What makes this room appealing is the balance of prospect and refuge. Huh? Definition after the jump!
Quick! Name 5 must haves in your dream home. If you said separate bedrooms for everyone, a spa bathroom or an eat in kitchen you'd be wrong. According to architect
Grant Hilldebrand, those things are nice touches and great to aspire to but they're not the main event. What is? See his checklist, and our ideas on
how to parrot them in your own home, after the jump...
- Prospect and Refuge: Balance an expansive space, preferably one with a view, with a snug secluded spot. If your home's open plan or your room has a lot of dead spots, this is the answer you've been trying to put your finger on. In your own home, move your furniture around: orient your room to take in the best view and make sure you factor in at least one cozy nook for reading or taking a snooze that lets you survey the rest of the room. Having these two options adds up to an appealing space.
- Enticement: This is the element of surprise. The doorway that leads to another room, the staircase that leads upstairs, the light at the end of the hallway. One way to create this feature is by using colour to lead your eye from one room to another just beyond.
- Peril: This is the characteristic that make us feel in safe and in control. Dramatic views and balconies are two examples of peril. So too is an apartment on a high floor. If your home has neither, just heightening the contrast between of a safe indoors with the wild outdoors can bring this odd characteristic into your home.
- Complex Order: Variety and a bit of chaos appeal to us more than cookie cutter sameness. Books, pillows, and knickknacks in a home appeal to us as long as they don't spiral out of control. So bring out your collections and share them with the world.
Stephanie and Bob's Silverridge Sanctuary
Ah, architect-speak. Gotta love it.
view patrick (the other one)'s profile
that's really interesting. i've been working on the refuge one.
view mariegael's profile
I like the "bit of chaos", Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen one left a pair of heels as part of the decor of a room, as a statement of "Hi, these are my shoes (His client, not his!) and I live here and this is my pretty clutter"
view La loca's profile
Interesting. My first thought qualifies as refuge: a comfy couch looking out a window. My second thought was a hot-pot to make tea. My third was my hubby and baby. Maybe the last qualifies as enticement-peril-complex order... :)
view alinia's profile
This man doesn't live in a house with 2 potty training boys and a husband that doesn't know how to flush a toilet (would this be my peril?)
What I need is a second bathroom (and a walk in closet would be nice... a kitchen big enough for a dishwasher...)
view tchochkes's profile
>Balance an expansive space
If only I had expansive space... this would be a great thing to do with it. :)
Good advice though... especially about the "Peril" factor.
view Pete's profile
I tried to name them before the jump... I got the refuge and the complex order.
How to apply this to own place? Hmmm...
Prospect: Must open shades to outside to expand space (ie. clean balcony of potting etceteras so not eyesore). Art to draw eye to high ceiling as up is the only way to expand within the living room.
Refuge: sofa, check, cat cushions, check, place to put cup of tea... eh, well...
Enticement: Perhaps something cool visible from the bedroom through the hall. Will my new nightstand be visible? Who knows, I have to wait till the contracters put the wall back on (Ike water damage) so I can put my stuff back in the bedroom
Peril: View of rooftops (again, must clean balcony - ahh!)
Complex order: uhhh, need to bring order to my complexity. Donate some books, move pots to mantle, again requires wall to be fixed first
view whytephoenix's profile
I need to work on the peril aspect....perhaps I will leave the vacuum at the top of the stairs, to add that bit of danger!
The rest makes sense...I'm working on that complex order right now....I've been a minimalist and its starting to feel dull and cold.
view LaurieLu's profile
Puh-leeze.
Prospect? Yeah, if you're not in an apartment in which every window faces an air shaft. And peril? "Wild outdoors"? Well, I guess if big city noise and pollution (don't get me wrong--I love it!) qualifies...
Frankly, I hate this kind of pontificating. It starts out with no sense of the limits that most people have in their homes (and finances). Give me something inspiring that's a bit more universal, please...and that can fit my pocketbook!
view lag's profile
i don't think this is a nutty as it sounds. it'd be good if there were better examples to show how this academic like break down of spaces could work.
but really this much more applies to architecture than it does interior design. i think it helps understand how a space should be organized. for all intensive purposes my unit follows this nearly to an absolute t and there was a natural attraction to the space that i couldn't put my finger on.
view pinstripeprincess's profile