All types of interior designs for residences from many different income levels from all over the world that are published and shown by various medias come across my desk.
Interior refers to not outside space. Design refers to creation, planning, imagination, and putting together an aesthetic whole.
Some people don’t get the meaning of these two words. One of the most popular is that interior design is selling and the higher the quantity of high priced items sold the more profit they make and the better is the design.
Another is ideas which are advertised and promoted as the basis of interior design as if interior design was an Easter basket and the more ideas in it the better is the design.
There are many others such as ego, ignorance, control, newness, fashion, trends, conformity,and etiquette.
In the highest economic levels of residential interiors shown in these medias there is a strong tendency to have celebrity and status and the best residential interior design as all being the same.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Being owned and/or lived in by a celebrity does not make that residential interior good design. Designing, selling, endorsing, or use by a celebrity does not make anything good. As being a celebrity does not automatically make one have good health, have high ethical and mortal standards, scruples, or make them a good or pleasant person, their residential environment is not automatically good because they are a celebrity.
The same is true of status. Status and good design are two totally different evaluations, aspects, elements, characteristic, and traits than interior design. It matters not who lives there, how old it is, how much it cost, how much it is worth on the open market, it’s historical value, how rare it is, who slept there, it’s zip code, a political office or affiliation, ancestry, how unique it is, or any other thing. All of these descriptions do not automatically make such interiors manifest good design.
Good interior design is the result of intelligent and quality use of the elements of design, creativity, and imagination to make a complete whole for an interior space that is aesthetically pleasing, functional for the purposes it is to be used, and reflects the personality and the lifestyle of it’s users.
All of the other aspects projected on an interior space are not a factor in it’s design.
Again, looking at some of the highest economic levels ( millions of dollars ) of some of these published residential interiors, forget the celebrity and status and look at what’s left. Often, you will see lots of expensive, high quality furnishings and art works, but nothing is coordinated into a whole composition. It’s a group of things in a space. Some look like a furniture showroom. It’s not put together, but is a collection of diverse elements. There is an old ism which would be appropriate here: “With out a dressing, a salad is just bowl of wet vegetables.”
The next time you come across a celebrity or status residential interior, forget the status and celebrity and look objectively at the design. What do you see?
Food for thought.