A Peaceful Earth Day
**Earth Day**
Makes me reflect on a peaceful walk in the woods,
or the fresh feeling from the splash of water
from the prow of a boat…
A place where you can feel at one with Nature.
It’s great, isn’t it?
My blog usually focuses on design and the growing interest and availability of Green choices, however, in honor of Earth Day, which has grown to signify
recycling, pollution and energy use, I want to celebrate the Earth’s beauty and the close relationship we all have with correlating colors and emotions to the natural world around us!
It is simple to pick up any paint deck or fabric book and see how we connect a color to the familiarities of our environment. Colors also reflect an inner feeling we have when we apply them to our interiors.
When a we describe blue, is it sky blue or ocean blue?
When we talk about green is it grass green or olive green?
And when we refer to red, is it clay red or rose red?
I bet you all know what color I am referring to when I just say sky, clay or olive!
Are feelings attached to colors?
Of course they are!Sky blue; fresh and cool
Ocean blue; mysterious even tranquil
Grass green; happy, easy going
Olive green; safe.. and hungry!
Red clay; comfortable and warm
And rose red; love and passion.
There is no mystery why we have color annalists around the globe working to prepare the colors for the entire world of merchandise that is presented to us each year in advertising, clothing, furnishings and decor.
There are professional color theory designers, who work on color theory to decorate your home and office to evoke the desired level of energy, assurance and emotion to make a business successful or a home peaceful for each individual personality or group.
You wouldn’t put a hot blooded personality in a warm red environment or wear red to a meeting with them…
…clash, clash, clash…
nor would you use pinks and tranquil colors to wake up a crowd and get them pumped up about the day!!!
If you see me wearing a purple in the shade of
a violet flower or a purple plum…
It’s because I want my client, when they meet me,
to connect their sensible side with their creative side…
it is the color that allows the left and right brain to communicate!!
Have fun this Earth Day and enjoy the colors of your world!!!
Dropping the ASID
Ah Hah!
As you may have noticed, after nine years, I have dropped my professional affiliation with ASID the American Society of Interior Designers, the very association that professed their commitment to build a professional and serious public appreciation and protect the credibility of licensed Interior Designers. The professionals, like me and Katrina, who went to Accredited schools for interior design, who did their years of due diligence with licensed interior design firms and studied hard to pass the NCIDQ,National Council of Interior Design Qualification, to eventually present all this certification to the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design…to become full fledged Interior Designers, to follow through bi-annually with 20 hours of continued education in health, safety and welfare, all to have the right to use the title and to have the right to certify our business; to hold the “sacred” title “Interior Designer.”
Well, well, well….in recent light of a big loss for Interior Designers in Florida, I have decided not to rejoin ASID. I have paid my member ship dues annually, mainly to protect the integrity of our profession. Then it happened, a law suit was created by the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKAB) pleading that it was unfair for them not to be able to advertise members in their association as Interior Designers – They won!
It has recently been deemed “unconstitutional” to reserve the words and title “Interior Designer” to only licensed practitioners. Any one with a “flair” for decorating are now allowed to use this title personally or for their business.
SO, in short, don’t be fooled or trust the title anymore. As you can see I have replaced my ASID affiliation with my actual license numbers. Look for the licensed numbers from the Board of Architecture and Interior Design, as I have presented mine, to confirm that you are using a professional.
Building Biology
Never heard of it? Neither have I, until recently!
In a nutshell it is the environmental health of your home.
Everyone has heard of Feng Shui to achieve good Chi.
Feng Shui is a principal designed to orientate your living quarters to achieve a better life balance.
The problem is, it is thousands of years old,
before electricity and the everyday conveniences we now have in our home that may affect our health.
So instead of “Good Chi”, it’s now “Healthy Home.”
A brief history lesson; we’ve all heard before:
“when I was a kid I used to walk miles to school, up hill in both directions, barefoot, in the snow!—
Do you know how lucky you are!?!”
The point was that our parents and grandparents neve had the luxuries when they were younger as we know and have grown dependent on today. Remember it hasn’t been that long since the Industrial Revolution! It did change the world, everything from transportation to building materials to agriculture. Civilization embraced these changes
and it’s been so great, so convenient, so affordable and so much better than walking barefoot in the snow…
…we should ask: how healthy is it?
We all make our own choices: we try to eat healthy, change some household products and even try a CFL light bulb or two, but we rarely think about our house as having its own “Building Biology”.
The barefoot story was always accompanied by;
“what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”
….then in later years we heard… “everything in moderation”
…and now the saying is…
“less is more!”
(Less chemicals = more healthy)
If you want to improve your building biology for a healthier home, feel free to ask me what changes you can make in your existing house or what good planning tips can be implemented when you decide to build new or remodel.
There are some really easy options you can embrace that would be better for your family’s health and would not have to sacrifice your style.
Decking the Halls
Decking the Halls this Holiday Season?
A little story of Christmas tree lights!
Until the late 19th century candles were the only way to light a Christmas Tree.
There were many experiments to create safe holders, from hoops in the 18th century to counter balanced metal holders and prettily decorated clips in the late 19th century. At the end of the century there were experiments with gas lights (many of which blew up!) Then finally, the first electrically lit tree was created by Edison in America, in the 1880’s. Many people still liked to use traditional candles,
and it was not until after W.W.II that the conversion happened to electrically lit trees. Some of the nicest lights made in America were made in the late 30’s & 40’s
by the General Electric Co. and licensed from Disney, showing Silly Symphonies, Snow White, and later Cinderella etc. There were also Bubble Lights which were little colored glass tubes with an oil inside, which began to bubble as the light heated up.
May your holidays be bright and merry,
you can even try to go green
with LED lights
that use 80% less electricity!