even kitchen pantries into cute Lady Caves where they can go to rest and relax.
Remember, it’s not about the size of the space—you can make a small comfortable nook just about anywhere if you want to. Your lady cave is meant to be your retreat from the world. But you may have to get creative when you’re setting it up.
If you do design one and decide it isn’t working for you, don’t be afraid to start again.
Keep tweaking and playing with the idea. When you finally create the space of your dreams, you’ll get so much joy and peace from being in it that all the prep work will totally be worth it!
3. Make Your Dream Luxurious Lady Cave Come True
Lynette wanted a space where she could work on her fiction away from her family.
She loved her kids and pets but their constant interruptions were keeping her from being productive. She decided on a large walk in closet might be her best option.
But Lynette as surprised and a little overwhelmed by all the choices she had to make. She’d thought that once she chose the location for her lady cave, the hard part was done.
If you’re like Lynette here are a few things you may want to consider before you settle into your Lady Cave.
Here’s what you should think through…
Draw It Out
Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Sketch out what you’d like your new lady cave to look like.
What furniture will need to be in the room?
What will you be storing in your space—canvases for your art, your favorite books, or craft supplies?
As you think about what’s going in the area, consider how you can best keep it organized. If your lady cave is small, you may want to opt for furniture that doubles as storage like an ottoman that can hold your unused canvases.
Consider the Lighting
Depending on where your Lady Cave is, lighting may be an issue. This is especially true if you’re working in an attic, basement or windowless closet.
You may need to spend some time exploring the best lighting choices for your space.
There are also ways to decorate that make your space appear bright such as using paint with an eggshell or satin finish, adding mirrors to your space, choosing sheer curtains, painting the ceiling white, and adding rugs in neutral hues.
Think about Your Workflow
When designing your lady cave, you may also want to consider how you’ll be living in the space.
For example, if you plan to use the room for art, will you paint in the center but need an area to rinse your supplies? You might want to add a sink to your lady cave.
Maybe you’re creating a she shed in the backyard for your home office. But you plan to spend an hour or two in there after picking up your youngest from pre-school.
You might want to include a bench and a small collection of toys to entertain your littlest while you finish up that last project.
There’s no right or wrong way to design your luxurious lady cave.
You can create whatever you want and if you do find that something about the space isn’t working for you, you can always change it up!
4. Create Tranquil Touches for Your Lady Cave
Kiara had just finished designing her lady cave. She loved the space and the layout. She’d chosen a paint color she loved and the curtains in the space perfectly captured her need for plenty of light.
But she wanted just a few small touches to create a sense of tranquility.
Kiara’s mother suggested she try one or more of these things to add a feeling of calm and peace to her Lady Cave…
Candles
Candles are a wonderful way to meditate and relax.
Not only are they beautiful to look at but the right scent can make you feel at home, too. Try grabbing a wax warmer (like this beautiful one) and a few scented wax melts.
Some scents that might be lovely for your space include lavender, jasmine, cinnamon, peppermint, or lemongrass.
You may have to experiment until you find the one that you love the most.
White Noise
For some women, their lady cave is in a centrally located area of the house or they share the space with kids or a spouse.
For example, you might have half the basement while your kids use the other half for the game room.
In these situations, white noise machines can be a great idea.
Not only are the sounds calming, but they can decrease the noise around you, creating the feeling that you’re in your own personal retreat.
This affordable white noise machine lets you choose between settings like “babbling brook”, “rolling thunder”, and “gentle rain”.
Pick the sound that soothes you and helps calm your busy mind.
A Tabletop Fountain
If you like white noise but are looking for something a little different, you could go with a tabletop fountain.
You’ll get the sound of flowing water and with some fountains, there can be soothing lights as well.
When it comes to fountains, you can find one in just about every style—from this rustic buddha fountain to a whimsical fairy one. You can even add more decorations to your fountain like river rocks.
Beautiful Plants
Bring a touch of tranquility into your space with a plant. You can go with a bouquet of flowers that you change out as the seasons ebb and flow.
You could also go for a plant that you’d like to keep year-round. A few fun ideas to consider: a lucky bamboo stalk, a small bonsai tree, or an aloe vera plant.
All of these would be a terrific way to add some calming greenery to your Lady Cave.
The best thing you can do when it comes to designing your Lady Cave is to pay attention to what makes you feel relaxed.
Then look for ways to create more of that in your own environment!
5. It’s Time To Reflect, Renew, Retreat in your Lady Cave
Your lady cave is your space to kick back and relax. It’s a place where you can reflect, renew, and retreat. But after spending weeks or even months designing your shining space, you may wonder what to do in it. But worry not!
Here are a few cool habits you could start now that you have your own dedicated place to chill…
Journaling
This is a wonderful way to work through your feelings around a particular problem in your life or business. To avoid going in mental circles, try doing an exercise known as the 5-whys.
Start by writing down your problem then keeping asking ‘why’ the problem is occurring. Often, doing this leads to breakthroughs that help you see the problem in a new light and give you insight to seek the perfect solution!
Meditation
When you imagine meditation, you might think of closing your eyes and chanting for two hours. But meditation can be as simple as observing your thoughts for just ten minutes. Instead of judging them or acting on them, you simply listen. If fear or worry try to appear, you thank them for their input and you return to your meditation practice.
Some women find it helpful to use meditation apps to stay on track. Two good choices for this are Calm and Buddhify.
Prayer
If you consider yourself spiritual, you might also like to use your lady cave to pray. An app like PrayerMate has an alarm that will ring, reminding you to pray. It also contains dozens of prayers that you can browse by category. If you struggle to make prayer time a part of your day, this might be a great way to ensure consistency.
If you don’t want to go high-tech, you can always just keep a list of people and situations you’re praying for. Try to date the entries and record answers as you see them. This will strength your faith as time goes on.
Visualization
You may also find it helpful to use your shining space to visualize your best life and business. You might want to grab a journal and some prompts to encourage you as you think about what you want.
The first step to making sure you design the life of your dreams is getting clear on what that might look like.
Do you want more free time with your children?
Do you want more clients in your business?
Do you want more time to spend with your partner?
Be sure to date your journal entries as you do these visualization exercises. This enables you to look back on all your progress later.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with various habits in your lady cave until you find what works best for you. Make it a priority to start one new healthy habit each month and see the positive ways it affects other areas of your life.
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