When was the last time you felt joy?
We recently took a family vacation to Yosemite, King's Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks. We stayed in a lovely condo near a small resort lake. Before venturing into the bigger parks, we decided to spend a day playing in the water. We rented a motor boat (it wasn't a "speed" boat because the lake wasn't big enough for high-powered watecraft) and spent several hours pulling the kids around on a tube. The weather was absolutely perfect--not too hot, not too cold. All the kids were having a great time and nobody was fighting. My husband and I were laid back and not stressed. As I was basking in the sun, enjoying the wind in my face, it hit me-- I was feeling JOY. I marveled at it for a moment, because the recognition of that feeling made me realize just how rarely I had felt it lately.
Since then, as I have thought back to that moment, I have wondered what I could do to bring joy into my life more often. What is it that brings us joy, anyway? Sure, there are those special once-in-a-blue-moon milestones of our lives--weddings, new babies, reunions with old friends--that can bring us those intense feelings of happiness. But is there a way to have those feelings on a more regular, even daily basis? Can we find it in the world we see around us every day?
Then today, a design blogger I follow shared this TED talk, and it reminded me of something I used to think about a lot when I was in design school: we are strongly influenced on an emotional and psychological level by the colors and shapes and textures that we are surrounded by. Ingrid Fetell Lee describes how she has spent years exploring the concept of what brings us joy. Take a minute (or thirteen) and have a listen:
Just look at some of the before-and-after photo examples she shared of schools, offices, hospitals, and alleyways whose mood has been completely changed merely by adding some color to them. A little thought and planning and a coat of paint, and now there is joy in places there wasn't before.
So if our environment can bring us more joy, what is the most important place we should make changes to so that we can feel more joy on a regular basis? Where do we spend most of our time? For most of us, that would be our home. Even if you are a workaholic and spend more time at the office than you do at home, it is important to have a landing space that makes us feel comfortable, secure, and recharged. It is important to have the colors, objects, arrangements, and mementos that surround us daily be ones that bring positive energy and feelings into our lives.
I remember years ago, when I was a stay-at-home mom who hadn't yet dreamed of going back to school, much less becoming an interior designer, that I instinctively felt that yearning for spaces that were emotionally uplifting. I can't even remember what the project was now--painting a room, or decorating a wall, or rearranging furniture--and it was taking some time to get it just to my liking. My husband, impatient with the process, asked when I would know when I had finally gotten it right. I answered, "I will know because it will make me happy when I look at it."
It's true; I literally get a physical burst of joy when I see something beautiful. The recognition of that emotional connection to our surroundings and my own innate desire to create beauty that would have a meaningful impact on people's lives is what inspired me to become an interior designer. Elsie de Wolfe, the woman recognized as being the first professional interior designer, is known for saying, "I am going to make everything around me beautiful--that will be my life!" (a life goal shared by most of the interior design profession!)
Of course, beauty doesn't mean the same thing to all people. I often remind myself interior design is subjective--no one style, color, or collection of objects is inherently better than another, except as it gives its owner happiness. BUT--there are tried and true, expertly studied interior design methods that I can share with you that will help you define the things that make you happy and find practical ways to implement them in your home. I am there to provide color assistance, product knowledge, decor resources, communicative plans, project management, and design inspiration. If you don't love your home, I can help you figure out why, and how to improve it. Together, we'll create a home that brings you joy every time you step in the door.