Perfect design - how do you like it?

We have seen a lot of beautiful houses for which one would say without hesitation - I wish I lived there! But after carefully looking through all the perfectly designed rooms on the perfectly professionaly made photos you suddenly have a feeling of cold and lonelyness. Or not?
Have a look at one great house with perfect design:

Kew Home Renovation by Canny Design, Photos: Derek Swalwell & Gerard Warrener, source

I definitely like the design and the way one looks to the pool from the dining table and the living room. And the perfectly coordinated colours, materials and beautiful designer furniture. I like the art chosen and the way it unites all the elements of the interior design.

I like very much how life is organized to flow easily from inside out and back again.
But this beautiful seamless design somehow makes me think - does this large empty space exude happiness?
 

What do you think?

Art is the great final touch

that makes a space unforgettable and charming. Art is also the necessary element that can unite all the other elements of an interior design project and gives it a character. And when the interior designer works together with the owners to achieve that, then the result is undoubtly the best. That was what I thought when I saw the photos of this beautiful Contemporary Ranch Style Residence:

Of course, we have to admit that the result would not have been the same without the great work of  Stephen Moser Architect - the building itself is a wonderful background for displaying all those artefacts and beautiful furniture as part of the overall interior design solutions.
I would definitely like to live in such a house - what about you?

Outstanding interior design solutions

 Literally! I am impressed with this clever design solution - a wonderful way of use of the available space:




That's my working place ;) - I would love to work there!
Design:  Studiota/Beppe Giadino




Although the stairs seem a little scary from above:


 source

Everyone deserves good design

And that is why designer is a great profession! It is not just about creating beautiful things, it has much more deeper value and you should listen to the John Cary's commencement address delivered on May 10, 2013 to the graduates of the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning to understand it better. It is about design and its transformative power to the public. 

Here below is part of it with which I deeply agree:

"Everyone deserves good design. I feel that in my bones. Right now, however, the vast majority of design services are reserved exclusively for people that can afford them—which is to say, almost no one. In fact, the people that could most benefit from design rarely have access to it—your cousin, a homeless veteran; your grandma or grandpa with a kitchen that’s no longer accessible to them; your wheelchair-bound sister in a suburban area planned without sidewalks.

We use words like “function” and “form” to describe design, but I’ve come to believe it’s about something deeper. It’s about dignity. You see, dignity is something design can achieve in ways nothing else can. Dignity is a kid learning in a colorful classroom that makes him feel valued and piques his curiosity. Dignity is a cancer patient in a light-filled hospital room with lots of natural airflow to support her healing. Dignity is a community where the young and old alike have safe public spaces to mingle, celebrate, and play. 

Dignity is to the public interest design field what justice is to the more established field of public interest law. In the simplest of terms, for me it’s about knowing your intrinsic worth and seeing that worth reflected in the places you live and work, the products you use, and the systems and services you rely on....

 Your most fundamental mission as designers is not to make beautiful buildings or pretty objects. It’s not even to plan roads or parks or public spaces. Those are outcomes, at best. Your shared mission, instead, is to return design back to its rightful place in the public domain. It is to not just talk about the importance of diversity and dignity, but to live it every single day in your practice. 

Look at your families who have joined you here today. Look at the friends who have come to celebrate your achievement. If design doesn’t touch their lives, what good is it? Make design part of their possible. This will not only create design that is dignifying, but it will also dignify the practice of design for all of us. It will not only diversify and expand the client base of design, it will create new, more diverse forms of design. More than anything, the act of design is a chance for you all to raise people’s expectations about what they deserve—and imagine the satisfaction of doing that for the family and friends you love most."

More on the theme of design and its role in my earlier posts.

A garden to dream for!

It is not only the strong pink color that makes this garden so spectacular - it is the whole design! Congratulations for garden designer Stuart Craine - probably this is the best possible makeover of a tricky plot. But this work is also a great answer to a question often asked by owners - why to use a designer?

