Architecture for a Free Mind: A Visual Guide
How to make screens irrelevant again
Note: This post was created without any use of AI. All images contributed by readers were first printed, then over the course of many hours, sorted into categories and carefully arranged into collage layouts on Gimp (an open-source graphics editor), and finally matched with readers’ annotating comments. In order to enjoy the visuals fully, this post is best viewed on a larger screen rather than your phone.
This post is free for everyone to enjoy. If you would like to support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
We have a friend who used to host the most magnificent dinner parties in a little Newfoundland outport home the size of your backpocket. He bought the yellow house nestled into a cliff with his credit card. Every inch of it was filled with books, art, and creatively nooked seating.
Two weeks ago we hosted a potluck party for nearly thirty people in our much larger space, filled with three solid wooden tables, a set of stunning dinnerware we were gifted that just begged to be used, and a gallery loft seemingly made for musical performances.
Both homes, though vastly different in look and dimensions, share at their core a space that is made for humans.
Often when we think of keeping the legion of screens at bay, we begin with the technology itself. How can I spend less time on a screen? Will switching to a light phone save my mind? Is there an app or a technique that can help me limit how long I use my phone? This is not necessarily a bad approach, yet by starting with technology, it tends to center us back on technology.
Another approach is to turn the problem upside down: make our devices irrelevant not by trying to control them, but by radically changing the environment around us.
Our devices exert a pull on us, a kind of gravitational force that we feel mentally and emotionally, so that no matter how great our willpower to resist, we get worn down in the end. Or as one reader just commented to us today, you simply press “ignore” on your limits.
The most effortless way to resist is not through effort, but by surrounding ourselves with a tangible environment that pulls us in a different direction, anchoring us in real things and real people.
And since we spend most of our time in our living space, this is also a good place to start.
Can we remove that screen1 from our living space or bedroom, and replace it with a painting or a bookshelf? Can we remove phones, tablets, computers, and wearables from important parts of the home, and instead turn these areas into sanctuaries of conversation, slow knowledge, creative work, music making, art, prayer, and festivity?
Today’s post presents a visual guide for an “architecture for a free mind” compiled from over eighty readers’ photos of screen-free/low-screen living spaces in a range of categories including:
Living rooms, playrooms, dens, bedrooms, kitchens, workspaces, creative spaces, music areas, bookshelves, wall art, and other sanctuaries for the mind.
A tremendous *THANK YOU* to all the readers who contributed pictures and shared a private glimpse into their homes. We indicated the names of the people whose images are displayed, added their comments when possible, and have also labelled each image with a number2 to facilitate conversation in the comment section.
A couple of quick announcements:
“Internet Real Life”: Join a kitchen table conversation with Peter Limberg, Tommy Dixon, Peco and me tomorrow, Saturday, May 17th at 1 p.m. EST for a non-recorded conversation as we share our perspectives, challenges, and solutions to daily life in a digital age. So grab your favorite coffee or tea and join us for a lively exchange. Everyone is welcome!
Join us on our Camino Pilgrimage: If the ideas we write about resonate with you, why not consider joining us for a most extraordinary extended conversation while walking, sharing meals, and visiting ancient sites? Together with Dixie Dillon Lane, we’ll be leading an 11-day pilgrimage on the Camino in Spain from June 14th to 24th. There is still time to join us (but not much)! See this post for details, a recorded “Camino curious” meeting, and to download the brochure, or register directly here. Questions?
Living Spaces
Arranging our main living environment without the draw of screens directs our attention towards each other, our present environment, or ideas and projects we are pursuing.3 What you’ll notice in the following series of living spaces, though varied in style and formality, is that the seating is arranged to facilitate conversation, reading, or play.
Patrick B. Whalen (1) “Books compete with art and instruments for wall space in our home. But probably most important for us are places where we can all sit and talk, or sing and play music together (the folding chairs are just out of frame).”
Amelia McKee (2) “This is our living room, where we spend most of our time. The children’s toys are behind the couch. This picture is a little neater than usual because we had just cleaned after dinner.
My husband’s friend built the built in bookshelves. They were the first ones he ever did. The rug and bench were Facebook marketplace finds.”
