Five years ago this month, I painted my fireplace white.

I want you to picture it. I was in the middle of one of the hardest seasons of my life. My marriage was ending. The Beans were small. The house felt like a costume I was wearing for someone else. And the fireplace, the big dark brown one in the centre of the living room, was the loudest object in every photograph of my life.

Everyone told me not to paint it. The internet told me not to paint it. Brown fireplaces are classic. White paint shows everything. You will regret it. Wait until you have a plan.

I painted it anyway.

Not because I was confident. Not because I had a Pinterest board. Not because I had the right brushes or the right primer or the right Saturday afternoon. I painted it because something inside me had gone quiet for a very long time and that quiet thing wanted the fireplace white.

It took three coats. It was not perfect. There were drips. My friend came over a few weeks later and said something I have never forgotten.

Your energy used to be brown. Now your energy is crystal.

She was not talking about the fireplace.

That moment became the seed of everything I now build. The book. The community. The coaching. All of it traces back to one woman with a paintbrush and a quiet knowing that her home deserved to feel like her.

I tell you this story because I know what it is like to wait for permission that is not coming. I know what it is like to sit in a room that does not feel like you and call that life. I know what it is like to want something small and feel guilty for wanting it.

So here is your permission slip today. Paint the fireplace. Whatever your fireplace is. The chair you have been wanting to move. The drawer you have been wanting to empty. The yes you have been wanting to take back. The pink space you have been wanting to claim.

You do not need a plan. You need one decision and a brush.

My book Creating Space with Julie: A Step-by-Step Guide to Decluttering and Self-Care walks you through the whole gentle method, story by story. The fireplace story is in there. So is the kitchen floor moment, the twinkle lights, and the framework I now use with every woman I coach. If something in you is asking to begin, the book is a soft, doable place to start.

🔗 https://creatingspacewithjulie.com/thebookshelf

With so much love and gratitude,

Julie xo

P.S. What is the fireplace in your life right now? Tell me. I want to know.