Lillian

As part of a closing hand-off ceremony for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and the 2024 games in Paris, choreographer Sadeck Waff worked with 128 performers in a dizzying performance focused on arms and hands. The French dancer and choreographer has become known for his limb-centric performances which you can watch more of on Instagram. Music by Woodkid. (via The Kid Should See This)

Few rooms are as oft-used and much-loved as the living room. It’s the place to curl up by a fire with a good book, enjoy a movie with your family, and sprawl around with friends while enjoying a delicious glass of vino. Along with the kitchen, the living room likely sees the most foot traffic at home, making it the perfect place to fully express your own interior design style. But when we want to make a change, we like to do it right, which is why we tapped an interior designer to share some of the most popular living room décor ideas for 2021.

Whether you’re looking to make a few little tweaks here and there or want to revamp the whole thing, our expert Javaneh Pirooz has you covered. The winds have been changing in the world of interiors this past year, and folks are looking to invest in their homes to make them more functional and aesthetically pleasing. Being stuck inside for the better part of two years will do that to ya! For her part, Pirooz has been surprised to see a shift for more aesthetically pleasing items, as opposed to cozier pieces. “People want their homes to look like the places they dream of visiting and want to create that form of escapism in their own space,” she tells us.

Adding a fresh coat of paint, jazzing up a bookshelf with new accessories, and a new rug or two can go a long way in transforming the look of your living room. What are you looking to switch up these days? Sound off in the comments and let us know.

Keep scrolling to read Pizooz’s irresistible living room décor ideas for 2021 1 of 4

Vintage furniture Investing in vintage furniture can seem daunting, but it’s incredibly worthwhile. These solid, well-made pieces last a lifetime and are visually stunning as well.

Bouclé sofas and chairs There’s a good chance you’ve spotted these fuzzy furnishing on your Instagram feed—they’re everywhere and for good reason. It’s cozy, beautiful, and it looks incredibly high-end. Just about every major retailer is carrying their own version these days, from West Elm to CB2, and more.

Blush tones Sweet blush tones are no longer relegated to baby rooms. They’re a lovely addition to a living room whether it’s an accent piece like a pillow or takes up a bit more real estate in rug form.

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Earthy hues Dreamy sage greens, mustard, and muted browns are abundant in living rooms this year.

Tweed Calling everyone obsessed with the Dark Academia trend! Tweed furnishings and accent pieces add a bit of old-world library-style mystery to the living room.

Statement rugs Bright colors, fuzzy fabrics, and bold patterns mean that rugs are taking center stage in living rooms.

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Natural woods Rattan, wicker, and natural, unfinished and unpainted woods add a rustic element that pairs well with most aesthetics.

Travertine coffee tables Pirooz will give you bonus points if it’s vintage. There’s no denying that the stone coffee table trend is here to stay. It’s a chic, bold statement that also manages to remain fairly understated.

Cantilever chairs These distinct chairs can be found everywhere from the kitchen to the study and, of course, the living room these days.

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Velvet This lush fabric is perfect for couches, pillows, and cozy blankets. It’s a sumptuous way to add a touch of luxury.

Pastel colors Don’t be afraid to add a bit of softness via pastel colors, whether it be on painted walls, furnishings, or accent pieces.

Curvy shapes Whether it’s an 80s-inspired rug, wavy mirror, or curved coffee table, soft curvy shapes are here to stay.

Terracotta Terracotta is not just for pottery anymore! It’s one of the most popular paint shades of the year.

What’s your favorite living room design trend of the year? Let us know in the comments!

Figuring out when to send a child to preschool is a tough decision. Unlike primary school, where there’s a natural starting age, kids can start preschool in their early or late toddler years.

There’s no one right age for preschool. Many factors come into play, such as the child’s maturity, the nature and expectations of the preschool, and what works best for the family. Read on for some tips on figuring out the perfect preschool age for children.

What Age Is Preschool? Many people wonder: at what age should children attend preschool? It’s a valid question because kids attend preschool at several ages. While there are a few rare preschools that serve one-year-olds and younger, most preschools accept kids between the ages of two and four.

Preschools typically start at two and have a program that kids can progress through over the next three years. Some preschool programs are focused on preparing kids for kindergarten and may be more academically focused. These schools are usually for four-year-olds and are an early year education.

How to Know If a Child is Ready One of the most significant factors in deciding if it’s time for a child to attend preschool is the child.

Kids are less likely to be successful at preschool if they’re not ready. A child should be able to be away from their parents for at least a few hours. They should also be able to follow basic directions and focus on age-appropriate tasks.

Kids should enjoy spending time with other kids and may be expressing a desire to play with others their own age. Some preschools also require kids to be potty trained.

Visit Local Schools It’s difficult to know if kids are ready to start preschool without actually visiting some local schools. Not all schools are the same. While some kids may not be prepared for a strict, academically-based preschool, a school focused on play-based learning may be the perfect fit.

Local schools can help parents figure out what preschool age is and if their child is ready to attend their school.

