What does your home say about you, and do you feel it supports you? Is it really your comfort zone, or some idea you saw in a magazine or show, that may or may not be you?
There are questions I like to answer just from being in a home. Basic questions about the life being lived in the home.
We answer some of these questions just by being in an environment, or by knowing the inhabitants.
Photo: Daniel Nadelbach ©
Gut level designing in a sense. If I can’t answer these gut level questions, we talk about lots of questions.
- Who lives here?
- And what do the individuals do?
- What are their ages?
- If it’s a couple…who is she? Who is he?
- Who are they together?
- And then, what do they do together?
Do they-
- entertain,
- pursue hobbies,
- read,
- watch movies or TV,
- race out the door in the morning?
- Return, ready to relax?
- If there are kids….what are their ages?
- Girls or boys, or “they?”
- Avid students, sports team members?
- Engaged young kids or distant teens?
- Or grads, returning to the nest?
We answer some of these questions just by being in an environment, or by knowing the inhabitants. Gut level designing in a sense. If I can’t answer these gut level questions, we talk about lots of questions.
- Who lives here?
- And what do the individuals do?
- What are their ages?
- If it’s a couple…who is she? Who is he?
- Who are they together?
- And then, what do they do together?
Do they-
- entertain,
- pursue hobbies,
- read,
- watch movies or TV,
- race out the door in the morning?
- Return, ready to relax?
- If there are kids….what are their ages?
- Girls or boys, or “they?”
- Avid students, sports team members?
- Engaged young kids or distant teens?
- Or grads, returning to the nest?
And why does it matter? One of the best possible things about my job is to figure out the very best of a home’s likely comfort level, use, and haven, and to help the owners see and realize it in the environment in a beautiful, handsome and inviting way. This means to find and create whatever helps them feel they are living, working, creating and playing in their own story, or even their own fantasy, and not someone else’s prescription, or fantasy, for a good life.
