Your Home, Your Sanctuary

Ali Heath — COCOON: Creating Homes with Heart

Part manual, part study — a book about shaping a home that nurtures your inspirations, with spotlights on the people who made theirs.

Find it on Amazon →or at Bookshop.org

Cosy cottage sitting room with a striped sofa, wood stove and blue-and-white tiles, from COCOON by Ali Heath

COCOON: Creating Homes with Heart by Ali Heath, hardcover on a wooden table

The cover

Isn’t it great to pick up a random book and then find out that it’s part of a series you had no idea about? COCOON is part three of a series of interior design books by Ali Heath, with CURATE and CREATE being the first two. The first two I know nothing about, but this one is about your home as hearth, your place, your space for living, retreat, and comfort. It’s about “cocooning,” described as a deliberate act of wrapping yourself in a space where your feelings and emotions can be at peace, and the metaphor for being safe and secure is obvious.

But it’s a design book with intention, to help you create your own cocoon, and it’s by no means limited to one interpretation. The intention is for you. Is it a studio for your creative work? A room full of couches to sink into with your family on a rainy day? A retreat to escape to for rejuvenation, or a scene for bacchanalia? It doesn’t matter; it’s up to you to be an alchemist of head and heart and sow the space.

White kitchen with a blue island and wooden stools beside a rustic dresser

Roll-top bath beneath a green-framed window, opposite a handwritten quote

The book is both manual and study, with steps to follow if you’re in creating mode, and spotlights on a variety of spaces and homes. The activities are really to help you capture your emotions and desires and twist spaces around them. The spotlights are complementary, being interviews of the owners and designers, with their own stories of their purposes, intentions, and accomplishments. It’s nice to hear others’ stories.

“You will soon find that your joy in your home is growing, and that you have a source of happiness within yourself that you had not suspected.”

From the pages

Stacked wool throws in warm tones beside text on comfort and texture

Living room with grey sofas, tall bookshelves and a library ladder by the sea

Minimal white living room with a leather sofa, wood stove and a picture window

Stained-glass fanlight above doors opening onto a sunlit eclectic room

Bedroom with a striped canopy and a pink striped daybed

Daybed in a room of salvaged wood, old cabinets and a mirrored doorway

Admittedly, some of the homes are expansive and expensive, far beyond the reach of mere mortals, but nothing uncommon for an interior design book. Some places are approachable and warm, while others are cool to the touch and minimalistic. There’s no need to judge. Do a lot with little, there’s that, or do a lot with a lot, there’s that too — it’s up to you, it’s your place, and it’s enlightening to be inspired by how someone else made their place. Now go make yours.

“Reposition the pursuit of doing nothing in our minds from something perceived as lazy to a necessity that gives our bodies and thoughts some time to recharge.”