The pandemic has caused changes in life styles around the world.

Such has put the necessity of a functional, comfortable, pleasant, and healthy residential interior environment into greater focus and awareness.

All of which has brought into focus the awareness of design in shaping human experience and as it affects our living and working lives.

Interior design has become more of a necessary strategy.

From indoor air quality to hands free activities to smart homes this pandemic and the growing use of computers have and will continue to make permanent changes in the way we live from day-to-day.

All of which will require adjustments from all of us on what we do and how we do it.

In making these adjustments we need to always keep in mind what makes for successfully designed residential interiors.

Function, life style, and aesthetics are the three parts that make up what results will be achieved.

As you look around and evaluate these three elements in your personal living spaces, what do you see?

Your choices determine your results.

Food for thought.

There are a large variety of residences that come across my desk about the housing industry in this country.

The smallest one was a closet size space for the homeless and was priced accordingly.

The most expensive one which was many stories high above a major metropolitan city and which was basically a small town for the occupants and came in at a little over one billion dollars in that day’s currency rate which, incidentally, is more money than I made all of last year.

The types of houses vary from those designed for mass consumption to those expressly designed for personal life styles to the absurd and ridiculous.

Many use standard materials and many use custom made and expensive and rare materials.

Some are aesthetically pleasing and some are a nightmare come to life.

There is no one particular type where price, function, location, life style, aesthetics, et cetera all come together for a well balanced whole.

So, what is the purpose of a residence and how do we evaluate such?

The primary purpose of a residence is shelter from the elements of nature.

After that goal is accomplished, many personal elements are put into the stew.

What are the functions and life styles of the occupant? What is the location and surrounding environment? What is the level of quality for all of the aspects involved? What is the budget? What is the desired social-economic status to present to the world. What is the intellectual and emotional aspects to be manifest? How much is display and competition for others?

The list goes on and affects of cultures as well as other aspects have to be considered.

When you look at and analyze the residence in which you live, inside and out side, what do you see and how would you evaluate it and what is or is not important to you.

Food for thought.

Most of the residential constructions in this country, and perhaps also around the rest of the world, are based on elements of economics and mass production and consumption.

Getting the most square feet for the available space.

Adding functional elements that can be used to sell more and increase profits

There are similar plans and elements and results that are mass produced and sold and used country wide for houses.

All of which is done to house the population of this country.

There are, however, some constructions happening which are geared more toward their geography and functions.

What happens to the level and quality of aesthetics when the majority of decisions are based on economics?

What happens to the emotional and decorative desires to create a personal interior residential environment as opposed to a mass concept based on economics?

In such situations, choices are limited.

The options are to make the best of what is available through imagination, creativity, et cetera, settle for what results are available, or choose to raise your budget to a higher level to accommodate your wants.

As you look around your current residential environment, what do you see?

Mass produced and consumed mediocrity, creativity, imagination, a high level and quality of aesthetics, or that which is custom made to your requirements?

What do you want to see?

The choice is yours.

Food for thought.

New housing developments that feature homes built in the “farm house” style show up in the residential building current information that comes across my desk.

What makes a house a “farm house” such if it is not built on a working farm?

People often get carried away with definitions beyond reality when describing residences.

Once, being served a drink at a bar set up in the “library” at a party in a very expensive and snobbish neighborhood, I noticed that the only literary works in the room were books in a wallpaper border around the room.

A real estate agent once described a house as french because it had a two angled roof.

Different traits, characteristics, and uses can be successfully incorporated into residential designs, inside and outside, but call a spade a spade.

In the same vein, it is important, functional, and practical to build residences appropriately for the weather and environment where they are to be located.

People often build beach houses to reflect their social and economic status in using many different styles instead of what is appropriate for ocean side living. Along comes a hurricane and every thing is destroyed. Gee. I wonder why.

In, again, the same vein, people will build a house in the desert and want lots of greenery.

It is the essence of good aesthetics that what is done is appropriate for what it is and where it is and how it is to be used.

The accurate, functional, appropriate, and aesthetic elements of concepts and the physical manifestation there of in residential composition always produce the best results.

If you are not interested in producing the best results, you are wasting your time reading this blog.

Food for thought.

High school history taught that the ancient Egyptians were the first civilizations to have mirrors.

In the centuries since that ancient time mirrors have have played various roles in civilizations with advances in the manufacturing and availability to the peoples.

During these times the mirror has advanced from luxury and status to being amply available to the general population to being used not just for vanity and grooming but into scientific fields as well.

Over the ages the use of mirror for residential interior aesthetics has manifest in many different ways and for many different reasons.

Physically what a mirror does is reflect and as such what it reflects should be of paramount concern where it is used.

This basic physics law has been not used to the best advantage in many residential aesthetics over time.

If a mirror were used for your personal residential interior environment, what would it reflect?

What does this reflection say about you, your life style, activities, choices, aesthetics, level of quality, et cetera?

Look. See. Analyze. Do. Be.

Food for thought.

What is important in life?

A big screen color television and a new car!

Lol! Some people are of this state of mind. I am not one of them.

What keeps coming up and is more pronounced by information currently available for those who evaluate such things is that the value and importance and completeness of a life well lived is one in which the emphasis has been on the quality experiences one has known as opposed to the quantity of physical accumulations and financial worth one leaves behind.

Of course, not every one is going to agree with this evaluation, but it definitely has wisdom on it’s side.

Have you ever thought about the total time of your life that is spent inside your residential interior environment?

Looking back, of if you would prefer, look forward and evaluate the quality of that time as a part of your overall existence on this planet.

