Emotional Design: 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Change Your Decor

House Tour: Dana's Sunny Logan Square Apartment

We were browsing through our complimentary copy of go magazine on an AirTran flight recently and stumbled upon an article titled, Home is Where The Heart Is. The article talks about "Emotional architecture"--the internal system of feelings built by past experiences that make you react to your surroundings in a certain way. We've posted about emotional architecture before on AT and were excited to see this subject repeated in our magazine. Exploring what sort of design we grew up with to what makes us happy now and being able to create that in our living space is amazing. The article posed 5 questions you should answer before changing your decor to help inspire designing a place you'll want to call home.

What feelings do I want to inspire in the various parts of my house? And how can I achieve those feelings?
Where have I been happiest and what elements can I bring from that place?
What elements will be pleasing to me, my spouse, my children and any other occupants? How can we integrate all of our needs and wants and, most of all, our personalities into our home?
Am I creating the type of environment that will welcome me home after a hard day's work? If not, how can I make it a more comforting place?
How do specific colors make me feel? How can I use (or not use) those colors as an additional way to evoke emotion?

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Comments (4)

Thanks for this! I've read a lot about emotional architecture and like these 5 questions as a start.

We're actually about to move cross-country, and I'm going to apply my answers to our new home.

http://embritadesign.blogspot.com

posted by EmmieB on December 2nd 2008 at 8:34pm
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I'm glad the aside "not use" was included in the color question. I think a lot of people concentrate so much on colors they like, that when the space is put together and they don't like it, they get confused. Many time it's because they didn't consider what colors (or color combinations) they don't like and so weren't aware enough to avoid them.

For example, I think red is a pretty color and can look great in certain situations. But I don't want it in my house. It makes me feel restless, and that is the last feeling I want in my home.

posted by Mrs.Mack on December 3rd 2008 at 1:25pm
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Mrs. Mack is absolutely right. I like yellow just fine, but I've never loved a yellow room, and I made the mistake of painting one room in my current apartment a lovely golden shade that doesn't make me happy at all. I can't live without red in a space - really, I feel weirdly lost without red - and I've never felt comfortable in rooms with lots of different colors. I see these rooms that are all over the place colorwise, and they can be beautiful, but they aren't stimulating to me. What really does it for me is a strong wall color or other big color choice, neutral furniture, and a few small touches of one other color. My living room has turquoise walls, lots of dark brown and buff, and a few shots of red. My dining room is a dark peacock-teal, with off-white, dark wood, and a few shots of red. My bedroom is pumpkin orange, with white, dark wood, and a few touches of red. You get the idea. I didn't really intend this, it just turns out to be what makes me feel at home.

posted by pyewacket on December 3rd 2008 at 1:50pm
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Well, I am proud to be the subject of discussion on Apartment Therapy once again. I remember when the book came out a long time ago and I was clear the author was like-minded.

The article referenced here was in Go Magazine. It is still online at http://airtranmagazine.com/contents/2008/11/home-is-where-the-heart-is/

I also blog about this subject and how we use "emotional architecture" in our architecture firm at http://architecture-of-life.blogspot.com/ for those who are interested.

Thanks for passing on this story and the one in the New York Times a while back. I very much appreciate it, especially from Apartment Therapy!

Christopher K. Travis
Sentient Architecture, LLC

posted by Truthtalker on December 14th 2008 at 6:17pm
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