Pros and Cons of Starting Preschool Early There are many pros and cons to starting preschool at an early age. Parents should consider these pros and cons before deciding when to send their children to preschool.

Pros Your child will prepare for procedures and following directions when they get to kindergarten. They can develop social skills from an early age. They can often learn more than they would at home. Cons The wrong preschool may make them dislike school. The school environment may put too much pressure on your child.  Going to school could lead to separation anxiety. Pros and Cons of Waiting to Start Preschool There are also advantages and disadvantages to waiting to start preschool.

Pros Your child may be more ready for an unfamiliar situation. They will have more time at home with their parents. Older kids may get more from an academic preschool. Cons Your child may not be as prepared for kindergarten. They may not understand how to play well with other children when they move to a higher grade.  Preparing Kids for Preschool If you’ve decided to send your child to preschool, there are a few ways to prepare your child for preschool.

First, you should let the child visit the preschool, preferably a couple of times. The first time should be when school is out. They can look around the school and meet their teacher. Then, let them sit in on a class for a couple of hours.

Parents should also help their kids with basic skills. They should be able to put on and remove their coat, use the toilet, wash their hands on their own, and open everything in their lunchbox.

Parting Thoughts The decision about when to start preschool is often the first decision many parents make about their child’s education. It can feel overwhelming.

However, as long as parents find a preschool that matches their children’s temperaments and learning styles, their kids should have a great experience.

About Author LaDonna Dennis

LaDonna Dennis is the founder and creator of Mom Blog Society. She wears many hats. She is a Homemaker*Blogger*Crafter*Reader*Pinner*Friend*Animal Lover* Former writer of Frost Illustrated and, Cancer…SURVIVOR! LaDonna is happily married to the love of her life, the mother of 3 grown children and “Grams” to 3 grandchildren. She adores animals and has four furbabies: Makia ( a German Shepherd, whose mission in life is to be her attached to her hip) and Hachie, (an OCD Alaskan Malamute, and Akia (An Alaskan Malamute) who is just sweet as can be. And Sassy, a four-month-old German Shepherd who has quickly stolen her heart and become the most precious fur baby of all times. Aside from the humans in her life, LaDonna’s fur babies are her world.

Living in a society where perfection is not only the norm but encouraged can be disheartening to say the least. How many times have you taken a blurry photo and overlooked its perceived flaws because it goes against the grain (mind the pun)? It’s true that historically we have tended to lean toward the shiny and new versus the old and worn, but those tides are turning as more of us embrace authenticity over accuracy. Because as we’ve all come to learn amid a pandemic, true beauty lies in the cracks, the rough edges, the imperfect glazes, even the deliberate flaws.

It’s why the Japanese philosophy, wabi sabi has captured our imagination and our hearts—it’s quite literally the antidote to perfectionism. Photographer, creative director, and author, Julie Pointer Adams was so drawn to the wabi way of life that she wrote an entire book dedicated to it, titled Wabi-Sabi Welcome: Learning to Embrace the Imperfect and Entertain with Thoughtfulness and Ease. As Adams explains, wabi sabi means “living in a way that pays attention and appreciates the beauty of the mundane, minute details of everyday life—things that often go unseen, unnoticed or unvalued.”

She adds: “For me, living with that kind of care-full consciousness is the way I strive to live all the time, and always have, even before I was aware of the concept. By writing a book, I wanted to make the concept perceivable and attainable in many different settings to many different people… I wanted to show how the philosophy can be adopted into anyone’s life experience through the simple rituals and routines of everyday life.”

As far as shifting her whole mindset to embrace wabi sabi in daily life and work? Well, let’s just say it’s an ongoing, everyday learning process (as is everything in life!). “I joke that I never should have written a book about wabi sabi until I had a toddler in my house!” she laughs. “It’s comical but also true that since having a child, I have come to have a whole new understanding of what it means to embrace the perfectly imperfect and to try to be fully present in every moment, even when things are not going as hoped or planned. To see it show up in my own life is to try to accept the fact that all things are impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete (for everyone, no matter how much social media might make us believe otherwise!), and that even in the midst of challenging moments or work experiences that feel like failures, each hour, each experience, each day is a perfect gift. It’s about living wholly in each fleeting moment, while also being aware of the whole arc of time, where nothing stays constant forever.”

We couldn’t agree more. Keep reading to learn more about what is wabi sabi, the meaning behind the movement, and how to incorporate the philosophy into your home, life, and work.

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But first, what is wabi sabi? Wabi sabi is a many-layered concept so it’s difficult to define in a few words. Most simply put, it’s a way of seeing (as coined by the Japanese) that frees us to find beauty in what is impermanent, imperfect, and incomplete.

Wabi refers to living simply and in tune with nature, to paring down to the essentials so we can appreciate each moment and object in its fullness; Sabi refers to transience and the passage of time.

