Illustration By @Kampeck_ink
Apple Music/Itunes obviously made trillions by creating a device that would allow you to create playlists and a personal soundtrack to your life. What if you could make your space emulate your favorite film genre or a moment in history? A lot of people look at magazines and decor sites for inspiration or ask that friend “where did you get that” but in a way this is a lost opportunity. Sure, maybe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but why not think bigger. Ask yourself how your space can help you live the movie you want to see, designing for yourself as the main actor?
I am not talking about “decorating” i.e. painting your walls blue to live in the ocean, or sticking up a bunch of sombreros and ten gallon hats over your fireplace mantel to emulate a spaghetti western. I am talking about modifying the bones of your space to help you move through it as if it's the perfect set for your personal plotlines.
When you look at a bunch of online vendors and portfolio boards it can be hard to tap into your own inner themes. Think of it like seeing the movie before reading the book. If you read the book first you might form your own concept of what the characters and milieu looks like. If you watch the movie first it can be hard to tamp down that image of Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Keria Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett, Marlon Brando as The Godfather etc. So if you have a project in mind, give yourself license to mine your own imagery first. How do you do this?
You Can Look at Actual Set Design from Film and TV | Example | Black Mirror
Let’s say you are hoping to build an outdoor retreat. You could look at a lot of gazebos online and pick something with more than 50 thumbs up or you could first think about the type of experience you would like to have outside. Sometimes your favorite shows can tap into private psychology. For example, one of my favorite Netflix series is Black Mirror. While most of the series can be exemplified by a feeling of claustrophobia - people riding exercise bikes in windowless spaces to power the world for example - there is also the Season Five, Episode 2 “Smithereens” where a ride share driver kidnaps a hostage from a social media company as leverage to gain a private audience with the company’s founder. The founder, in stereotypical fashion, is on a silent retreat – in “Furnace Valley, Utah” meditating in an outdoor cabana,
Maybe you can’t bring the hoodoo rocks of Bryce National Park to your backyard but you could build your version of the ramada space the founder uses for his retreat. An outdoor gazebo kit, the plant palette of your choice, canvas curtains that are outdoor rated, and tie backs, are all the ingredients you need for this to happen. Now you are scanning the web for elements that match the image in your own mind vs. channel surfing until you find something that appeals to you. Your dystopia may become a utopia overnight.
You Can Read History | Example | Ancient Rome
What else can you do for inspiration? Some of us like to time travel. While futurism is always trendy, the past can also inspire. Certainly the Moveable Feast of 1920s Paris or the landscapes that Lewis and Clark encountered come to mind. Time to dig into those history books!
For me, the Classical Greek and Roman periods ring out as a Golden Age. If you’re like me you won’t leave the Classics simply in the hands of decorators who will scroll and papyrus you to death and revamp your living room merely with soft seating stamped with Greek keys. Remember these are the people who built the Pantheon, invented concrete, and created widespread aqueduct systems.
Take the Ancient Rome version of the public bath. Archeologists have discovered the remnants of ancient baths attached to country villas and fortresses. They were very clearly organized. The system had a minimum of three pools: a cold room, a medium hot room(tepiderium), and a very hot room(calederium). If you were rich, you’d show up with your slave, get rubbed with olive oil, use the exercise yard (a remnant of Greek culture) then go to the medium hot room where other slaves would use an instrument called as strigel (get ready to be grossed out) to scrape the sweat off your body and flick it onto the walls where it could be used later for ointments. After that you would enter the hot room, enjoy wine and food, return through the medium hot room, to the cool room for revival.
Exciting yes? Well most of us do not have the real estate to replicate this series of rooms. ( I suppose one could leave the bathroom for the garage, jump rope and punch a bag, and then return to the bathroom to shower off but the feeling may not be the same). What can we do? We could think creatively about the approach of “zones” for bathing. Perhaps if you are laying down radiant floor heat you could leave a space of the bathroom unheated such as when you walk in, to simulate the small jolt Romans would get from the “cold pool.” Maybe you will put a seat in your shower area where more than one person can sit in lieu of a tub. One tile setter I know has a client who asked him to build a niche lower down, around two feet off the floor, so the client would have a little crook to rest her foot while she shaves her legs. Maybe you could design a shower with a rainshower head at one end and a hand held spray at the other to give you an opportunity to move through space for various heated water experiences. Let your mind wander.
Obviously not all the Romans were rich enough to enjoy the Baths. The Romans also provided individual “hip baths” where one could enjoy a solo bathing experience enhanced by a slave pouring water over your body. (Even if you can’t find a slave within paging distance, you can buy your own water pitcher for under five dollars no doubt.
You Can Build a Mood | Example | Film Noir
Sometimes the best visual inspiration can come from words. Did you know that novelist Thomas Hardy studied as an architect? This may be why he was so adept at describing place.
How about this, which sounds like it could have been written by a designer?
“Within a week, the Baragon masnion looked as though it ahd been hit by bombs. The main idea of the alterations, which were under the supervision of Monty, was to restore what had been a pleasant house to what it had been before it was transformed into a small but hideous mansion. To that end, the porticoes were torn off, the iron dogs removed, the palm trees grubbed up, so the original grove of live oaks was left as it had been, without tropical incogruities. What remained, after all this hacking was so much reduced in size that Mildred suddenly began to feel some sense of identity with it. When the place as it would be began to emerge from the scaffolding, when the yellow paint had been burned off with torches and replaced with a soft white wash, when green shutters were in place, when a small, friendly entrance had taken the place of the former Monticello effect, she began to fall in love with it, and could hardly wait until it was finished.”
This is from Mildred Pierce written by the great James M. Cain probably best known for The Postman Always Rings Twice. Murder, money, femme fatales…
And this?
“The main hallway of the Sternood Place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. Beyond the garage were some decorative trees trimmed as carefully as poodle dogs.”
This is Raymond Chandler, from The Big Sleep. Like Cain, of the 1940s Film Noir era.
Perhaps you want to live in a space that slows down, takes its time with a proverbial cigarette, relishes the dark as well as the light.
How do you do this? Start with some thinking and walking and experimenting. Most of film noir is associated with light and dark so why not walk around your city, analyze the way light can direct your mood. Here are some I found that made me feel like I was in a film noir movie.(Note, sometimes using the black and white filter on camera can help you identify shadows, and from there, the direction that the light is coming from.
So then what do you do with your space to have your lighting create these moments?
Could be as simple as trading out your light switches. Most designers will tell you that every switch should be on a dimmer (although my electrician insists that all stairway switches should be on a single pole switch without a dimmer... good point). Certainly dimmers set mood. But the shape of the beam and the spacing of the lights could also create the effect that you are looking for by creating “pools of light.” Perhaps you could rig the hallway lighting leading to the master bedroom with recessed cans but also sconces. This gives you the option of having direct light to illuminate your path of travel when you need it as well as moodier light that simulates streetlamps on your way to a hotel. (And make sure you have switches on both ends of your hallway so you can get rid of everything as you go.) The lighting industry actually calls these lighting schemes “scenes” so you can have a controller that will give you various fixture groups to light up as needed. Scene One might be Ceiling Light + Sconce Light. Scene Two might be Sconce Light only plus Bedroom Nightstand Lights.
There is a reason they are already called “scenes.” Have fun with it. Start using that camera in your phone for something other than selfies.