Designing for Life Transitions: How Objects Help Us Cross Thresholds

Change rarely announces itself. It often shows up first in the spaces we move through, asking us to cross before we feel ready.

Written by Janeca Racho, 54kibo Contributor

Reviewed by 54kibo Editors

There is a stretch of time many people experience after something has changed, but before life feels settled again. This moment is often unmarked. There are no ceremonies or milestones. It registers instead as a sense of being in between.

During this time, the home is often where that in-between feeling becomes most noticeable. It holds what came before alongside what has not fully taken shape yet. Meaning does not arrive all at once. It builds slowly, through small, repeated acts of steadiness (see Rituals of Home: Creating Stability During Times of Change) and through objects that begin to feel different without needing to announce a new chapter (see Objects That Mark a New Chapter).

Many people are experiencing this kind of transition because contemporary life offers fewer clear endings and fewer shared rituals to mark change. Transitions that once happened publicly now unfold quietly, leaving the home to absorb what society no longer names.

Interior spaces often register change before we have language for it. During major life transitions, rooms begin to reflect uncertainty, memory, and anticipation. This is where interior design for life transitions becomes less about appearance and more about emotional support. Familiar objects, missing ones, and changes in how space is used can all mirror what feels unsettled internally.

The psychology of interior design helps explain why this can feel disorienting. People rely on spatial cues such as light, layout, objects, and routines to maintain a sense of self. When identity is in motion, those cues can feel unreliable, even when nothing is technically wrong.

Seen this way, thresholds are not signs of failure. They are necessary passages, and they rarely arrive neatly labeled.

In uncertain periods, continuity often comes from what remains rather than what is added. Objects matter not because they symbolize something, but because they stay. A familiar chair, a worn textile, or a piece carried from one home to another can quietly remind you that not everything is changing at once.

This understanding shapes how 54kibo founder Nana Quagraine thinks about home during life’s in-between stages.

“I grew up in South Africa in a culture that didn’t rush people through life’s in-between stages. Those moments were acknowledged as part of living. In New York, without the same presence of extended family, the home is often asked to do more, to become a sanctuary. That’s where the pressure for a home to feel perfect, or to keep pace with us, can creep in. But a space doesn’t need to reflect certainty to be meaningful. It only needs to hold you while life is still forming.”

Home design during major life changes often holds both movement and stillness at the same time. Some elements feel temporary, while others feel anchored. Together, they create a sense of layered time, a home that reflects life as it is now, even when the direction is not yet clear.

There is a subtle, often unspoken pressure to arrive somewhere quickly. In a culture that treats life like a race, progress is often measured by how efficiently change is processed and how soon certainty returns.

But life transitions rarely move in clean lines. They linger. They stretch. They need to be lived through before they can be understood.

For now, recognizing where you are and allowing your home to hold that reality is more than enough.

These articles explore different ways this moment shows up:

• Rituals of Home: Creating Stability During Times of Change
• Objects That Mark a New Chapter
  

This article was reviewed by our internal design and cultural research team for accuracy and craftsmanship detail.