“The human mind has a tendency to absorb the environment with which we are surrounded.” Napoleon Hill

Our environments are the things and conditions with which we are surrounded.

We don’t always have choices in what surrounds us, but we always do have choices as to how we react to it and what we do about it.

Sometimes we do have choices.

What we thusly choose for our residential living spaces is a big factor in what we experience there.

Are you aware of what you want to experience where you live?

Do you have a conscious mind about what completes your authentic self?

Do you expend your intellectual resources on all aspects of your residential interior living spaces, or not the whole, but just on the financial, useful, convenient, and practical features thereof?

As preparation, cooking techniques, and seasoning affect the final taste of what we eat, the same intellectual expenditure approaches given to the aesthetics of residential interior design determine the pleasure and delight experienced living there.

So, what do you want to experience when at home and what do you choose to do, or not to do, about it?

Food for thought.

Students are evaluated for the level at which they can perform.

People can be tested for their intelligence level.

Financial transactions are determined by financial levels.

Among the many other aspects by which a person can be evaluated is their aesthetic level.

This aesthetic level can be seen their verbal and aesthetic choices.

Does one eat their morning cereal from a plastic bowl or a highly decorated Chinese- pattern container?

Does one complain about the weather or note the beauty thereof in nature?

Intelligence, education, background, personality traits, life’s experiences, et cetera are among the many factors that determine one’s aesthetic level.

What is the importance of one’s aesthetic level?

One’s aesthetic level determines the experience of beauty in one’s life in much the same way that taste determines the joy of what one eats.

What is your aesthetic level, what does such mean to you, and what do you do, or not do, about it?

Food for thought?

There are billions of peoples on his planet and thousands of different cultures.

I am constantly interested in the variety of expressions for residential interior designs, from around the world, that come across my desk.

With endless cultures, situations, environments, et cetera, what is the element that makes each of these residential interior designs good that they are internationally published?

The interior satisfying sensation experienced when eaten is what makes food taste good.

It is an emotional, intellectual, mental, cultural, individual DNA, sensational experience of which there are a myriad of examples.

What is the “it” that people find attractive and satisfying about the residential interior environment in which they choose to live?

Through and above all of the other elements involved, it is the element of beauty that finishes it off and makes it complete.

Beauty is the” it taste good” of residential interior design.

We know that line, form, mass, color, and texture determine the physical characteristics that we use to describe beauty.

What are the intangible elements that determine our reactions to physical beauty?

With the unlimited choices available, what are yours, and why did you choose them?

Food for thought.

What is the optimal lifestyle while occupying our limited time on this whirling planet?

Human behavior has evolved in relationships with the natural world and with other people and evidence shows that it is best served by maintaining those relationships.

Recent decades have shown tremendous changes in lifestyles since the discovery and increased use of electronics. Now, artificial intelligence is becoming a major player on the world stage.

Cell phones have become almost like a necessary permanent attachment to our physical body, more of our mental tasks are being done by computers, almost any subject information is readily available on the internet, and more of our interior environments, and outdoor activities, are electronically controlled.

How do these changes affect our relationships with each other and with outside nature?

Human behavior patterns, with increasing use of electronic devices, reveal a decline in communication skills with others and awareness of nature outside of interior environments.

Are we on a path to becoming intelligent androids, as manifest in science fiction, void of human emotions and other behaviors?

What happens with our creativity, imagination, spirituality, fun, and the experience of merely being human in our day-to-day behavior patterns?

Electronics have greatly increased knowledge and the availability thereof while leading to discoveries and techniques greatly enhancing our lives.

Are we going to a stage where our functionality dependence on electronic devices destroys our humanity?

Where is the stage, or line, which tips the scales?

How have electronics affected the quality of daily living for your residential, interior and exterior, environments with nature and other people?

Food for thought?

There are, today, more options available, when it comes to choices, for what is available and can be done for residential interior designs than at any other time in the history of civilization.

Research and discoveries are constantly being made for new, better, and more variations of products and possibilities.

Computers, the internet, cell phones, and other electronic devices have made possible access to basically world wide unlimited information and education on almost any subject.

Today, there are floods, more than one person can absorb and comprehend, of information relating to all aspects of the design of residential interior living spaces.

“What’s a mother to do?”

Who are you, where are you, where do you want to go, how do you want to get there, and what are the options, available to you, for achieving those life goals for your personal living spaces?

Research for all of the information that can best help you achieve these life goals and discard and/or ignore everything else.

You will then be in the best knowledgeable position to plan and execute your desired life style expressions.

For residential interior design, as well as for all other professions, it is advantageous to engage the services of knowledgeable results-producing persons in the field.

Regardless of everything, the ultimate goal should be to manifest the best designs possible, for the circumstances, using the principles of aesthetics and the laws of physics.