Together, the two words describe a type of beauty and a way of life that embraces imperfection and simple living, clinging to what is humble, mysterious, and unassuming. To me, it’s a way of living that wholly appreciates the perfectly imperfect—something we can strive for every day in each one of our homes, our lives, and in the natural world around us. I believe wabi sabi can open our eyes and our minds to a broader, more accepting, and more joyous way of being in the world.

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Can you outline the wabi sabi philosophy and why you connected with it so much? The wabi sabi philosophy emerged around the 14th century when various artistic and Buddhist principles taken from Chinese traditions came to form a distinctly Japanese concept. At the time, the idea was very tied to the tea ceremony, and is still deeply rooted in that time-honored tradition which holds up simplicity, humility, and rustic elegance as essential ideals. It has now come to embody a particular Japanese aesthetic that celebrates a kind of flawed beauty, and is understood to be the “wisdom in natural simplicity.” While many Japanese people may find the concept difficult to describe or translate, they all inherently understand it as a hard-to-pinpoint aesthetic and a distinct way of being in the world.

This philosophy is a sharp departure from our deeply-ingrained Western ideal of what’s new, shiny, fancy, expensive, modern, and flashy. Instead, it upholds that which is aged, has a patina, is humble, modest, impermanent and isn’t attached to status. It invites us to reframe for ourselves what has value in our own lives, apart from what modern or popular culture might say.

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Why do you think wabi sabi style has resonated in the West and become so popular?  It’s sort of ironic that wabi sabi has recently become a bit of a catchphrase because by nature, it goes against the grain of what’s popular or trendy. However, I think what people are attracted to by the idea of wabi sabi is that it upends the idea of the convenient, big-box consumerism that so many of us grew up with, and instead, encourages a more thoughtful approach to what we fill our lives with, and what we value.

In the midst of a deeply perfection-seeking era, especially fueled by the rise of social media, many people are also desperate to find a mode of seeing/being/thinking that frees them from this kind of perfectionistic ideal.

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What does a wabi sabi home look like? Wabi sabi can be applied to interior design in the same way it can be applied to all other parts of life—by paring down your surroundings to a simple, unfussy elegance inspired by nature, natural materials, and the beauty of imperfection. It is found in creating calm, warm, zen-like environments that are designed for intimacy versus impressing others. Wabi sabi items and spaces are full of inviting, earthy materials and tones (wood, clay, stone, etc.) that celebrate nature as she is—perfectly imperfect—and have a quiet, subdued quality to them. Even if wabi sabi spaces are decorated sparsely or have textured roughness to them (like plastered walls, live-edge wood, raw stone, nubby wool), they are full of life and warmth, versus having a kind of perfect showroom sterility to them.

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How can we incorporate wabi sabi in our homes? I believe the first way to think about incorporating wabi sabi into your home is to take stock of what you have and determine what you may no longer need. Your home may very well simply have too much stuff in it to really feel calm, peaceful, and life-giving.

Achieving a sense of wabi sabi is rarely about going out and buying a whole bunch of new stuff, but rather about simplifying, re-evaluating, and thinking carefully about every new purchase.

When you do need to purchase something new or new-to-you, as often as you can, select timeless items made from natural materials and fibers that will age well (versus cheap and/or trendy) and can be repaired or re-used for years to come.

Kintsugi—the art of beautiful repairs—is also popular now in the U.S. as a result of the rise in wabi sabi. Can you tell us more about this concept? Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing pottery by mending it with gold-infused glue, so that once the object is repaired, rather than hiding the fracture lines, the gold highlights the seams, adding a new kind of beauty and grace to the piece. I think this method works beautifully as a metaphor for how if we steadily work on getting the broken parts of lives healed, rather than hiding, ignoring, or glossing over them, they can actually become a visible and lovely part of our strength. It’s yet another perfect example, like wabi sabi leads us to, of the beauty that can be found in imperfection if we have the eyes to see it.

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5 Practical Ways Wabi Sabi Can Be Incorporated at Home: 1. Make do with what you have.

Embracing wabi sabi is all about recognizing the beauty in humble and imperfect things, rather than always needing or desiring more. The moment you find yourself thinking your space or your objects are “not enough” is the moment you’ve lost your way with a wabi sabi mindset. Invite wabi sabi in through the simplest of ways like clipping some branches from your backyard and putting in a vase to refresh your space with a bit of nature.

2. Collect sentiment over things.

Learn to collect special things that have meaning and significance, but then be willing to curate your spaces so that simplicity and comfort reign above all.

3. Practical is pretty, too.

Invite beauty into your home through practical means with lovely dishware, storage, and even housecleaning items (like a lovely wooden brush and glass dispenser for the sink). Pare down to only what you need, but let some things be beautiful just for beauty’s sake—not everything needs to be useful, too.

4. Make it personal.

Make your home personal by incorporating items that likely only have value to you: special family photographs, mementos collected on trips, art made by your children, and so on.

5. Bring Mother Nature in.

Bring the outdoors and some earthiness inside whether through a nature-inspired color palette, wildflowers plucked from the roadside, a collection of potted plants, or your favorite beach-walk pebbles.