Grace Pate Pouch (3a,b,c) “We have no screens on this floor of the house. Only a record player that the kids love and a piano. And lots of books - especially art books- and places to lounge with a book.”
Haley Baumeister (4) “We also don’t have a TV as our laptops are enough screens as it is and are used for communal watching as needed. My dream is to acquire a projector for watching movies together, whether inside or outside, but it’s yet to be seen whether there’s even a decent setup for that…. But I like the idea of making it a fun and memorable event that requires a bit of friction to make happen.”
Allison East (5) “We recently removed our TV from our living room and are in the process of rearranging.”
Hannah Stuckwisch (6) uses lots of art and maps for her living room decor.
Cheryl Winstead’s main living area is perfectly set up for family conversations (6b).
Katelyn Walls Shelton (8) “…this is our current living room in its “natural state,” as someone else said, although there are usually tons more toys scattered around the floor and coffee table because we have four kids four and under. No TV in the living room (none of our friends have one in their living room either!), couches that face each other (“conversation couches” — specifically designed with book club nights in mind!), plenty of room for books, and what we call a “music room” for music (and sometimes even impromptu family dance parties).”
Jennifer (9) “We aren’t screen-free but the tv is downstairs and the upstairs is cluttered with books and Legos.”
Elizabeth Burtman (10) “The room where people usually look for a television.”
Ann Marie O'Donnell (11) “We don’t have any screens on the main level (TV and work computer are in the basement). I love having books and plants all around the house, and when I get my guitar back from my sister I want to hang it so it’s easily accessible.”
Jake (12) “We have our space centered in the house. Couch, handmade window seat, and two chairs, all facing each other. Nice big window lets all the natural light in.”
Christina Jaloway (13) “This is our sunroom/playroom in its natural state. I’ve been collecting children’s books since my oldest was in utero (he’s now 7) and was able to get both IKEA shelving units for free from neighbors. My husband built the forward-facing shelf for me about 5 years ago and it’s where we put seasonal books and library books, so that they don’t get mixed in with the books we own. We have two other big bookshelves in the living room dedicated to my husband’s and my books, and we don’t own a TV.”
Annelise Roberts (14) “We have one main living area and it’s kind of the bane of my existence — always covered with toys, books, and children. I’m trying to remember that’s a good thing!”
Anna (15) “…here’s where we replaced the TV with a painting which can be taken down and the projector set up if we want to put on a movie. Another key to minimal screen life for us has also been integrating the little kids’ access to the outdoors as much as possible, like having chairs and tables on the porch where they can snack, draw, do legos and play without feeling like they’ve left the home.”
Anna (16) “Another key to minimal screen life for us has also been integrating the little kids’ access to the outdoors as much as possible…”
Grace Pate Pouch (17) “I keep my office in the sunroom and try to maximize my view outdoors even when on the computer!”
Ashley Fitzgerald (18) “Living room. No TV! We play music, read, play games. We let the kids watch TV on my computer sometimes but there is enough friction to setting it up that it's not as often as a TV in the living room.”
Katie Marquette (19) “This is our den (where we spend 99.9% of our time) - the corner used to have a TV - now it’s just a bookcase! It’s part kids play area/part reading area/basically just an area to live in! All furniture inherited and at least 30 years old. Perfect for kids to jump and spill on ha.”
Dixie Dillon Lane (20) “Very simple, but when we were installing this fireplace in our addition in 2021, we paused at the point pictured here to consider whether or not to put an electrical socket and a TV above it. We’re glad we chose not to! Now we can enjoy the fireside without looking at a TV, too.
We’ve gotten into a natural rhythm on winter nights of gathering here (where there are now couches) and saying family prayers and then reading aloud or playing word games like hinky-pinky or playing the piano and singing. With a TV there, would we perhaps instead be watching shows? Shows can be fun — don’t get me wrong — but this one decision has helped us fill our winter evenings with music and prayer and interaction instead of screentime.”
