SOLÈNE AVENUE

A homebody’s guide to making the everyday feel a little more special this season

Welcome to the first edition of SOLÈNE AVENUE!

This is a little corner of the internet for making a life at home feel more interesting, more personal, and a little more beautiful. Here, we’ll talk about homes and gardens, books and hobbies, getting dressed, cooking dinner, setting the table, finding good things, and all of the small details that make up a life. Some posts will be practical, some will be more of a daydream, and some will simply give you an excuse to look at your own life a little differently. Think of this as the ultimate homebody guide: a place for developing your taste, finding inspiration, and remembering that an ordinary Tuesday can be worth making something of.

And what better place to begin than fall? There’s just something about this season that makes even the most familiar routines feel worth lingering over. The first sweater of the year, a pot of something simmering on the stove, an afternoon spent wandering through a bookstore, flowers from the market on the kitchen table. So, to begin our little journey into the world of SOLÈNE, here are 27 ways to romanticize your life this fall…

1. Make your morning coffee feel like an occasion: Use the pretty mug, sit somewhere you actually like sitting, and give yourself ten minutes before reaching for your phone.
2. Start a fall reading stack: Choose three or four books based entirely on the mood you want this season to have: an old novel, something beautifully illustrated, a mystery, a book of essays.
3. Take yourself to the farmers market: Go without a strict shopping list and bring home whatever looks good.
4. Put fresh flowers somewhere unexpected: A little vase beside the kitchen sink, on your nightstand, or next to the bathroom mirror makes an ordinary part of the house feel special.
5. Make your bed like you’re staying at a country hotel: Add an extra blanket, fold the duvet back, bring in a couple of pillows, and make the whole thing feel inviting rather than merely made.
6. Cook one dinner that takes your time: Pick something that needs chopping, stirring, roasting, or simmering. Put on music and let dinner become part of the evening rather than something to get through.
7. Wear an outfit you would normally save for somewhere else: A good sweater, loafers, earrings, lipstick, or your favorite coat can make a trip to the bookstore or grocery store feel entirely different.
8. Create a little reading corner: It doesn’t need to be an elaborate chair-and-lamp situation. Clear a spot on the sofa, add a blanket and a small table, and keep your current book within reach.
9. Have people over for drinks before dinner: Keep it simple: something to drink, a bowl of olives or nuts, music in the background, and everyone gathered in the kitchen or living room.
10. Buy a candle for the season: Choose a scent that actually reminds you of fall rather than automatically reaching for pumpkin. Wood, cedar, fig, amber, tobacco, apple, or something herbal all work beautifully.
11. Take the long way home: Especially on one of those cool, golden afternoons when there is no reason to rush back.
12. Make an ordinary errand into an outing: Go to the bookstore after the grocery store. Stop for coffee after dropping something at the post office. Buy flowers while you’re already out. Let errands occasionally have a second destination.
13. Keep a bowl of seasonal fruit on the counter: Apples, pears, figs, or whatever looks beautiful at the market. There is something very lovely about food being visible and ready to eat.
14. Spend an afternoon with a hobby that has nothing to do with productivity: Paint, embroider, sketch, garden, make a collage, work on a puzzle, press flowers, or anything that gives your hands something to do.
15. Write your grocery list by hand: On a small notepad you keep in the kitchen. It sounds insignificant, but there is something satisfying about making the week’s meals feel tangible.
16. Make one room especially cozy for evening: Turn off the overhead lights, switch on the lamps, light a candle, close the curtains, and let that room become the place everyone naturally ends up.
17. Go antiquing with no particular thing in mind: Look for the odd little objects that make a home feel like someone actually lives there: a silver tray, old frame, ceramic bowl, brass candlestick, landscape painting.
18. Have a proper Sunday morning: Stay in pajamas a little longer, make something good for breakfast, open the windows if the weather allows, read the paper or a magazine, and resist the urge to immediately turn the day into a list of tasks.
19. Bake something you can eat for breakfast tomorrow: A loaf cake, apple bread, muffins, scones, or something similarly unfussy. The best part is waking up to something already waiting for you.
20. Bring something home from a walk: A few fallen branches, interesting leaves, pinecones, or other seasonal pieces can become a simple arrangement on a table.
21. Make your house smell like dinner: Roast garlic, sauté onions, simmer a pot of soup, bake something with cinnamon. The smell of food drifting through the house is one of the easiest ways to make home feel alive.
22. Spend an evening doing something analog: Put your phone away and choose a combination of things you genuinely enjoy: a movie, a book, a puzzle, a handwritten letter, music, or a magazine.
23. Dress the table even when nobody is coming over: Use cloth napkins, bring out the glasses you like, put something small in the center, and make an ordinary dinner feel like it deserves a place setting.
24. Visit somewhere beautiful in your own town: A historic house, botanical garden, museum, old neighborhood, independent bookstore, garden center, or hotel lobby you’ve always meant to see.
25. Make a seasonal playlist: Give it a name, add songs slowly throughout the season, and actually listen to it while cooking, driving, cleaning, or getting ready.
26. Start a small fall tradition: It can be as simple as making the same soup on the first chilly weekend, buying a new book every October, taking a particular walk, or having friends over for an annual dinner.
27. Let yourself have an evening with nowhere to be: Make dinner, put on comfortable clothes, turn on the lamps, pick something to read or watch, and enjoy the rare luxury of not needing the evening to lead anywhere.

Subscribe to SOLÈNE AVENUE for more ideas for making a beautiful, interesting life at home!