Have you ever asked yourself, when it comes to interior design, what is the highest potential of a design? What is the best design which you can create for your home? Is it the budget which decides how far you can go? Is it the super ideas which you are still searching for? Being unsure about the result, you are afraid of making mistakes. You end up paying for the safest options someone – your contractor, the store salesman, or Pinterest – presents to you. The result would either show that you are financially stable or risk adverse or both. It would also show that you had not designed the house at all. You had only furnished it.
Designing a living space has two objectives: (1) to arrange your belongings in an optimal way for your lifestyle and (2) to provide you and you visitors a state of emotion. In short, that is the layout and the concept.
The layout has to be logical, practical, and easy to perceive. You and your visitors should “get” it the minute you enter the house. A good layout makes people feel safe and comfortable. A great layout adds visual balance to the mix. Don’t fill up the house, leave it some space to grow with you. On the other hand, don’t leave it empty, because it will stay empty for a long time. Everytime you look at it, you are reminded that you still need to do something about it.
While the layout has to be straightforward, the concept generates emotions and makes the interior interesting. Some people get bored of their living space after a while even though it is scattered with things they like or used to love. That is because there is no concept, no emotion, and therefore no attachment. A suitable concept keeps your interest and your visitors’ curiosity in the house. For the house to have a positive effect on your well-being, the emotions should be positive, such as happy, fun, relaxed, interesting, or even quaint if you like it. A concept gives the house a soul. It helps make the house cohesive. It can also be developed and changed over time.
It is not the budget or the ideas which decide a successful interior design project. Your house doesn’t need to be luxurious or fill with creative ideas to be sophisticated. If you want to love your house more every day, answer this question: what is the most productive layout and concept for your lifestyle? The more straightforward and ambitious you are working on the layout and the concept, the better design you will achieve.
(Picture: A building near Cube Houses, Rotterdam, the Netherlands)