“There are none so blind as those who will not see.” Mathew Henry

My experience in this field of residential interior design has encountered many people who are congruent with this pearl of wisdom and thusly miss out on much of the joy and beauty thereof.

Some people have been so arrogant in their social economic status that they cannot see, or refuse to accept, that something is broken.

Some people have been so tight with a penny that they will choose cheaply to not spend a few dollars initially and cannot see that such choices lower the quality long term for the project.

Some people will insist upon using friends, relatives, acquaintances, et cetera and there by severely limit the design options and quality of the project.

Some people are so set in their thinking that every thing in life should be done the way they run their business or practice their profession including the design of their living spaces.

Some people choose to be rude, demanding, difficult, not trust any one, etc cetera because that’s how you have to be to survive in life.

Some engage in unethical, under the table, dishonest, hidden behaviors, et cetera because that’s the only way to come out ahead.

These people are the losers because they miss the boat for the joy, beauty, comfort, and positive experience of experiencing their lives in well designed living spaces.

Have you ever encountered persons with such philosophies in your life experience?

Are you one of these people?

Food for thought.

The animal sheep is not known for it’s intelligence and individual traits.

Sheep herds engage in mass behavior.

Sheep go where there is movement, being guided, lead, or following the crowd.

Some people are like sheep when it comes to their behavior.

How often is being popular or a trend used as a selling technique?

How many houses, and their interiors, have you seen which were basically the same?

This sameness is often fueled by new materials and techniques, economics, the market, fashions, mass production, et cetera.

Some people choose such.

They are sheep.

Mass production can be very effective financially but individuality can be lost in the process.

How do you live?

As a sheep?

Or as your individual self?

Food for thought.

The primary purpose of food is to be eaten for nourishment.

The merit of inside living spaces is for the activities that will take place there in.

Most food is prepared to achieve the maximum best tasting results.

Are Interior living spaces designed for the best use of their purpose?

If food is not eaten what is it’s purpose? Decoration?

If interior living spaces are not functional what is their purpose? Just to be seen?

How do you combine the two?

Master chiefs expend all resources available to manifest the highest level of desired results.

The best designed interior spaces use the same program.

Many of the representations of what are presented as the best of today’s residential interior design coming across my desk do not combine the two well.

Many are colorful, attractive, merit of high quality, and aesthetically fulfilling but are totally non functional. What is the purpose of a chair if it cannot be comfortably used? Is it merely a work of art?

What was the most exhilarating food you have ever tasted?

What was it’s nutritional value?

What was the most awesome living space you ever saw?

What was it’s functional level?

Food for thought.

When at the beginning stages of a residential interior design project it is highly advisable to take an intelligent look at where you are, what expenditures you have to use, and what is your ultimate long term finished goal when the project is completed.

Look at the size, shape, and location of all spaces involved.

How will the different seasons of the sun coming into the spaces, and the weather outside, affect the functional activities and the ambiances of the spaces remembering that light is the most important part of any interior space?

What is the size and shape of the spaces and how can such be designed for maximum of functionality and the highest level of aesthetics?

How can the physical parts of the space, such as walls, floors, ceilings, the structural, materials, and architectural elements there of, be enhanced, played down, eliminated, or replaced for maximum desirable results?

And remember, ceilings areas are as much space in a room as floors.

What is seen of the outside from the interior spaces and how can such be designed for maximum aesthetics and function?

When all of these elements have been explored, evaluated, and digested, then you can start on the budget, functions, quality level, activation plans, scheduling, ambiance, et cetera.

For every thing that is done, adhere to the laws of physics and principles of design.

Food for thought.

What role does aesthetics play in the past and on going history of civilization?

What do the uncountable trillions of financial worth of aesthetic manifestations in museums around the world say about the civilizations they represent?

In the growth advancement of civilizations through out history what aesthetic expressions have been manifest?

It is an established fact that aesthetics, especially in our interior spaces, are a positive fulfilling aspect for the physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual subsistence of humanity.

Aesthetics and it’s many expressions are, and should continue to be, an important role in the life and history of this planet.

Where are you in aesthetic civilization during your time and space on this planet?

Food for thought.

