The internet defines affluence as wealth, prosperity, opulence, fortune, richness, and luxury.

All of which are worthy and desirable traits and which in and of themselves do not necessarily and automatically manifest intelligent and quality aesthetics for the design of residential interiors.

Using as much marble and as much gold and other expensive materials can easily lead to a gaudy, excessive, and badly designed result.

If your goal is to show the world your wealth by over doing and flaunting it, you are projecting your insecurity and lack of emotional and intellectual intelligence.

All materials used in the creation of residential interiors should have their design elements at their best for a complete and balanced composition of function and beauty.

Quantity does not equal quality.

The completed results should be a symphony of physical diverse elements put together into a harmonious whole.

This approach can and should be used for the design of all residential interiors and is not limited to those of affluence.

Affluent interiors should be used, enjoyed, and appreciated for their intelligential beauty and not for their price tag.

Affluence give one the opportunity to create that which is outstanding for it’s intelligent aesthetics. If such is your situation, do it!

How much do you experience the quality and intelligence of your residential environment?

Food for thought.

If you are looking for that which comes at the end of a sentence, you are in the wrong place.

For the interior design profession, period means the time space in history in which a design was manifest.

Ideally, the designs of a period should represent the materials, techniques, life styles, arts, economics, government, politics, discoveries, religions, et cetera that express the best essences of it’s time space in history.

It may also include fads, fashions, popularity, et cetera which are not of the highest level of intelligent aesthetics.

It is usually the most intelligent and highest quality segments of past periods that last.

With intelligence, imagination, creativity, and knowledge of the elements and characteristics of aesthetics and how to relate each to the other in an organized and balanced manner, different periods of interior design can be used in the same composition.

Interior design, music, science, government, economics, life styles, medicine, the arts, religions, and all other aspects of human existence and civilization are all parts of what we know as history.

Is it of merit for you to know and be aware of this history? How could it affect your day-to-day existence? And your aesthetic experiences?

Food for thought.

More than one person who have called themselves an interior designer that I have encountered over the years I’ve been practicing this profession have been totally of the position that if you don’t sell anything you don’t make any money.

Of course, it is basic economics that a profit has to be made in any business transaction.

But which horse pulls the cart – buying and selling or designing?

You don’t go to a fine restaurant to buy groceries. You go there to be served a delicious meal.

Whom would you prefer to engage for your residential environment? One who applies aesthetic principles, functions, and your life style to the project, or one whose primary goal is to sell you things?

What is the ultimate final goal applying qualified standards of this professional business transaction? Buying and selling or designing?

Whom do you choose?

Food for thought.

A recently received prestigious shelter publication which has been around for decades featured several designed residential interiors in which the “rules” for interior design had been ignored or broken.

Who makes these so called rules, what are their qualifications to do such, and what are their reasons for doing it?

If you call yourself an interior designer you should design and not follow rules.

The rules of interior design are made by and for those people who are ignorant of it. And you may quote me on this principle.

Rules for interior design are a crutch for those people who are limited in their knowledge or know not what they are doing.

The principles of design, of which there are many, are a combination of the laws of physics and the highest levels of the consciousness of aesthetics by human kind.

In much of our current culture, ignorance, commerce, social-economic status, finances, time, popularity, relationships, et cetera are used to manifested designs as opposed to using principles.

As the old saying goes, “You usually get that for which you pay.”, so your residential interior design results will be determined by the level of intelligence used in designing it.

Beware of those in any aspect of aesthetic designing who follow rules.

Where are you and where do you want to be in your residential environment?

Food for thought.

It has been said that those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

It is of important merit to know, learn, and appreciate the past.

It is not of any merit to continue living there.

Today’s world is and is becoming more computerized in all areas and aspects of our lives and our daily existence.

Yet, when it comes to our residential environments, the majority of manifestations are efforts to duplicate the designs that were prevalent in the past.

The functions, life styles, tastes, choices, and conditions of peoples can be fulfilled in manners of merit reflecting the time in which they are done when intelligent and quality aesthetic principles are followed and, in doing such, people are living in the time of their existence.

Thus, civilization is advanced.

Often times. we need to change our thinking to expand, grow, appreciate, and enjoy where we can be.

Get out of your past box! Live in today!

Food for thought.

Albert Einstein was one of the most intelligent and influential persons who ever lived on this planet.

He brilliantly advanced our knowledge of the reality of this universe.

What Einstein did in his thinking is awesome!

From his lifetime recorded saying, what did Einstein say about art?

