Community Living: How Meghan Romain Opened Her Home to the World

A beautiful home doesn’t necessarily feel like home when there’s nobody there to share it with.

Meghan Romain discovered that after buying a property in Santa Barbara, California. She had built a successful career, traveled extensively, and spent years developing spaces that brought people together. Yet sitting alone in her own house left her feeling disconnected from the life she wanted. The independence she’d worked toward didn’t bring the sense of fulfillment she’d imagined.

For Meghan, the missing piece wasn’t another professional achievement or a bigger property. It was the everyday presence of other people. She had grown up surrounded by family, friends, and familiar faces, and living alone made her realize how deeply those relationships shaped her sense of home.

Today, Meghan is the founder of Boho House Collective, where she has created her own version of community living in Santa Barbara. Travelers, artists, musicians, and people from around the world share a property where she also raises her three sons. Her story isn’t about following a particular model of communal housing. It’s about how one woman transformed her home to reflect the kind of life she wanted to experience.

We met Meghan while looking for a place to record Wake Up, Sunshine. After staying at her property and filming our conversation there, we understood that Boho House Collective was much more than a beautiful location. The gardens, shared spaces, and people moving through them offered a glimpse into a different relationship between home, family, and community.

Growing Up Where Everyone Felt Like Family

A Family Restaurant That Became a Gathering Place

Meghan grew up in Maryland, surrounded by a fourth-generation family restaurant founded by her great-grandmother. The business began in a barn and chicken coop, and generations of women in her family continued running it. Watching her mother and the women before her make decisions, lead employees, and build relationships gave Meghan an early understanding of female leadership.

The restaurant also shaped how she understood belonging. Regular customers didn’t simply come in for a meal and leave. People entered through the back, spent time in the kitchen, shared stories, and became part of the family’s daily rhythm. Meghan remembered her mother’s philosophy: treat people like family, and eventually they become family.

Growing up in that environment meant relationships rarely fit into neat categories. Customers became friends, friends became extended family, and the business felt inseparable from everyday life. Meghan didn’t recognize how unusual that experience was until she left home and encountered environments where people maintained much clearer boundaries between work and personal relationships.

When Professional Success Didn’t Feel Fulfilling

Her curiosity about human relationships eventually led her to study psychology, focusing on family systems. She later earned a master’s degree in commercial real estate development, with an emphasis on urban planning and community development. Those interests came together in a career developing community centers, food markets, and spaces designed to strengthen neighborhoods.

By age 30, Meghan had achieved many of her professional goals. Despite that success, she felt increasingly disconnected from the relationships and experiences she valued. The competitive environments surrounding some of her work didn’t resemble the warmth and collaboration she’d witnessed in her family’s restaurant.

Looking back, Meghan recognized that her childhood had given her an early experience of community living without ever calling it that. People shared responsibilities, exchanged stories, and participated in one another’s lives. She began wondering how she could recreate that feeling without returning to the family restaurant or giving up her interest in designing meaningful spaces.

Meghan’s experience reminded us of our own conversation about overfunctioning and burnout, particularly how easy it can be to build a life around responsibilities and accomplishments while losing touch with what makes that life feel meaningful. Her story approached that tension from a different angle, but the feeling of wanting something beyond achievement was familiar.

From an Empty House to Boho House Collective

Starting Smaller Than the Original Dream

When Meghan moved to California, she imagined creating a regenerative farm where people could connect with nature, creativity, and one another. Her original vision included three to five acres of land, with room for gardens and shared experiences. Santa Barbara’s real estate prices quickly changed those plans.

Instead, she bought a property measuring a little more than a quarter of an acre. In 2017, Meghan began transforming it into what became Boho House Collective, with guest accommodations surrounding shared gardens and gathering spaces. The property gradually became a place where travelers, musicians, and artists could connect through everyday experiences.

Her interests influenced the design. As an herbalist, Meghan incorporated a tea lounge, while her love of music inspired areas for creative gatherings and performances. Workshops, poetry, art, and conversations became part of the property’s evolving identity. A sauna, cold plunge, and outdoor seating areas offered additional places to connect or spend time quietly.

Bringing the World Into Her Everyday Life

Travel had always been important to Meghan, particularly the opportunity to meet people from different backgrounds. As she thought about becoming a mother, she wondered how her relationship with travel might change. Rather than imagining a future where she had to choose between family life and meeting people from around the world, she began creating a home that could bring those experiences together.

That vision took on greater meaning during COVID. After temporarily closing the guest accommodations, Meghan found herself alone on the property with a baby and felt the isolation intensely. She reopened after a brief shutdown, and the home became a gathering place for people seeking connection.

Musicians and artists gathered in her living room, sometimes spending hours playing music, discussing books, or sharing poetry. Conversations introduced Meghan to experiences and perspectives she might otherwise have encountered while traveling. Over time, community living became less about a property design and more about the daily relationships that developed within it.

