In this blog I want to delve into the senses and how they play out within our homes. It’s vital to have our habitat unique and personal to ourselves. Senses revolve around energy and play a pivotal role in how we feel and where we dwell.
Let’s look at them in an ideal situation in everyday life.
The sense of smell evokes emotion straight away. Dinner is cooking away and you can almost taste it! The scent of the new leather sofa is calling you to sit down.
The sense of touch is in play when you walked down the hallway and ran your fingers along the textured wallpaper. It was soothing. You realise that you were home.
What about the sense of hearing? Can you each other talk? Are you being heard in that space? In my home there is a TV-free zone where I just love sitting with family and friends to simply talk, listen or read and reflect. Perhaps your outdoor room can also too, have this effect for you. This may be your go-to relax zone.
I feel it’s so important to never underestimate the power in believing just how a space can make you feel. Sometimes amounts of style advice can be so overwhelming and frequently the simple fundamentals of human sense and emotion are overlooked.
Let’s go on an example sensory journey now…
Let’s take a young married couple. They are a little short of funds after securing their first home but have budgeted to have the Dining room as their first reno zone and they want a style that reflects who they are.
The reno is completed and they host their first dinner party. They celebrate the beautiful senses of smell and taste here and love the feeling when they touch the new reclaimed teak table because it is textured just like the rug underneath that their guests are happily warming their toes on. It feels great to touch.
With shoes off, there is excitement, laughter, glasses clinking, discussions, debates and so forth all adding to the soundscape.
So, just one room can evoke this sensory journey and we don’t even realise it.
In summary,
Try and consider as much as you can when you are designing your space. Make it feel like you. I believe that we can inhabit areas and zones for a long time or a short time. I have come to learn and to assist my clients with the advice that” If you wish to be in it, then do what you can to love It”.
Big or small, tall or short, wide or narrow, and on and on. For me, design is an endless journey. All you have to do sometimes is stop where you like and love the space that you choose to live in.
In design with love,
Rae x