Every Sanctuary Begins With A Feeling.

When I was a little girl, the world could feel too loud, too fast and too close. I didn’t have words for what I needed. I only knew that somewhere in our home there had to be a place where I could breathe.

In our 1940s Spanish-style house in Southern California, I found it inside a white walk-in closet. It had a white door with a brass knob and a single clothes bar set high enough for me to sit beneath. I pushed my clothes to one side and made room for myself on the floor.

I carried in the little lamp from my bedside table. Then came the blankets I loved most, pillows, dolls, stuffed animals and books. Sometimes my cat joined me. I sat in that soft pool of light and talked to my dolls for hours. I could look at my things, listen to my own thoughts and simply exist without having to explain myself.

That closet was the first sanctuary I ever made. I didn’t think of it as design, a practice or a way to regulate my nervous system. It was a private world where texture, light and familiar objects helped me feel safe. I learned that a small space can hold a whole person.

“The first nest taught me that comfort is deeply personal. A room should make space for the person living inside it.”

Years later, that instinct became Oriah’s Nest. I want to help people make a place that belongs to them, whether it is a corner behind a curtain, a quiet pod, a room dressed in black velvet, or a home filled with color, water, plants and sound. What matters is how you feel when you step inside.