Is such important to you? Are you comfortable and satisfied where you are or would you like to make changes for what ever reason?

The day-to-day existence of residential life with all of it’s ups and downs and all of the emotional, psychological, functional, financial, intellectual, et cetera aspects experienced there in can be greatly enhanced in spaces that are aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.

Where are you and where would you prefer to have been?

Food for thought.

We are all familiar with the practice of doing things your self rather than hiring some one to do it.

There are also personal and professional concepts that some people insist upon using for their personal residential interior space.

The engineer must have his house done in the most efficient, economical, and functional manner. There is to be no emotion or decoration. The results are to be determined by math and science completely. Surprise! The resulting residence looks and feels like an engineering project and not a home.

For those people whose status is second only to breathing, although it is never discussed or acknowledged, and whose goal is to look like old money and aristocracy, every thing must be old, faded, and well worn by use. Up to date lighting is deemed too commercial and is not allowed. Modern conveniences are only allowed for the barest extreme necessities. Any thing that is mass produced is frowned upon. While these people are pleased living with such results, to others it may appear stuffy, stale, uncomfortable, pathetic, sad, and lacking in desirability.

Then, there are those people who select a different direction in that every thing must be the newest possible and manifest the current trends as if their life style requires them to live in the current moment. Any thing which does not reflect such is chastised and banned. The down side of designing in this style is that fashions change and such interiors easily become dated and start looking out of place.

There is another group which I have encountered whose joy is in shopping at garage and yard sales and proclaiming what they have discovered and now own. They relish this residential living environment. For all of their searching, exploring, and discoveries, there is not any thing in their house that is of quality merit.

Then, there is the building contractor, residential or commercial, who builds his own house. It is to manifest all of the concepts and ways of doing things and materials learned and used over the course of his business history. It is a show place for what they do. They are set in their way of doing things and that is how it is going to be and no outside influence is going to affect their results.

We are all individuals with our unique personalities and are free to express ourselves.

What ever your personality or profession, one will not achieve desirable quality aesthetic results with out applying the principles of aesthetics and the laws of physics.

What is your diy concept and how has it, or not, manifest itself in the residential interior environment you have chosen for your self?

Food for thought.

Your style is what you choose for your choices and activities and represents you.

There are many factors which affect your choosing style.

Your dna, your upbringing, your education, your personality traits, your financial situation, your culture, past and present, the time and place in which your live, et cetera are all determining factors in what you choose as your personal style.

Many of these choices are made subconsciously and we may not be aware of them, but they are present and manifest.

Part of choosing your personal style is determined by how important such is to you and what you choose to do about it.

Recent articles about styles in the housing industry have come across my desk and are important because they affect the direction and activities of the house and home furnishings industries.

Whether you think about it or not, your personal style is there in what you choose and do.

In thinking about your residential interior space it is important to examine and decide what level of quality you want and the role that aesthetics plays in you decisions.

Generally speaking, we only choose the best options of quality and the highest level of the tastes that we like in the shopping, preparation, and eating and enjoying foods.

How does that principle apply to your choices in the design of your homes?

Your options are only limited by your circumstances and expenditure of your resources.

How important is your residential style to you and what have you manifest for the world to see as you?

Food for thought.

Celebrity residences currently on the market are among the information about the housing industry in this country that came across my desk during the last few days.

The majority of these residences were in the many millions of dollars price range.

There were several aspects of these current residential offerings which stood out to me and were not positive about the interior design there of.

Most of them were of enormous size to the extent that they were almost redundant. While it can be very luxurious to enjoy having more space than you will need or use, too much is too much and becomes more ego and financial display than good design.

Many of these enormous spaces were under furnished. All well designed residential spaces regardless of their size should should be completed aesthetically or they can be compared to a large meal of empty calories and flavor. What’s the point?

In many of these on the market celebrity homes, the furnishings used were very blah and did not come together as a complete and balanced aesthetic composition.

The home of a internationally know and financially successful individual came across as a run away freight train. Basically, all of the background and all of the furnishings used were individually designed and abundantly expressed coming across as a totally emotional and decoration result with no intelligent thought given to the resulting aesthetic composition and could be best be describe as a room filled with art objects and not as a well designed residential interior. It was her choice and we are all free to live in the residential aesthetic environment we choose.

What can we learn about good design from these examples?

Size, price, location, social-economic status, et cetera in and of themselves do not necessarily result in good design.

The principles of aesthetics and the laws of physics apply to all residential designs regardless of the traits just listed.

Taking this knowledge into consideration, how have you chosen to apply it to you own personal residential environment?

Food for thought.

Rarely am I surprised at the housing industry information that comes across my desk. Last week was an exception.

According to Zillow, blue bathrooms can sell for up to $5,440 more and blue kitchens can sell for up to $1805 more.

The causes of these changes are not known to me.

New colors are constantly being introduce by makers, colors of the year are introduced by paint companies, and mass trends for certain colors often come with mass production, but the price increase by using one particular color is, to me, some what of a new quirk.

Colors for any interior space should be chosen because they are the best for the use, aesthetics, functions, and personality and life styles of the users using the principles of aesthetics and the laws of physics and it’s relation to the outside conditions and placement location.

To make a kitchen and bath blue merely to make more profit for the seller may be desirable for the seller, but what does it say about the intelligence and aesthetics of these spaces over the long haul?

Is this new movement simply a blip in the time of design or a movement toward a new course of action?

How do you go about choosing the colors used for you kitchen and bath room?

What happens to this movement will decided by the passage of time.

Food for thought.