There is so much we can learn from the natural world when it comes to design and the harmonious decorating of our homes. Turning to nature for inspiration as one of the simplest and most informative design guides to follow is a great place to start whenever we are in doubt. In this article, we share a few ideas on how to be inspired by the natural world and use it to help us make more harmonies design decisions for our homes.
The spaces we inhabit and the objects we fill those spaces with, tell a story whether we intend them to or not. These stories matter, not because of what they signal to others but because of what they signal to us. Only when the designs of our interiors are created in line with what we value most and when they facilitate the feelings and activities that nurture our minds and bodies, can our spaces begin to really feel like our home...
While there is no doubt that the idea of home is a dynamic and evolving concept, many thoughts and concerns that are on our minds today have accompanied those interested in homemaking since the industrial revolution changed the nature of home. In ‘Hints on House Furnishing’ Sparrow highlights three values which he deems essential for good design that hold as true today as they did 110 years ago…
British author, illustrator and painter, Mary Eliza Haweis, wrote a series of essays subsequently captured and elaborated on in her books titled ‘The Art of Beauty’ and ‘The Art of Decoration’ published in 1878 and 1881 respectively. What about Haweis's work is the relevance that some of her ideas still have for our current experience. In particular, her discussion on the importance of thoughtfulness in design seems as relevant today as it was 140 years ago...
The experience of being human is an embodied one: we know the world through our sense. But as our digital and virtual worlds predominantly use only our visual sense, a grounding antidote to the flatness of our digital lives is to engage our other sense whenever possible. The way we design our homes can either help or hinder the process of engaging all of our sense daily.
It can be tempting to rush through the process of home-making. Sitting with something unfinished and undone, when we know what it could look or feel like, is difficult. Living in it, even more so. But homes crafted slowly over time, in accordance with the values and rhythms of the people who live within them don’t tend to date in the same way that spaces put together with haste do. For those for whom a slower approach to home-making feels meaningful, we have put together a list of tips that might be helpful in encouraging a slower, more considered approach to home-making.
There are design aspects that can seem so small that they are practically unnoticeable. And yet by learning to attend to all the little details and learning to implement them mindfully, we can begin to tell a coherent story of how we want our home to feel and the life we want to unfold within it. We highlight a few of the small details worth attending to when it comes to designing the interiors in our homes.
Home is such an integral part of our private lives and yet many of us have spent little time thinking about the feeling of home in much detail. What is it that makes a house feel like a home? Or what it is that makes us feel at home even in places we have never been to before?