I’ve said it before and if I need to keep repeating myself I will because we really need to get it through that design is not a process to be rushed through and that there is no shame in a room that is not fully designed…yet. Design takes time and is truly a spiritual enhancing life long journey and let’s face it if we don’t enjoy the moment then what is the point. Now, just before we jump on the spiritual journey of designing let me clarify the ‘not finished space’. This is not permission to have a room full of junk, dirty, cluttered or less than desirable items stored there-that is not the point. The point is that it is okay to leave a space empty or a wall blank and corner unfilled or a table top barren until you find the perfect piece to fill that space. Honestly, sometimes you truly need to live in a space before you can design it correctly. Often you’ll find Sam or me just sitting on the floor of a room absorbing, feeling and ‘finding the space’.
Design is a spiritual experience, you need to feel a room, instill your dreams and goals and surround yourself with things that are beautiful and important to you. Ambitions such as these don’t happen overnight or even in a week, they take careful planning, hours of research and execution. I always carry my design journal with me to make notes of ideas and inspirations. I have a beautiful black crocodile 4×5″ journal filled with raw paper that I always have within easy reaching distance. If I am out of the house it’s in my purse and if I am at home it rests on the kitchen counter and at work it’s on my desk. If I see a design idea on TV, perhaps an entertainment show is touring a beautiful home, or am in a great restaurant or design store or even flipping through a magazine and I see a floral arrangement or a weathered old pillar with a fabulous glass candle stick set on top and I think wow I love that look, I can create a similar look at home, I will immediately write a note and make a sketch in my book. Yes, it maybe faster to snap a picture or tear a page from a magazine but there is something intimate and personal about using the journal and I find you tend to make the idea your own and even improve or adapt it with a personal spirit when it’s interpreted from your personal pages. For example, when I returned from Istanbul a few weeks back the first morning I woke in my own home I immediately made coffee and reached for my journal to begin bringing home the ideas I discovered in Turkey- remember I filled a bucket with time, clocks now fill a silver bin on the floor of my library, I planted two types of mint at the base of my lemon tree so that I could have fresh mint leaves to mix into the lemonade that my family loves me to make.
Your home is a lot more than a pleasant decorated space, it truly needs to make you smile and be a part of you. Take your time, collect items that you truly love to fill the space with, plan for furniture that allows you to live in the space the way you dream to live, surround yourself with textures, colours and memories that you love- do nothing if you can’t do it with passion. That’s how you learn to live fabulous!
DESIGN NOTES
I love containers and I love container gardening and in my containers I love to plant my favorites-my favorite herbs for flavoring drinks and recipes, my favorite flowers so that my cuttings are perfectly coloured for my rooms and also my favorite scents. This summer design containers for you-for your kitchen, for your bedroom with flowers and plants that you use and love for your home.
