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"What made me fall in love with color?"
There are many things but I will never forget the day I found a book at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Bookstore. Tney always had tons of books and all of them were wonderful. I have never been trustworthy in a bookstore unless of course you trust me to buy books. I love books.
There was this one book that called to me and it was by Donald Kaufman and Taffy Dahl and it was called simply - Color. They have such a wonderful approach to color. Many times you see the magazines and the colors scream at you or they may all work together but something seems amiss. I opened this book and I saw none of that. They believe that color should evolve naturally from the environment. Color should blend in with the environment. The colors are magical. The rooms are so cozy and comfortable. I looked at this book for months. It is what I aspire to in my rooms.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Dixie Carter's death.
So I woke up the other morning and saw on my Facebook that Dixie Carter had died. Many feelings went through me. As there are many design folk on my Facebook, there were several homages to her and many were sad. I have seen Dixie in several interviews and her presence was just as powerful as Julia's. This role was made for her and only she could bring it to life.
Funnily enough, she was not an icon for me in interior design. The show really didn't do that much design...I think I remember 3 rooms that they spoke about. One was about the cat(inspired by Morris) that was selecting wallpaper. One was this lady who had no taste and completely destroyed the style of the house and then there was a house where the couple were having affairs on each other and they got dragged into it. It is amazing what you find out about people when you work on their homes and there is always the inner struggle of do I try to help it or not. My policy is to keep the door open, if they need to talk about it, they will. I do my best to consider all aspects of the design to help them. Although I have never run into something so blatant as that episode either so I don't really know what I would do. I don't think it fully sunk in to me what their job was and I didn't see it as my calling then. Back then, if you asked me, I was going to own my own restaurant and do something pretty unique with the decorations. (Decorating has always been part of my dreams, just didn't realize how it worked in them) I still have dreams of my own restaurant and how I would decorate it but I have no desire to work IN a restaurant, in time, in time.
Anyway, for me, Designing Women was about 4 amazing women and how they dealt with life. At the time, I remember everyone saying how groundbreaking it was and I didn't see it at that time in my life but now I do. It was pretty groundbreaking to have a show full of such amazing women who were in charge of their own lives. But to me, what made it groundbreaking was showing the strengths of all these women. Each in their own way, could make you really take notice of who they were. Of course, we all wanted to embrace the Julia Sugarbaker in us. Always having the perfect thing to say. She could go on a tirade and be so poetic that you almost had to thank her for doing it, even it was directed at you. That's class and so much more. Suzanne had a power in beauty. The "power of the boob" as it's called affectionately by my friends. I never really had that power, but after meeting this new group of friends who did, and seeing how it really worked, I was amazed. There is great power in our femininity. I think that we forget that. That was another earmark of the show, all of those women pulled their power out of their experience of being a woman. Mary Jo could draw - that was enough for me to be in awe of her...lol. But she had had her life turned upside down and she was turning it right side up. She questioned herself like we all do, she got scared like we all do and she did it anyway. These four ladies stuck together no matter what and encouraged each to be all they could be. With friends like that, you could take on the world. Charlene, the eternal optimist. Every group needs one. I think when I watched this I saw that the person I wanted to be was a bit of all these women, Julia's confidence and strength, Mary Jo's courage, Suzanne's pride and Charlene's optimism. This show didn't shape me as a designer, it shaped me as what I thought a woman should be. I think that impact is more important than anything. I was an incredible example of the woman I wanted to be, and could be, and would be, when I did finally have my own company, whatever it would be.
Funnily enough, she was not an icon for me in interior design. The show really didn't do that much design...I think I remember 3 rooms that they spoke about. One was about the cat(inspired by Morris) that was selecting wallpaper. One was this lady who had no taste and completely destroyed the style of the house and then there was a house where the couple were having affairs on each other and they got dragged into it. It is amazing what you find out about people when you work on their homes and there is always the inner struggle of do I try to help it or not. My policy is to keep the door open, if they need to talk about it, they will. I do my best to consider all aspects of the design to help them. Although I have never run into something so blatant as that episode either so I don't really know what I would do. I don't think it fully sunk in to me what their job was and I didn't see it as my calling then. Back then, if you asked me, I was going to own my own restaurant and do something pretty unique with the decorations. (Decorating has always been part of my dreams, just didn't realize how it worked in them) I still have dreams of my own restaurant and how I would decorate it but I have no desire to work IN a restaurant, in time, in time.