What is the purpose of personal living spaces and what determines their value there of?

The basic purpose of a residences is essentially to provide shelter and protection from the elements of weather.

What is needed and a place to do it for a life style of living comes there after.

When these needs within the financial, location, weather, market, et cetera circumstances of acquiring are met, what is or determines a residential value worth?

Residences are for living.

Residences are not made to grow crops, manufacture items, or provide services as a business and are not investment stocks.

What makes for the quality of life style activities is the value of a where one lives.

While the cost and number of square feet are dwelling financial aspects how such spaces are used are the value.

Food for thought.

What are the advantages of using professional interior designers services?

Professional interior designers have resources, literally from around the world, that are unknown or unavailable to lay persons.

They have contacts and are aware of workmen, techniques, businesses, knowing what is doable, schedules, and availabilities relating to residential constructions and furnishings.

They can offer almost unlimited choices for all aspects of the project.

Their results will be lasting value through the years.

The quality of materials and workmanship will be high.

The levels of aesthetics and every day living will be higher and result in better physical, emotional, intellectual, mental, and spiritual health.

Expended financial resources will be validated.

Aesthetically pleasing designed houses are generally more saleable.

Generally in life we receive the level of quality for which we pay.

Food for thought.

The public is flooded with exposure to interior design sources.

There are constant sources being exposed about current residential interior design such as color of the year, what trends are in, what is out, television shows, advertisements, celebrity designers, traditions, magazines, economic and social status, friends, resale situations, best buys now, et cetera.

How does a lay person go about choosing with what and whom to work when ready for changing their interior living space?

First, understand the difference between selling and designing.

Do you want to purchase new furnishings or create an aesthetic environment?

What level of quality is wanted for each aspect of the project?

What is your doable budget for the project?

For whom and what purpose are these interior living spaces to be used?

What feeling, ambiance, personality, image, look, presentation, et cetera is desired?

What is the education and intelligence level of choices available?

What is the experience of whom is there?

What are the options of designing and materials used?

How do all of the personalities involved work together as a team with common goals?

What is the best route to take to arrive at your desired results?

The best results are manifest when you choose with what and with whom to work using the laws of physics and principles of aesthetics that are congruent with your desired goal results.

Food for thought.

Any residential interior design project, new or redone, requires many choices with many people having only one priority.

Many people approach such projects on the current situation as opposed to the best long term, sometimes evolving, results.

The best results results come from planning the project as one would plan long term financial goals.

Doing such involves giving intelligent thorough philosophical thought to the project.

Long term results, some times years in the future, should trump immediate now situations.

What is the ultimate function of these interior spaces? What activities by whom people are to take place in these spaces?

How will the type and scope of these activities change over the coming years?

What is the most important significance in ambiance and emotion and intellect for people using these spaces?

What is the best long term expenditure of resources, time, money, and others, for the ultimate goals of these projects?

What aspects of these spaces can be manifest that are the individual signatures of the users which will make these spaces uniquely theirs?

When these questions have been fully and successfully answered, you can then more wisely move toward the physical doable steps of time, budget, scheduling, availability, labor, contractors, requirements, permits, et cetera.

Expended wisdom results in abundant results.

How is this school of thought reflected in the personal spaces in which you live and move and have your being Life?

Food for thought.

Their residential status is of utmost importance to some people to the extent that it trumps other aspects of their personal living spaces.

This status may be based on monetary, history, occupants present and past, location, et cetera.

Status, what ever it is, in and of itself, does not affect the physical.

Status does not affect the aesthetics of the physical.

The type of activities to take place in a space does not affect it physically.

What clothing is worn in it does not affect the physical of a space.

These non-tangible traits and characteristics attributed to a space are emotional and intellectual.

They are two of the main factors as to how we react and use a space.

The laws of physics and principles of aesthetics determine the physical and beauty quality level of a space.

Pause and analyze the spaces in which you live and have your being.

When occupying interior spaces, of what you see and how you react to it, how much is physical, intellectual, emotional, status, aesthetic, functional, et cetera?

Spaces which fulfill all of these aspects are complete which is the ultimate goal of the highest quality residential interior design.

How do these different aspects stack up in the spaces you personally occupy?

Food for thought.