” We do art when we communicate through forms whose connections are not acceptable to the conscious mind yet we intuitively recognize them as meaningful.”

” Personally, I experience the greatest degree of pleasure in having contact with works of art. They furnish me with happy feelings that I cannot derive from other sources.” The Cosmic View of Albert Einstein

How do these thoughts relate to your viewing, understanding, and appreciation of works of art and their role in your personal environment?

How can these thoughts be of merit to you in enhancing the aesthetic level of the designs of your residential interior?

Do you want to embrace and manifest this intelligence in your life?

Or, do you prefer to stay where you are?

Food for thought.

One of the publications that comes across my desk periodically, which calls itself the international authority for interior design, lately devoted an issue to taste makers.

Taste, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is individual preference, aesthetic quality, discernment, and appreciation.

In every day language your personal taste is what you like.

This publication, and often others, present the personal life styles, residential environments, likes, and choices of the featured individuals.

The inferred goal of such publications is that being such is good and can be copied or used as a reference guide for one’s own residential environment. And, be being published is this periodical gives such validity.

Most often, these featured persons have the supposed quality of being suitable for such because of their status. Be it social-economic, popularity, ancestry, connections, being famous, celebrity, being well known, or personal achievements.

In evaluating the merits of such presentations there are two aspects to consider.

First, what are the talents, educations, experiences, information, qualifications, creativity, imagination, do ability, et cetera that validate these people presenting such and what and how does such relate to your life style and residential environment? Is there something here that can be learned to raise the level of your personal tastes? Or, is it merely mass fodder to sell magazines?

Secondly, if your personal taste is what you like, and it is, which is more preferable? Going down their path way or finding and following your own expression? Do want to be one of the masses or your own self?

Food for thought.

In the information that comes across my desk each day about the housing industry in this country are photos of the houses that are being built in new developments in all areas.

The majority of these houses are built in a “traditional” style and look as if they were siblings.

They mostly seem to have one outstanding aesthetic design feature in common. The garage door is the biggest physical and most important design feature for the front of the house.

This garage door is utilitarian and absorbs much of the aesthetics for the street view.

While these buildings are mass produced for a mass market and with all of the resources, materials, skills, and intelligence available today is it not conceivable that with creativity, imagination, and thinking one could come up with a design that could either eliminate or improve such situations?

Over the course of history, generally speaking, the front, and especially the front door, are the welcoming and flavor aspects of a residence and it’s occupants.

What does a double garage door projecting at the front of the house say about such?

Perhaps other features and aspects of the front of the house are more important for some persons than the aesthetics. We are all different individuals with different personalities.

Food for thought.

Where does one outside of the field go when one wants information of merit about the designing of one’s residential interior space?

Lists for such sources show amply results. Any one who chooses, in most instances, can list themselves as an interior designer, interior decorator, interior consultant, design services, et cetera.

Furniture stores, floor covering business, paint and wall paper companies, fabric and window treatments concerns, construction contractors, economical-status-social individuals, et cetera, and the list goes on. All can and often promote themselves as providing interior design services.

And then there are the magazines, television shows, internet sources, books, and videos that are of the same premise.

Where does one go for valid residential interior design information?

The first question to ask is: Is the source’s primary reason for being in business to create the best design results for my residential interior space, or is their primary reason for being in business to sell you something? Is such person an interior designer or a salesperson?

The second question to ask is: What qualifications to design an interior residential space does said person have? What academic training do they have? What is their intelligence, imagination, and creative level? What knowledge and experience do they exhibit for the overall world of interior design and the other related fields such as building contractors, workmen, suppliers, custom works, et cetera, that are outside of their particular area of expertise? Can they professionally advise you and work successfully with these other areas?

Think of what are the most and best results that you want from a residential interior design service and then seek out the best qualified person that will give those results. It should be a totally professional business experience and not one of personal connections.

Those people with knowledge, experience, and who know what they are doing generally produce the best results in professions including the profession of interior design.

Food for thought.

Work: productive, scheduled, goals, meetings, profitable, intellectual, talents, knowledge, computers, cell phones, must do, required, efficient, effective, financial

Home: nuturing, being self, personal, emotional, fun, relaxing, freedom, refreshing, choices, recharging, indulging, connecting, want to do, fulfilling, likes

Work is business.

Home is personal.

Don’t take work home.

Don’t take personal to work.

Got it?

Do it!

To what level of quality for the completeness of doing and being of your personal self does the design of the interior spaces in your home environment provide?

Food for thought.