My home is my sanctuary. It’s the place where I exhale. A romantic home is filled with personal treasures, soft fabrics, comfortable furniture and pampering self-care items.

It’s a place to make memories or spend time alone recharging your inner batteries. It should be the place where you can be absolutely yourself. You make the rules. You hand-select each item that goes into it. You choose how to live and what to do. In your home, there is no one telling you how to live.

Your home need not be huge and expensive. I remember very fondly my tiny apartment in New York City. It was my first place that I had all to myself. It was a studio with high ceilings, the tiniest kitchen I ever saw, but it had a bathroom with an old-fashioned tub that I could luxuriate in. I was young and on my own, and it was my special little place away from the busy, noisy city. You know what they say, bloom where you are planted. I grew into a woman in that tiny apartment.

Now that I am a bit older and have more rooms in my home, I still try to give each room that cozy feeling. I love scented candles, fresh-cut flowers, books, pillows, and pretty little tchotchke from my travels.

Here are some tips for adding romance to each room in your home:

Kitchen

The kitchen is where all the family action happens. It’s where we share life’s moments over hearty meals. My kitchen is full of pretty cups and glasses and healthy foods. I love pretty paper napkins, and interesting and functional kitchen implements like a mandoline and a mezzaluna, and my extensive collection of herbs and spices. I love that I still have some things from my mother, like her favorite knife and the pot that she used to boil potatoes for the mashed potatoes that we had almost every day with dinner.

Bathroom

A clean, well-lit bathroom is very important to me. I love a deep tub where I can take a bath and use all of my handmade bath products. I make a lot of my own soaps but I also love to buy handmade artisan soaps, sugar scrubs, lotions, oils, and all scented pretty things. I love huge fluffy towels and lots of countertop space. The best thing I ever bought was a multi-head shower head with a long hose. I like to have full control over the bath.

Bedroom

My bedroom is my special place. I love to hibernate. I like to have light in my bedroom but I also love to have fully light-blocking curtains so I can enclose myself in my private cave. I always have my Himalayan salt crystal pyramid that I light every night. I also have an essential oil diffuser that glows with colored lights, my iHome where I play relaxation music, my glamorous mirrored dressing table that I searched years to find, scented candles and all my beautiful clothes I’ve collected over the years.

Living Room

I have a handmade red velvet couch and gold silk curtains. I love odd tables that I find in one-off furniture stores or vintage stores. I try not to have anything from big-box stores. I don’t want to see someone else’s home that has the same things as me. I want all my furniture to be hand chosen by me. I love colored glass candle holders and strings of lights. They’re not just for Christmas.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to make your home into a romantic getaway. Romance doesn’t have to mean lovemaking. A romantic home is that cozy, feeling of home that you create in your own private sanctuary.