Intelligent Interior Design

(I’m not going to talk about God this week. I sat through THE MESSIAH on Sunday, isn’t that enough?)

The idea is to create an other-worldliness, a sensation when you step into a room that you automatically inhale as a response, wanting to take it in, this other world that is new and refreshing, at once stimulating and full of comfort, a place you want to put your body into and not just look at. It draws you in and you draw it in.

Some designers accomplish this by jamming so much crap into one space that you have to inhale, to gasp, in response to being choked by drapes and carpets, overstuffed chairs and couches, tables, ottomans, knick-knacks, mantles, shelves, pillows, paintings, and fixtures which coagulate and set you pondering where you’d put your keys down if you lived there, and if you did put your keys down, how would you ever find them again?

Of course there are period styles—rooms so Baroque you’re afraid to touch anything, or so antique you feel lost without a corset, or so modern you feel you’ve landed on an alien planet, or so minimalist you’ve landed in a Petri dish and your very presence is pollution. Objects can be placed and spaced so they appear as if to stand at attention when met by your eye, giving a false sense of having servants standing by, ready to wait upon your every whim of décor.

How do these people have children? Surely this is not an accurate picture. The true sadness, though, is what if it is? Filigreed lives lived on the tiptoes on dust-free surfaces. What if the children conform to the stiff props of style, instead of dismantling their surroundings to find themselves?

The truly accomplished among designers is the one who leaves negative space, areas for your eyes to breathe. Then the respiration its natural—inhale, exhale—a meaningful dialogue through the passage of air around the notion of style.

I compiled a list of ten writing tips from the January 2007 edition of ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST. The tips were not by famous writers; they were collected from architects and interior designers. I misappropriated a word or two and certainly I mislaid the context, but for some quotes, I let the metaphor stand on its own—architecture for narrative elements and throw pillows for details. I omitted designer comments which applied specifically to interior design because those were the more banal. My favorite tip was contributed by Steven Ehrlich who said, “Breathe deeply.” That’s the person I want designing my home—someone who is open to the big picture, someone who knows God gave us a lifetime supply of air to figure things out.