"The garden is east-facing and surrounded by three-storey terraced houses. When Craine was called in, it was dark and damp, with shallow, dilapidated brick steps, slimy with growth, that spanned the width of the space in an unrelenting climb to 2m above base. The view from inside must have been grim.
"The key was in making the garden relate to the interior, maximising the space, while managing the level change so it didn't eat up half the garden," Craine says. The house was in the process of being renovated, so he was able to liaise with the builders,..."

This is an excerpt  from the article in Guardian and it shows the advantages that a professional designer service can provide, both in garden design and in interior design. Enjoy!

Trendoffice is listed in “Top 100 Interior Design Blogs”

I am so pleased to let you know that my blog has been included in the list of
“Top 100 Interior Design Blogs” in an article by Amy Cook from Graphic Design Degrees"!

Thank you, Amy, for estimating what I am doing and properly describing what exactly makes my blog special:

"73. Trendoffice : As the name implies, Trendoffice focuses almost exclusively on new movements, motions, and ideas that crop up in the interior design industry."

Be sure to check this list - it is a great resource for anyone interested or working in the area of interior design!

See your product here

Interior Designers Help Homeowners Discover Styles

If you are not sure why you may need an interior designer or what this service will cost you, go read the article with this title on  NYTimes.com.

"Cost and the fear of paying high fees are the main reasons why consumers shy away from designers, but professionals say not hiring them can also be expensive. ''We save money because we know what works and what doesn't work. Typically a designer doesn't make mistakes. A good designer can work with a reasonable budget and will be able to tell you approximately how much a project is going to cost and can offer you, if needed, low, medium and high end choices''."

It shows also something many clients forget - what are the advantages of hiring a designer to help you with your own home furnishing dilemmas instead of using the free design services offered usually by furniture retailers - "However, typically consumers pay the full retail price and are limited to the merchandise carried by the stores."
Other very useful information you can find in this article:  what  generally the design process involves, tips to working with a designer or decorator, fees and low-cost alternatives. And finally, something I would always like to tell customers:
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Web sites are a good way to view portfolios, but remember that the looks displayed often represent the clients', rather than the designer's, style.

 More on the role of the interior designer in one of my earliest posts: Design Versus Decoration.

Design Your Life

What is design? And why is it so important? Not a new question, but the answers are so many. We already know that design is about much more than what’s bought at high-end stores or the modern look at IKEA, but what exactly? Design is critical thinking: a way to look at the world and wonder why things work, and why they don’t.
Using humor and insight leading design thinker Ellen Lupton and her twin sister Julia Lupton in their new book Design Your Life explore the practical side of everyday design, looking at how it impacts your life in unexpected ways and what you can do about it. Speaking to the popular interest in design as well as people’s desire to make their own way through a mass-produced world, the book takes a fresh and humorous approach to make some serious points about the impact of design on our lives.



Taking a fresh, funny look at parenthood, housekeeping, entertaining, time management, crafting, and more Design Your Life shows you how to evaluate the things you use, and how to recognize forms of order that secretly inhabit the messes of daily life, be it a cluttered room or a busy schedule. Using the book you can gain control over your environment and tap into the power of design to communicate with friends, family, and the world.

There is one short description of design that I like very much: design is communication. Why? Ellen Lupton explains it very clearly in her blog Design Your Life.

Another Great Shop Design - Camper, Paris by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

I find that the Bouroullec brothers have a passion for textile. After the Quilt ­ 2009 and the Clouds ­ 2008 projects now they have found a way to use a very domestic textile product in a shoe shop design - "backstitched blankets that partially cover the walls and certain furniture and décor
elements". At the same time they are used as a background where to hang, like in an exhibit, the famous brand Camper shoes. As the designers explain, "...we tried to create a space that was both evident and surprising,a space able to produce special sensations: the red adds warmth, the cloths muffle sounds and give depth and the household furniture confers an air of simplicity."
This comfortable store, located in the impressive Centre Pompidou in Paris, joins the other two spaces that Camper already has in this city.
Great color scheme, simplicity together with coziness and elegance - that is what an interior design should be about, even in a shoe store. I like it!