And take Shakespeare’s advice: “Unto thine own self be true.”

What have you done to affect your choices for the ambiance and functions of your personal living spaces?

Food for thought.

Grandma said there is more than one way to cook chicken and Julia showed us many different cooking chicken results.

Environmental factors, such as cultures, traditions, times, locations, circumstances, and personal taste preferences, affect chicken cooking .

Additionally, kind of chicken, cooking method, preparation, seasoning, cooking time and temperature, serving, et cetera affect the ultimate goal of taste.

Yet, for all of the above, most people have favorable eating experiences with chicken on menus.

These approaches can also be applied to residential interior design.

One way of designing does not fit everyone’s personal life style.

The population majority will go for the designs that are most popular, readily available, and of the time and location of where they are.

These masses, like sheep, follow the crowd and come a part of it.

Some people, who are confident and strong, choose individuality, away from the crowd flow, in expressing their personal living environments.

Seeking unique, custom, personal, functional, and aesthetically pleasing environments for residential living spaces is par as is wearing custom made clothes.

Both the cooking of chicken and the designing of residential interior spaces are like recipes in that each of the multiple element choices involved is a part of the whole and affects the experienced aesthetic results.

How do you cook your chicken?

Food for thought.

With others added daily, the English language, throughout development, has used twenty-six letters to form over one million words.

Line, form, mass, color, and texture describe physical nature.

As we’ve done with our language, using creativity, imagination, and intelligence, there is no limit to what can be created and developed aesthetically for our lives.

When was the last time you had an “aha” experience with physical aesthetics?

How much of residential interior design today is a replication of past aesthetics, designed to sell, and lacks aesthetic quality?

Everyone uses words.

Everyone does not use aesthetics.

What aesthetics are manifest in your daily life?

Food for thought.

“The sense of what is fitting, harmonious, or beautiful, discernment” Random House

One’s personal choices.

Many generations ago, some people in the upper echelons of financial, intellectual, and social status in this country took it upon themselves to make known to the rest of the population what is “good taste”, and highly desirable, in one’s residence.

These standards took on many of the characteristics of snobbery.

In today’s world, good taste is not as prominent when relating to the selections of one’s home furnishings.

However, there are several characteristics of good taste which, when applied to today’s lifestyle, manifest a higher overall quality level of living results.

Always choose furnishings that are fitting and logical, regardless of the reason therefor, for their situation. And don’t treat common sense as an undesirable relative.

All parts and aspects of a space should manifest as completing the whole.

Always be discerning in your life choices.

Just as we make efforts to see that what we eat taste good, we should make the same efforts to assure that our home furnishings, regardless of their raison d’etre, are beautiful and reflect their time, place, and culture.

Any residence that shouts financial, social, achievement, or ancestry status or is flaunted, for any reason, usually is a trait of insecurity, lacking confidence, and incompleteness of the person who expresses it.

The use of snobbery should be carefully thought out before being expressed as to it’s desirability or merit according to your personal ethical standards.

Adhering to these principles may not benefit one financially, or otherwise, but it will nurture a higher, more pleasant, and enjoyable living experience and isn’t that what we all want in life?

Food for thought.

When selecting where you choose to live, what is your ultimate fulfilling goal and what resources are available for expenditure in reaching that goal?

How is your personality best expressed as self and seen by the world?

What are your intellectual and aesthetic positions, and what is the importance thereof for your lifestyle?

What chapter is this living space in the book of your life?

What is the financial availability, value, and relationship thereof to the level of desired quality?

What are the short and long-term requirements, desires, and goals for this disbursement?

What design, construction, and aesthetic manifestations best achieve this ultimate goal?

Do you want to blend in with and follow the popular masses crowd, or do you want to travel your own personal life pathway for this aspect of your life?

What is the merit of the above to you and what you do?

Food for thought.

Art: “What is beautiful.“

Science: “Systematic knowledge of the physical and material world”

Random House

Both are necessary for the completely successful manifestation of an interior design project.

Our mind conceives what we physically express.

Skills and talents use scientific knowledge for the construction and furnishings of residential interiors.

As the saying goes, these laws of science are “set in stone”.

We know how physical laws work.

How well do we know art?

Art is a mirror to the culture of its expression.

While certain principles have developed over the history of civilizations, mankind’s mental and emotional needs for beauty are subjective.

There are no laws “set in stone” for art.

How the subjective designs the physical determines the quality of beauty.

The two have to work together.

Who, or what, decides aesthetics in today’s society?

What roles do artificial intelligence and other advancements of knowledge play in our current and future concepts of aesthetics?

Are such possible capabilities available, or desirable, to replace the subjectivity of the human race?

Food for thought.