Parlor versus sanctuary: reorienting the living room

Prioritizing the social parlor. E. Morgan advocates for reviving the 19th-century parlor to reverse the decline in hosting. Modern homes orient furniture toward screens, which limits social interaction to movie nights. By replacing televisions with conversation pieces like flintlock muskets or record players, homeowners create infrastructure that facilitates intimate connection (Letters from the Old World).

Curating personal sanctuaries. Bob Holmes designs living spaces as monastic cells to ensure spiritual restoration. He establishes a specific area for prayer and meditation to shift the mind into a state of rest. These sanctuaries use simple items like candles or journals to anchor the inhabitant in a place of refuge that exists independent of social demands (Bob Holmes from Contemplative Monk).

These models offer competing visions for the home. The parlor approach reconfigures physical space to force outward-facing social habits, while the sanctuary model focuses on inward-facing stillness to sustain personal well-being. Both reject the screen-centric living room in favor of intentional design.