What Community Living Feels Like at Boho House Collective

More Than a Beautiful Place to Stay

Before arriving at Boho House Collective, we knew the property would be a beautiful setting for our conversation. Spending time there revealed something photographs couldn’t fully capture. Guests moved comfortably between shared spaces, the gardens, and their accommodations, while Meghan’s family continued its everyday routine.

Jenna remembered walking through the property and noticing the different ways people occupied the space. One person was enjoying a quiet moment outside, another was in the kitchen, and family life continued nearby. The atmosphere felt relaxed rather than carefully staged.

Even our podcast setup became part of the experience. We needed a particular microphone, and when Jenna asked whether Meghan happened to have one, she did. The coincidence made us laugh, especially because the entire visit had already felt unexpectedly connected.

What started as a search for a recording location became an opportunity to experience Meghan’s vision firsthand. We weren’t simply talking about belonging in a studio. We were having that conversation inside a home where connection shaped the ordinary details of daily life.

Seeing Possibility in People She Hasn’t Met

One of the things we found most interesting was Meghan’s relationship with the idea of strangers. Welcoming unfamiliar people into a property where her family lives might feel uncomfortable to someone accustomed to a more private household. Meghan understands that perspective, but her experiences have shaped a different one.

She reflected on how people can know someone for years without developing a meaningful connection, while a new acquaintance can quickly become important. For Meghan, unfamiliarity doesn’t automatically mean distance. Meeting someone new carries the possibility of friendship, shared interests, or an unexpected conversation.

That outlook helps explain why community living feels natural to her. She doesn’t expect every guest to become a close friend, and she doesn’t believe everyone needs to interact constantly. What matters is creating an environment where connection can develop without forcing it.

Raising Children With the World at Their Doorstep

A Childhood Filled With Different People and Cultures

Meghan now raises three sons at Boho House Collective. Their everyday environment includes travelers, artists, and guests from different countries, giving them regular opportunities to meet people whose lives look different from their own. In many ways, she sees their childhood as a continuation of the family restaurant experience she loved growing up.

Her oldest son began welcoming guests when he was around three years old. Meghan laughed as she described him heading into the shared spaces and giving visitors his own little orientation. He explained where things were, reminded people about house rules, and showed them how to use the hot tub. He even started selling eggs from the family’s backyard chickens.

The relationships sometimes extend well beyond introductions. Meghan has found guests reading books with her children or making art alongside them. Visitors have joined the family for Christmas and Thanksgiving, sharing meals and celebrations that become part of the boys’ memories.

One experience that stayed with Meghan involved visitors from China who prepared meals for her family. Her children, whom she described as picky eaters, became curious about the food and the people making it. Guests from Turkey, Russia, and other countries have brought different languages, traditions, and perspectives into the family’s home.

Why the Village Matters Beyond Parenthood

Paige recognized a familiar feeling in Meghan’s stories. When she owned her cheer gym and had her daughter Kinley, she brought her baby to work. Other mothers helped hold and care for Kinley while practices continued, creating an informal circle of support around Paige and her daughter.

Jenna connected with the idea from a different perspective. Although she doesn’t have children, she recognized that the desire for a village extends beyond raising a family. Her reflection captured something that resonated throughout our conversation: “I think it just takes a village to belong.”

For Meghan, community living has given her children an everyday experience of that village. She values the boundaries and discernment involved in raising a family, while also appreciating the relationships that develop around her sons. Their home gives them a familiar place to grow up while introducing them to a world much larger than their immediate household.

When Personal Healing Led Meghan Back to Community

Discovering That Inner Work Wasn’t the Whole Story

Meghan began exploring personal growth and healing around age 19. By the time we recorded our conversation on her 42nd birthday, she had spent more than two decades engaging with meditation, retreats, and other forms of inner work. Those experiences helped her understand herself, but they also led to an unexpected question about fulfillment.

Earlier in life, professional success had left Meghan feeling empty despite reaching important goals. Years later, she recognized a similar feeling after investing so much energy in personal development. Becoming more self-aware hadn’t automatically created the deeper sense of connection she wanted.

She began exploring generativity, a concept that helped her think about how personal growth might contribute to relationships, families, and future generations. For Meghan, healing became more meaningful when it moved beyond her individual experience and touched the lives of others.

Creating a Place That Feels Like an Invisible Hug

Another idea Meghan shared was what she calls the “great unmothering.” Through her studies and experiences, she has become interested in the nurturing and relational qualities she associates with mothering energy. She sees warmth, intuition, and collaboration as important parts of creating environments where people feel welcome.

Meghan described the atmosphere she hopes to create at Boho House Collective as a giant invisible hug. She wants people to feel comfortable arriving without having to explain their personal history or prove they belong. At the same time, she recognizes that openness and discernment must exist together.

