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places change yOU
The marketplace knows this.
Think of the best hotel room you have ever seen…
When you open the door, YOUR door, you are off the street, safe, clean, and quiet…relief. You can stop, slow down, and want for nothing…troubles are over.
The room will have a window with a view, and some snack or wine set up is on the table
And @$500-$1000/night or more, there is no limit on the decorating budget. If done right, you won’t see each beautiful thing. The colors, textures, light….the drapes, the sheers. It will be all be transparent… just there.
Instantly, the street angst melt away, and you are more open, lighter, calmer….the ROOM itself changes you. You just paid $500 to $1000 for an instant mind-lift. Travel changes you….but… how do you make it stick? Buy reminder souvenirs? Photos? .. all this is for a different essay… Here, I am just trying to say, that YOUR rooms, your spaces Affect you.. for better or worse. Tidying up, or live with clutter?
Sometimes you pay $10 for a 2 hour mind lift, going to the movies.
This moment is transformative…
And @$500-$1000/night or more, there is no limit on the decorating budget. So, you notice the colors, textures, light….the heavy drapes with light sheers.
But, If it is done right, you will not even see any of this, but experience it.. If perfect, it will be transparent… just there. You will not stare, examine anything…
In this setting you WILL become more open, lighter, calmer….the room changes you.
Now to apply this to your house, your drawings…
Notice how bad hotel rooms have 1 window?and great ones have windows on 2 sides? Well do this..
Notice how bad hotel rooms are dead end caves… and great one have a second exit to a balcony, deck, garden? Do this.
How can you transfer this good qualities to your house…? Is it possible?
Sure, so much of a great hotel room is Interior Decorating…color, light, space, cleanliness with just the right amount of clutter/art/books to make it homey.
But it is the idea… this ROOM an inanimate object, will change YOU…
It goes the other way too…. a horrible room will equally destroy you… I cannot dwell on that… move on.
Working on good design is not selfish, or a waste of time… it is a kindness that will affect people you will never know in the future.
This is why it is important to do it right, .. not for your benefit, but all those now and in the future.
This is a perpetual act of kindness that will ripple thru the generations of people that will enjoy your house now and in the future.
Staging a home FOR SALE…
People that stage a house to sell…know looks can change you…
Not as impressive as an art gallery, but they do have Human Nature in mind…
- the smells,
- the colors, (same bowl of lemons in the kitchen),
- the perfect imperfections (the pillows with a chop),
- and the sad white orchid in the bathroom.
The house with no clutter, not jobs to do, all light, space, shine, potential…The blank slate…
ART GALLERIES
We don’t just go to the Museum of Fine Arts for the art?! NO…but the calm of it all, the magical paint on the walls…it’s not white, but hues of brownish, greenish, blueish…but you can’t say which?
There is a sense of total control, you are safe here, the light and humidity and sound is perfect.
Now, they work on exterior garden rooms… quite the heaven.
Sure, these are all convoluted,
FANCIFUL, artificial, environments...
What is the middle ground between the astonishing order of a French Hotel, vs. YOUR living room? Look at a room of Bunny Mellon. She spent a lifetime creating homey but beautiful rooms, gardens, homes….
While she aimed for great style, great beauty at ANY cost, but her rooms felt lived in, not precious, but welcoming… always having an old, raggedy piece of furniture, that said welcome…its OK, with a smile…just brilliant!
Rooms that are negative..
- Jail
- Prison
- School rooms made of cinderblock
- Basement rooms with no light
- Condos, with light only front and back… no side lights..
- Any room with florescent lighting…think Walgreens
- (Costo and big box stores have hundreds of round globes…for some reason, this is better than florescent…and 40 feet above you, so you never see.
Just as we are different people
- on vacation,
- In a campsite
- in a cathedral,
- on the beach,
- in a First Class hotel,
- or First Class seat on a plane…
you become different…your mind expands.
