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Cultural Views of Interior Design and the Future

The sum total of what you have created with in your home or on your entire property are the elements of design. The design trends lead the weaker, lost, herd mentality type person around by the nose in every area of their lives, and interior design is no different. The Color Ways colors are selected by a group of people choosing the colors that we see in advertising, in the fabric that our clothing is made of, our home furnishing, down to the three colors available at Target which all of the "plastic" storage, and utensils will be made of for the next few years. The up side of staying in tune with the colors of the current trend is that you are able to find the items you need to decorate with more readily available when you use the trend colors in you project. We live within a culture which is now slowly coming out of the mind numbing reality of believing that we are living to acquire money, property, and recognition. Though a small percentage of people seemed to be immune to the myths dished out by advertising agencies on TV, most of the population has spent a lifetime trying to get, acquire, and have exactly what someone else has told them is the model example of the perfect life through acquiring acquisitions. I would like to believe that we evolved on our own to the realization that we are not our cars, designer cloths, etc, however, I believe that this current cycle of financial upheaval is occurring as an aid into a new reality. A long over due new reality, not based on greed. Interior designers have long been classified as snooty, and over baring, working for the wealthy, who already have to much, and as creators of more un-needed waste.

Early on in my career I worked with many interior designers, who made their income by selling furnishing and it did not matter if the client needed the chair or quite frankly if the client liked the chair, the designer was in the business of selling, so sell it was. The new designer as well as the new client will be changing this paradigm in the months and years ahead. I believe designers will be working as aids to people who are redefining who they are and what they truly need in their lives without the helpful assistance of the large companies team of advertisers. I use the words frequently, of creating sacred space, I look at our homes and gardens as our sacred, retreat from the world, space. What and how we choose to design for ourselves is important to our balance and healing, and recharging of human batteries, which enables us to function back out in the world, only to retire again in peace. It is a simple beautiful cycle, however many people return home and do not find a sanctuary but rather dysfunction, and chaos. We no longer need the burden of maintaining five extra rooms in a house that we do not even use, which are only repositories for junk. Combining not only the clutter, the building materials, but also the utilities to maintain heat for all this extra space. In the near future, this will affect the building practices implemented in this country as well. The job discription of interior designer will be changing roles, which has already begun, and transcending to a more functional role, creating simple beauty, balance, and harmony, rather then lavish visual presentations, which are uncomfortable, expensive, and overwhelming at best.

New Views of our Environment

As a designer, my main objective is to assess the space, the client and their current needs and the needs of the future - and make a workable plan. Because I personally have spent the past 30 years studying the the effects of the unseen portion of the world and its connection with the physical world I have a different vantage point with which I use to make my assessment with during the creative process. Through experience over the many years in the interior design field, I have learned that many people are caught in fear which leads to a sort of stagnation in their lives which in turn shows as blocks and stagnation in areas of their lives and in their physical environment. I work with one main principle in my personal life, that of macrocosm and microcosms, and the connection there in. Because we are connected to everything else, the effect of everything that we do or create shows up at the physical level for observation by the eye/mind screener. The same dynamic is used in natural healing methods. The patient makes the same choices year in and year out until the physical body begins to show the sign of distress for observation by a trained professional. Most people still do not realize the connection between the behavior and the symptoms.. Our physical environment and this includes our home, property, car, even clothing and personal style show the professionally trained eye a larger blueprint of what is going on in the over all picture of the owner of these physical things. Even though the Feng Shui trend has come and gone in the west, the knowledge behind Feng Shui was not based on a trend but is based upon ancient universal constant principles which do not change. When I find a room in a home full of piles of junk, creating stagnation - I know something is up with the client / or family member. That room displays the microcosm/ macrocosm connection which says look into the clients psyche to discover what part of the person is in distress to manifest this large viewable symbol in the physical world for observation. As I work on a clients home, levels of balance occur and through these changes the client experiences a form of healing on a emotional, mental, and/ or spiritual level also. As we line up more of our "ducks" so to speak more healing occurs within the person or family involved, and the home space demonstrates this healing in a physical viewable way. The signs are in front of us all the time, but unfortunately most of us are not paying attention or using the information to our benefit, or in some cases are unable to interpret the symbols meaning without an experts help. I liken this process to us as human beings being compared to a garden hose, we turn on the water (which is our flow of energy to accomplish the task of living), yet our hose has many many kinks in it from beginning to end. Each kink that we remove, enables the water to flow more freely out to the end result and gifting us with more usable energy.. As we master ourselves and our environments we are in essence mastering the energy flow in our lives. We are all quite aware through quantum physics that everything in existance is energy, quite simply put we can stand in the way and be mowed over by the energy flow, we can ignore the energy flow but it still has an effect on us and leaves us at the mercy of the energy, or we can wake up and master the energy and not only get with the flow for our own ease but use the flow and master it to our benefit.

Levels of Change

Most clients are only able to heal a little at a time or they become uncomfortable. Because we are connected to our "stuff" energetically, many people experience emotional difficulty when some of their stuff is moved or changed. This is not just control issues but can also be because when houses or possessions are changed it creates a change in the people affected or attached to the home or possessions.

Often times when I do a walk through in a new clients home, I make a mental assessment of what i "feel" intuitively and visually see. I see the obvious that the colors need to be tweaked to bring all the furnishings together rather then distanced and fragmented. If we are not able to change out the carpet, tile, etc. these need to be used as our constants and starting points, some people pretend that the carpet is not really that horrible shade of green and just build a new plan as if the carpet isn't really there. Lets use a rating scale for this example of 1-10. The room is rated at a level 3 on our scale, I make my assessment, go into the studio and do a design which will move the energy level in the room from the 3 level to the 6 level, however, this will effect my client and all family members residing in the home. In most cases the client will opt for a lesser design plan which will move the over all energy in the room to the next level or a 4 level. The client / family then makes an adjustment to this new energy level. I have seen clients stress go over the top while building a new home or even adding an addition to the house. They can not deal with all the changed / new energy, yes and even healing that has occurred within themselves.

Years ago I had a client who hired me to redesign four rooms in her home while she vacationed in Florida The client did not wanted to have much input in the project, told me to work with her two daughters while she was gone. The rooms were completed and when the client returned, instead of being thrilled with the new space and transformation, she hated it and ask how much it would cost to have it put back the way it was, which was all off white with mix matched furnishings. I was shocked to say the least, my clients are always happy with the end result of my creations. A few days went by and the client called me back and said that she loved her house and came to realize that when she first saw it she felt that she did not deserve such a beautiful place. She had to come to terms with the shift in energy and how it connected to her personally, move to the next level, and make the needed adjustments from the new perspective. Later she called to let me know that she bought herself a new expensive car and that her prosperity had changed since she changed her home environment.

More to come......Or topic index is new to us and will be developed further.

Color I Interior Design I Architecture & Layouts I Feng Shui I Smudging & Cleansing Rituals l Style