This shop could be looked at as an example of male-designer's approach to shoe shop design. We have seen what a female-designer's approach is with Urquiola's Shoe Shop Like Cosy, Comfortable Bedrooms.
With this project Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec again prove to be not only part of the group of the most influential contemporary product designers, but also great interior designers, too. I am a fan of their office design, too - they have a considerable contribution to make the office environment cosy and comfortable.

sources: Dezeen

Camper Together

Новият магазин на известната марка за обувки Camper в Париж, трети подред, е дело на братята Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec. Интересен похват - за фон за показване на обувките дизайнерите широко използват текстил в красиво съчетание на различни оттенъци на топлата гама на цветното колело от цикламено до жълто с баланс от малко зелено. Друг необичаен елемент - мебелите, които са използвани, са проектирани за домашен интериор - още един начин магазинът да има приятна и уютна атмосфера.

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To be or not to be....or...to hire or not to hire an interior designer

Design Versus Decoration - this is a debate of long standing and still continuing. It was the theme of one of my first posts here in this blog in October 2005. So much time has passed and it seems that the profession of interior designer needs still to be explained.

"In my experience the profession of “interior designer” is all too frequently misunderstood or misinterpreted and often confused with interior decoration. “Oh, you must come and help me choose my curtains!”"
"Interior design is a service profession. It revolves around the client and his requirements, not the designer and his creations (only few ever reach that status!)."

The quotes are from a great article, written by a fellow colleague Paromita Sanatani, BA Hons Three Dimensional (Interior) Design, which describes perfectly in Nuts and bolts (The portal for expats and foreigners living in Bulgaria) all the problems and difficulties we meet as interior designers:

"The thought of creating a space that is a practical and aesthetically pleasing environment, enhancing the quality of life of those that use the space, is as valid today as then, for my reasons to become an interior designer. Not all designers are necessarily motivated by the same aims and, unfortunately, one is not always given the option to choose the type of project to work on. Once in a niche it is hard to move on as employers want you for your experience in that niche.
In many ways the profession continues to suffer a confused identity. Often presented as over the top, shrill, loud and extrovertly camp (in the case of men) they seem preoccupied with creating monuments to themselves, which may look spectacular in the glossy magazine pages, but are completely impractical for moving around and living in.
I will never forget how shocked I was, when I was introduced to someone for the first time and they enquired as to my profession. “Oh, I think interior designers are a load of rubbish” came the convinced reply. Needless to say this person was in no doubt that anything a designer could do – he could do better!
From the chairman’s wife to a senior accounting partner, everyone thinks they know better than an interior designer. Why, because they have decorated their own home to their own satisfaction?

I can’t quite help but wonder why I spent three years studying at college to get my degree? Oh yes, ergonomics, structures, materials, history of architecture, space planning are just a few of the topics that come to mind…
Even our closest colleagues, the architects, can often be dismissive of our existence although most of my professional career was spent working hand in hand on large scale projects such as corporate offices, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, cruise liners and so on. Designers are essential on these projects as they can focus on spaces in greater detail and propose a generic approach to the ultimate selection of colours and finishes.

She gives a look at what interior designers really can do for you:

"a designer will not only be able to come up with practical and creative solutions but will also have a good knowledge of the local market i.e. availability of furniture and finishes, sourcing of craftsmen and materials. He/ she can take the headache out of the process. It’s a bit like getting an accountant to do your tax return or doing it yourself – without the creative bit if you get what I mean!"

I will only add: a designer can save you both - time and money for correcting badly planned spaces, bad choices of colors and materials or construction mistakes that untrained eye can miss to notice.
It is really satisfying when a professional recommends you. Thank you, Paromita, for recommending my services!

Paromita Sanatani currently applies her creative talents as publisher and editor-in-chief of Sofia - the insider's guide - the leading English-language companion for foreign visitors to Bulgaria's capital since Spring 2003.