We have different behaviors in churches, libraries, concert halls, and beaches…even in Disney World. (Michael Sorkin, p79, Twenty Minutes in Manhattan)
A 2-week vacation, on the Vineyard cracks open different ideas of what you want in your future…. While a full summer vacation there could change you permanently… you have the time and space to think.
OTOH….
- A messy room can confuse you,
- a lively desk, might calm you….
- it is how you FEEL when you approach these places….
This all goes into the design of your house, your rooms…it is so much more than square feet, but, the feel… this is the ART…and why designing your own house is not a waste of time, but an introspective evaluation of what is important to you, and to Human Nature in general.
You just have to get it right, and this takes time… and this time is not wasted…but an exercise in knowledge of yourself, and Human Nature in general.
____________
A house is not a collection of rooms,
but a system of spaces that work with each other, with good flow,
Some rooms will have low ceilings, to feel secure, and sheltered. Some will have soaring ceilings to open your mind, give you air and space to feel and think and look UP and out…. Just the feeling of being able to look UP in your house, up… out into the trees, moon, stars & birds make a house less claustrophobic.
Adding generous decks, enables you to just BE outdoors without any hesitation….no shoes, no jacket…just get out.
With this, the house begins to work with you, fit like an old sweatshirt, not like clothes that are too tight.
When a house doesn’t fit, you trip over things, walk into dark rooms, hit your head on cabinets, twist and turn as you walk around cluttered rooms, instead of long open areas…this is the difference between designing a house that fits, and one that frustrates you…
One will make you a better person, more relaxed, open, calm, thoughtful, the other makes you tense, frustrated, pent up and small.
House design…all that…it kinda reverse engineers YOU to be one type of person or another… So it IS important.
Take your time, draw, and think, over and over …changes costs you nothing on a computer… just a new file, a new page… keep at it, till you have a great idea, great house!
On another rant....
When did Interior decorating?....
become
environmental neuroscience!!!?
side story.....just for fun...
In this house,
Ike won the war....
So, ….I have been reading about Eisenhower a lot lately… random, but fascinating.
How he managed the war in Europe and Africa & Pacific all at the same time.
That he had to be the boss of all the generals.
Keep the egos of generals, prime ministers, presidents, in line. …any one could have pulled the plug on his operation… Dealing with the War, and people all this, at the same time….
Being responsible for the war plans in Europe, Africa and the Pacific…
Any ONE of these would be a head exploder…but all 3?…
*****
It makes my life feel so easy, in control. How did he get centered, calm, THINK?
*****
The FIRST thing he did, to get control of his situation…he got a house, just outside of London, for a peaceful headquarters…
From here, he could run the world…..nonstop for years at a time…
When he moved his headquarters, to Africa….he duplicated this setup…a peaceful house to work out of.. not the opulent palace that was offered to him, but a peaceful quit home…
And this lasted for over 4 long, horrible years….but he succeeded….he did not go crazy, he did not quit and give up…he finished this impossible job…in a family house, with a kitchen, a cook….everyday, no vacation… one house, one job with no ending for years….The house calmed him down.
But, he could NOT have done this, without a calm house to work out of….without the calm…would he have gone crazy? Would the War have lasted longer? Somehow he prioritized his living conditions before fighting the war… good call.
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MENU
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.
….Winston Churchill
“There is a myth, sometimes widespread, that a person need only do inner work…that a man is entirely responsible for his own problems; and that to cure himself, he need only change himself….The fact is, a person is so formed by his surroundings, that his state of harmony depends entirely on his harmony with his surroundings.”
…Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building.
Instead of a $500 shrink, I’d spend a weekend in fine French Hotel… and my mind would heal itself….(and THEN I would go home and purge the trash out of my house, buy $5.00 fresh flowers, and never turn on a TV again)
…me
THIS is why people take vacations….the POWER of a vacation….to WAKE up to how life CAN be.. UNSTUCK from how it currently IS..
We are different people, in different places…
…Alain de Bottom