What’s currently on my Nightstand?
The Architecture of Happiness, written by Alain de Botton. It’s a book that was recommended to me (and to a room full of designers at a recent seminar I attended) by the wonderful Kate Marker from Kate Marker Interiors. If she was reading and recommending it, then I knew I had to check it out, and I’m so glad I did! The opening quote on the inside cover reads: “One of the great but often unmentioned causes of happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kinds of walls, chairs, buildings and streets that surround us. And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent.” This quote speaks to me and captures my feelings (and frustrations) about interior design and this career I chose so long ago. Good design is not just about high budgets and the latest trends - it’s about creating a safe and functional space to thrive in.
Since I was little, I instinctively knew that the environments we lived in and were surrounded by affected our moods and overall happiness. My mom and Aunt lovingly joke about a time when I was five years old that I laid scarves over the tops of the living room lamp shades “to set the mood”. Inspired by my Mom’s eye for beauty and talent for creating a cozy and safe environment that we thrived in, I carried that with me, creating coziness in my home and on every one of my client projects.
Every space is different but one thing should be constant: your home should be your sanctuary, a place that when you’re not there, you can’t wait to get back to it. An ever-evolving nest of things that inspire you and spark beautiful memories. That’s what home should be and it’s my joy and honor to help create that for other people.
“We need a home in the psychological sense as much as we need one in the physical: to compensate for a vulnerability. We need a refuge to shore up our states of mind, because so much of the world is opposed to our allegiances. We need our rooms to align us to desirable versions of ourselves and to keep alive the important, evanescent sides of us.”
THANK YOU FOR READING!