Katie Marquette (21) “In the winter, I push the chairs in front of the fireplace for the girls — better than a TV :)”
Nicole (22) “Our small 1898 cottage has a lovely brick wall that I have used as a bookshelf. If you look closely, you will see stacks of books, precariously balanced on stones jutting from the wall. Every season we have different special items on the mantel and sprinkled throughout the indoor jungle! Curling up on the couch is a delight. Who needs tech when a feast for the senses is present.”
Emma’s living space has a beautifully crafted focal point (23).
Katie Marquette (24) “Here’s my favorite room in our house. We sacrificed having a dining room to have a ‘book nook’ instead. The dining table is now in the other half of the den which works just fine. The book nook has books, a record player, a drink cart, and is where we like to have friends for book club or to have a mojito in the summertime listening to jazz.”
Hannah (25) “We got rid of our TV last year and switched to a projector. I wanted my daughter to grow up in a house full of art, music, books—where we aim to, as Andy Crouch says, “create more than we consume.” We move the white/gold Scott Erickson canvas when we want to project something.”
Low-Screen Spaces
If you’d like to enjoy a movie night without having a vast black void dominate your main living area, here are various solutions:
Sam Granger (26) “We have a lot of our most read books on one wall, along with quick-grab poetry volumes, and dictionaries. Whenever we learn a new word, we put it in a box that lives on the top. This is also where our CD player and musical instruments live. When we want to watch a movie, we put the TV on top of the book case and watch it together. When we’re done, we set it back down behind the book case—out of sight.”
Kathryn Kingham (27) “The anchor of our living room! We don’t have a tv but on Friday nights use a projector and will watch a family movie on the blank wall over the recliner. We read and play here.”
Ruth & Peco (28) “Within the main area, tech is stored in a wooden cabinet by the stairwell, away from the center of attention.”
Hannah Stuckwisch (29) “Even our little TV room upstairs that we use for family movie night is filled with other good things: books, guitars, and Playmobil, etc.”
Tommy Dixon (30) “Back in 2022, when I was living in an Airbnb in Buenos Aires for two months, I pulled out two paintings that were stored away in a cupboard and propped them in front of the TV. Didn’t think they would stay, but I never moved them and never turned on the TV.”
Bedrooms
The absence of screens is especially helpful in the bedroom. Creating this “sanctum space” will not only improve your sleep habits and quality, but it can also be a quiet space for reading or prayer. Keeping screens out of bedrooms is essential for children, helps remove temptation, and circumvents the development of online secrets4.
Claudia (31) “One important screen free place is our peaceful bedroom. Don’t be deceived…we have three and soon four children under seven. The rest of the house can be wild but I love to have one space that is tidy, pretty, and peaceful. We don’t have a TV anywhere and our children don’t use screens much at all, but we do use smartphones. Just not in the bedroom.”
Amber Louise Reif (32, 33) “We currently live with my in-laws, so don’t really have our own living room, but share those spaces. We don’t have any tvs in our bedrooms, just a laptop for if we ever want to watch something. My children do enjoy using an audio player for stories as well. We spend a lot of time outside, year round.”
Bedrooms are a great place for kids to ponder collections and display all sorts of things!Grace Pate Pouch (34,35,36)
Kitchens
The family meal table is one of the most “connecting” spaces in the home. It is literally designed for us to commune, arranged so that we look across at each other’s faces while enjoying the food placed in the center. Designating meal times as “phone-free” periods helps to create good habits and better conversation.
Hannah Stuckwisch (37) “One of my favorite non-screen activities is our weekly art and music tea parties a la Charlotte Mason.”
Emily Hancock (38) “This is the corner of my home that gets the most action from all angles. Meals, art projects, home school, my own writing, sorting laundry, and late night talks with my husband after the kids are asleep.”
Keturah Hickman’s breakfast table (39) and Emma’s kitchen (40,41,42).
Work/Creative Spaces
The laptop is folded shut on the coffee table, or the phone is turned face down. But at some level our mind is still “thinking” about checking our messages or maybe watching a video clip, or else is trying not to think about these things. There’s a phantom digital presence within us.
from The Phantom and Mr.Jobs by Peco
One of the greatest challenges to engaging in creative work is the chronic interruption that waits at our fingertips or lurks in the back of our mind. Writing first drafts by hand is one solution that we’ve both found extremely helpful. Here are some examples of workspaces that are intentionally designed to minimize digital distractions:
Ren Miller’s office (43) is her favorite room in the house.
