NOTES ON VISION
The most beautiful visions have nothing to do with sight.
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I’ve been asked to write an article on vision for a lifestyle magazine. I imagine the content expectation sounds something like this:
Integrating the top 2024 design trends into your spaces.
How to resource Pinterest and Instagram to create a beautiful life.
My approach couldn’t be more different than this.
It’s easy to get caught up in the idea that designing a home is an exercise best accomplished from the outside looking in. In truth, Vision is not the masterful assembly of elements in a room but something else entirely; that is, the manifestation of what is longed for in the heart.
What do you long for?
Such an overwhelming question for most of us. But why? Because it demands the admission that something important is missing in our lives.
In the Journal entry, This Longing, I wrote—
From a woman who has made a career of surrounding clients with beautiful things, comes the revelation that the fulfillment of all we long for lies in something more felt than seen.
It’s extraordinary and then again not so surprising at all, that the disposition of our spaces is nearly always in alignment with the condition of our hearts—
Closed off or wide open
Dark and sultry or filled with light
More interested in impressing than engaging
Restrained or full of energy and life
Through our fascination with images of “perfect spaces,” we have inadvertently subjugated all other sensory perceptions to sight.
But life is a fully immersive experience—
of the smell of fresh-baked cookies in welcoming kitchens,
the touch of tiny toes wiggling under softest linen sheets,
sounds of laughter drifting down galleried hallways,
speaking intimate conversations bathed in the glow of morning’s light.
Vision, it seems, starts not with conceiving how a space will look but how it will live.
When I was a little girl, we weren’t allowed to sit on the living room couch. Except for rare occasions like elegant parties or a solemn celebration of Christmas eve, this largest of furniture pieces existed for the sole purpose of being gazed upon and admired. But then there were the secret nights when I would climb out of bed and sit at the edge of that forbidden room and imagine myself nested amongst the pillows, experiencing a sense of belonging in the spaces of my childhood that I rarely felt.
I am known for saying that the most beautiful design makes a way for love. Does your sanctuary put this sentiment first?
The seamless flow we crave has less to do with color, texture, and light than it does with a kind of energy that transcends the tangible manifestations of ourselves.
If you’re wondering how to harness what seems to be some elusive quality, start here—
By imagining what the humans you adore are doing in the room.
Then trace that breathtaking vision to weave the colors of you into every corner.
Design is never distant and objective but intimate and as personal as it gets. It demands that we examine [first] the interiors inside of us. This is why design [done right] is just so emotionally intense—not only the result, but the process of going through.
The end of us should not be measured by how far we can reach, but in the depth and breadth of the love we infuse in what we touch.
NOTES:
Old habits die hard. While writing this I realized that I’ve never sat on our sofa downstairs.
That’s where the photo comes in…I mean, let’s be scandalous and throw the pillows and invite Steve up while we’re working of the idea of being totally free! This is what I long for…
What about you?
Not all of what we sense is missing can be manifested within the home. But our sanctuaries are the first place to start.
Sometimes the best way to answer the question of what we long for, is to be clear about what we don’t want—
Wasted, meaningless space that we never enjoy,
A permeating chaos that holds us back from inviting others in.
It goes both ways. The trick is to strike the balance between beautiful place, beautiful life.
You get the idea. And if you don’t, I’m right here.
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