Anyway, for me, Designing Women was about 4 amazing women and how they dealt with life. At the time, I remember everyone saying how groundbreaking it was and I didn't see it at that time in my life but now I do. It was pretty groundbreaking to have a show full of such amazing women who were in charge of their own lives. But to me, what made it groundbreaking was showing the strengths of all these women. Each in their own way, could make you really take notice of who they were. Of course, we all wanted to embrace the Julia Sugarbaker in us. Always having the perfect thing to say. She could go on a tirade and be so poetic that you almost had to thank her for doing it, even it was directed at you. That's class and so much more. Suzanne had a power in beauty. The "power of the boob" as it's called affectionately by my friends. I never really had that power, but after meeting this new group of friends who did, and seeing how it really worked, I was amazed. There is great power in our femininity. I think that we forget that. That was another earmark of the show, all of those women pulled their power out of their experience of being a woman. Mary Jo could draw - that was enough for me to be in awe of her...lol. But she had had her life turned upside down and she was turning it right side up. She questioned herself like we all do, she got scared like we all do and she did it anyway. These four ladies stuck together no matter what and encouraged each to be all they could be. With friends like that, you could take on the world. Charlene, the eternal optimist. Every group needs one. I think when I watched this I saw that the person I wanted to be was a bit of all these women, Julia's confidence and strength, Mary Jo's courage, Suzanne's pride and Charlene's optimism. This show didn't shape me as a designer, it shaped me as what I thought a woman should be. I think that impact is more important than anything. I was an incredible example of the woman I wanted to be, and could be, and would be, when I did finally have my own company, whatever it would be.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Aging in Place
Aging In Place
Aging In Place is another version of universal design. When the Americans with Disabilities Act passed they were looking for things that made it easier for handy capable people. They wanted to apply principles, such as ergonomics, to make it easier for people with physical limitations to work.
Today, a lot of the baby boomers are retiring as they are getting into their fifties, sixties and seventies. Their body does not seem to work as well as they want. Many people have lived in their home for fifteen to twenty years or more and they don’t want to leave live in assisted living. Aging in Place is taking the elements outlined in the American with Disabilities Act and putting them into any new constructions to enable you to stay in your house longer.
For example, I know a 40 year old lady who just bought a house that was actually built with Aging In Place principles. She had a skiing accident and injured her knee. She could not go up and down stairs for six weeks. Fortunately, the house was built with Aging in Place ideas, so she did not have to go up and down stairs. She could access the second floor of her house via a ramp or drive way going down to the first where she could get into the car. Most of her living space was on the second floor and not on the first floor so it worked out really well for her.
Another person I know did not live in a house that incorporated Aging in Place and, when she had back surgery, she ended up sleeping in the den because she couldn't make it up the stairs. These are the kinds of things we are looking at in new construction to help the Aging in Place.
Another thing that is very big with Aging in Place is door knobs v.s. door levers. This is a very big one. It is so simple and inexpensive to change but if you have arthritis or weak hands turning a door knob can be very painful if not impossible. But if you replaced that knob with the lever you can touch it with an elbow. The arthritis issue is gone. Can you imagine if you've got bad arthritis in your hands and just walking through your house and every time you touch the doors it hurt? You can eliminate that pain just by changing it into levels for only $20.00 bucks.
If you would like to know more about Aging in Place concepts or how you can make your house more comfortable, please contact me.
Aging In Place is another version of universal design. When the Americans with Disabilities Act passed they were looking for things that made it easier for handy capable people. They wanted to apply principles, such as ergonomics, to make it easier for people with physical limitations to work.
Today, a lot of the baby boomers are retiring as they are getting into their fifties, sixties and seventies. Their body does not seem to work as well as they want. Many people have lived in their home for fifteen to twenty years or more and they don’t want to leave live in assisted living. Aging in Place is taking the elements outlined in the American with Disabilities Act and putting them into any new constructions to enable you to stay in your house longer.
For example, I know a 40 year old lady who just bought a house that was actually built with Aging In Place principles. She had a skiing accident and injured her knee. She could not go up and down stairs for six weeks. Fortunately, the house was built with Aging in Place ideas, so she did not have to go up and down stairs. She could access the second floor of her house via a ramp or drive way going down to the first where she could get into the car. Most of her living space was on the second floor and not on the first floor so it worked out really well for her.
Another person I know did not live in a house that incorporated Aging in Place and, when she had back surgery, she ended up sleeping in the den because she couldn't make it up the stairs. These are the kinds of things we are looking at in new construction to help the Aging in Place.
Another thing that is very big with Aging in Place is door knobs v.s. door levers. This is a very big one. It is so simple and inexpensive to change but if you have arthritis or weak hands turning a door knob can be very painful if not impossible. But if you replaced that knob with the lever you can touch it with an elbow. The arthritis issue is gone. Can you imagine if you've got bad arthritis in your hands and just walking through your house and every time you touch the doors it hurt? You can eliminate that pain just by changing it into levels for only $20.00 bucks.
If you would like to know more about Aging in Place concepts or how you can make your house more comfortable, please contact me.
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