Amelia McKee (44) “I do most of my writing on this portable lap desk my husband got me for Christmas. It lifts up so I can put my pens, papers, and notes inside. It makes it so I can do most of my writing/research without my phone/laptop.”
twilit fields (46) “This is my beloved art space, a corner of a table which I strive to keep digital-free.”
Alex Roddie (47, 48) “I keep one side of my home office as a strictly analogue space, no digital devices or tools allowed under any circumstances. It’s where my best work and clearest thinking happens.”
Other creative endeavors also flourish when our space is directed away from passive screen consumption. Keturah Hickman spins and crochets with her friends (49, 50) and so does Amber Louise Reif (51).
Self-created things add a special, invested beauty to a home.
Jake (52, 54) “I have not yet graduated to furniture. I have done the mug tree, window bench, wooden spoons, and a pipe. But I’m always working on something here there. Currently a bird house.”
Kevin Hilty (53) “I built the chair and the bookcase. It is not really an attempt at decoration. It is just some of my favorite beautiful things.”
Caroline Ross (55, 56) “Unconformed interiors of the home are akin to those of the mind. To be surrounded by natural materials within the home, not just when walking ‘out in nature’, is to be reminded of beauty and to feel grateful every time one looks up. It is hard to maintain disillusion when confronted with 7 sheafs of chestnut sticks harvested in January, which you know will make beautiful drawing charcoal, or become baskets, or both, and in the meantime give one’s bedroom a fragrant charm that no ‘air freshener’ (an oxymoron) could provide.”
Space to create and craft can be made anywhere in the home:
Haley Baumeister (57) “We don’t have a very spacious house as it is, so our living and dining rooms (and backyard deck, now that it’s spring!!) are where we spend the most time and use for multiple purposes (reading, working, playing, crafting, eating, etc).”
Emily Phillips (58) “This is an incomplete view of our school room/ office/ library. It fills with light from the south facing windows, and it’s one of my favorite spaces in our home!”
Grace Pate Pouch (59) “We do a lot of porch crafting.”
Pianos and other musical instruments are a perfect addition to common areas: Hannah Stuckwisch (60), Grace Pate Pouch (61) Cheryl Winstead(62).
lindsay (62b)“This is our record room. We can get lost for hours in here listening to music and having conversation.”
Libraries, bookshelves & wall art
“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”
— Benjamin Franklin
While not everyone has room to have a dedicated library, a collection of books can be added to even the smallest of spaces.
Ted Gioia (62a) “I started looking for homes with large open spaces that might be converted into a genuine library5. Eventually we found a charming place near Lake Travis, a half-hour from downtown Austin, with an open upstairs area that looked like this on the listing. (62b) …my wife worked with designer Rhonda Miller in coming up with an actual library conversion plan. (62c) It took roughly four days for me to unpack and organize my music books. Here’s what the main room of my home library now looks like.”
Ted Gioia (62d) “I could have a two room upstairs library, in addition to the downstairs areas where bookcases could blend in with the decor. For example, I could fit additional books downstairs behind the piano, or in other rooms. (62e) And, for a closer look at a single sections, here’s how I’ve organized my blues books.”
Peco & Ruth (63) When we bought our current home, which has a large terraced room between the main floor and the upstairs bedrooms, we knew immediately that it would have to be our library. It is filled with bookshelves along three walls, and is the most engaging room in the house!
Hannah Stuckwisch (64) Shannon Hood (64a) “Our living room wall when these shelves were a bit more organized; we’ve definitely stuffed them with many more books since I took this photo! We’ve never had a television and once a year or so I feel like we’re missing out; other than that it is the best.”
Emily Harrison (66) “The last owners used these cabinets for housing a large screen tv. We use it to display kid art, a painting by a local artist of a hiking trail near our home, family photos, a handful of dictionaries and reference books, and yes, our landline phone.”
Ann Marie O'Donnell (65) has found an extra book nook and Hannah Stuckwisch displays some of her books for easy access (67).