Listening to her, we could see how community living had become an expression of her personal growth. Meghan had spent years exploring what it meant to flourish as an individual. Opening her home gave her a way to connect that exploration with the people around her.

Finding Her People Through Music and Shared Interests

The Jam Sessions That Started on State Street

Meghan didn’t arrive in Santa Barbara with an established community of friends. As a singer, she wanted to meet musicians who enjoyed gathering informally, but she didn’t know where to find them. She began walking along State Street, listening to street performers, and approaching them during breaks.

Those conversations sometimes felt awkward, but Meghan was genuinely curious about the people making music. She asked whether they ever got together to jam and whether she could join them. Eventually, she invited musicians to her home, where she already had a microphone and sound equipment.

The gatherings developed into regular jam sessions on Fridays and sometimes Saturdays. People came to play instruments, sing, listen, and experiment creatively. During one session, someone encouraged Meghan to improvise a melody using words from a poetry book. That experience introduced her to a new form of musical expression she hadn’t previously explored.

Building Different Circles of Belonging

Gardening opened another door for Meghan. She began volunteering at a community garden that grows food for a local food bank because she wanted to spend time outdoors and work with the land. Through that experience, she met people interested in horticulture and permaculture.

Those friendships became another part of her social world. Meghan now describes her relationships as overlapping circles that reflect different interests and parts of her identity. Musicians, gardening friends, other mothers, and guests each bring something different into her life.

Her experience with community living grew from those separate connections rather than one carefully organized social group. Music gave her a creative community, gardening introduced her to people who shared her love of nature, and hospitality brought new perspectives to her doorstep. Together, those relationships created the sense of belonging she’d been missing.

Making Room for Connection and Privacy

Designing Shared Spaces With Personal Refuge

Meghan’s background in urban planning and community development influences the physical design of Boho House Collective. She has spent years studying why certain environments encourage people to gather and how physical spaces affect relationships. At her property, she wanted people to experience togetherness without feeling pressured to interact constantly.

The gardens include shared gathering areas alongside smaller seating spaces where guests can spend time alone. Meghan refers to some of these quieter places as “areas of refuge.” Her own bedroom and bathroom also provide privacy for her family, creating separation between personal life and communal activity.

She explained that being near other people can create a sense of connection even when nobody is speaking. Someone might sit quietly with a book while another guest enjoys the garden nearby. Neither person needs to start a conversation for the environment to feel welcoming.

Paige connected this idea to working in coffee shops or coworking spaces. Being around people who are doing their own thing can feel energizing without requiring direct interaction. That balance helps explain why Meghan’s approach to community living doesn’t depend on everyone participating in every activity.

The Realities of Sharing a Home

Near the end of our conversation, we asked Meghan about the best and hardest parts of the life she’s created. Her favorite part was easy to identify: the people. Even on days when she feels exhausted, a guest might arrive with an unexpected story that changes her mood and reminds her why she loves meeting new people.

The challenges she described had more to do with motherhood and her own expectations than with the guests. Raising three boys can feel overwhelming, and Meghan sometimes worries about appearing imperfect in front of others. She recognizes that the pressure to seem composed comes largely from herself.

Meghan laughed about how wonderful it would be to have a grandmother living on the property who could step in when she needed a break. She loves the relationships surrounding her family, but that doesn’t eliminate exhaustion or the ordinary demands of parenting. Her honesty reminded us that a connected life can still include difficult days.

A Different Definition of a Full Life

Throughout our conversation, Meghan kept returning to the question of what it means for a person to flourish. Her career taught her that achievement alone didn’t bring fulfillment, while years of personal healing revealed how much she wanted her growth to contribute to something beyond herself. Living alone in Santa Barbara made the importance of everyday connection impossible for her to ignore.

She still dreams of expanding onto a larger property with more land, a vegetable garden, and perhaps a few goats. But when people ask whether she’ll eventually move into a traditional private home and leave the communal lifestyle behind, she doesn’t imagine that future for herself. Meghan loves the stories, creativity, relationships, and unexpected moments that come from welcoming people into her life.

For her, community living brings together the parts of life that matter most. She can raise her children, build a business, pursue music, spend time in nature, and connect with people from around the world without treating those experiences as separate identities. The home she’s created reflects the values she learned in her family’s restaurant while allowing those values to grow alongside her own family.

We left Boho House Collective thinking about how much of modern life encourages independence and separation, even when connection is what we miss most. Meghan’s experience offered a different picture of home, one where belonging develops through shared meals, music, ordinary conversations, and the people who happen to walk through the door.

What stayed with us was the possibility Meghan sees in people she hasn’t met yet. Her home has become a place where those encounters can grow into relationships, and where the life she once hoped to find continues unfolding around her.

Listen to the full episode: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

Connect with Meghan:

Website: www.bohohousesb.com

Instagram: @BohoHouseSB