Ann Marie O'Donnell (68, 73) “My goal last year was to find good artwork to display — in these photos you’ll see Lore Pemberton (a great way to get a lot of her artwork at once is to purchase a calendar) and The Virgin by Joseph Stella. I used to have two prints from a museum at eye level for my son, but they never stayed up once he discovered they were removable (74).”
Hannah Stuckwisch’s collage of sacred art and maps (69, 70).
Hannah (71, 72) “Another theme is I want my daughter to have a sense of her history, that God’s been faithful to our family for generations. So there’s lots of framed pictures of relatives, a note from my mom who passed when I was young, postcards, antique art, etc. from our extended family through the years. In the final photo, by the door, are various collages of our family tree, including pictures of my great-great-grandparents, born in 1858.”
“Radical Acts of Rest”
Some people may choose to turn their backs on digital technology completely:
Alison Morley (75-78) “In the end I needed to do something drastic! Moved out of the house into a tent on our smallholding to get away from screens and haven’t felt the need to go back inside… 2yrs on! A bit of an extreme detox but so well worth it. It has been an absolute revelation.”
One of Hannah Stuckwisch’s favorite workspaces is her outdoor clothesline and A.M. Hickman and his wife Keturah Hickman enjoy evenings without electricity.
Others may find small nooks of “radical rest” in unusual spaces:
Louisa Chase (81) “Our little house in a rural village on the edge of the Lincolnshire Fens (UK) has one room downstairs plus a tiny kitchen. We created this daybed and book space under the stairs for the radical acts of rest, imagination, and inspiration - from items gifted on Freecycle and purchased from charity shops. Items on top of the bookshelf are handmade by local craftspeople, many of them received as gifts.”
Whitney Hargraves (82) “In our kitchen, two cozy curl up chairs where you will find children reading books from the very worn out basket or my husband reading from his stack of Word on Fire Bibles or me resting my eyes between a whirlwind of tasks.”
All of the images above can really be summed up in Anna’s little guy sitting on the porch simply enjoying the view, moving to behold.
Rather than living a life trapped in screens, allow the real world around you to engage your attention. An architecture for a free mind does not necessitate buying new things, it merely turns you in the right direction.
We’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting a glimpse into some of our readers’ homes, and hope you did as well. While we’d love to invite you to our kitchen table for a cup of coffee, the next best thing would be for you to let us know that you are there — share your reflections in the comments, share the post with your friends, or simply give a like.
We are happy to offer this post to you for free, but it took a lot of time and effort :) If you found this post helpful (or hopeful), please consider supporting our work by becoming a paid subscriber.
Would you love to get together in person? Come and join us on the Camino pilgrimage from June 14th to 24th! See here for details and download the brochure and register directly here.
You can also join us at the Doomer Optimist gathering in Ligonier, PA on Nov. 7 - 8. This is a small-scale event and spots are very limited. See here for details:
The average U.S. household boasted an average of 11 connected devices in 2019, some statistics suggesting that this number went up to 22 devices per household post-pandemic.
Some pictures arrived after most of the numbering was already completed, which resulted in the addition of letters for some images.
In a study conducted by researchers at the University of Essex, “the mere presence of phones inhibited the interpersonal closeness and trust, and reduced the extent to which individuals felt empathy and understanding from their partners.”
A stark reminder: 90 % of teens have viewed porn online, and 10 % admit to daily use. 1 in 4 Children have had online sexual encounters with adults via social media. Nearly 1 in 3 teen girls have been approached by adults asking for nudes, while 1 in 6 girls aged 9 -12 years have interacted sexually with an adult on these platforms. 83% of children do not tell trusted adults about abuse they encounter online
“The first step—and I can’t emphasize this too much for anyone who might be considering a similar move—was to hire a structural engineer. Putting this many books in an upstairs area is just asking for trouble. Books are heavy. Don’t get fooled by the thin paper pages—if you put enough of those pages together, they weigh more like tree trunks. And when you accumulate a whole forest of them in a small enclosed space, they can cause damage.”
This is so heartening to see. Thank you for your effort compiling it all so thoughtfully.
I love this so much! What a scintillating, reassuring look into the normal lives of so many wonderful people.