Becoming Home | Step Three

series

Feb 21

It was in a coffee shop that we were first introduced a couple years ago. There we stood, on the fringe of the bustling room, chatting about the upcoming mountain festival where he'd be mountain bike racing, and where I'd trail raced a couple years running. Soon, the conversation turned to his home (as it often does when people find out what I do) and its setting - an original homestead along a creek bottom outside of town. Hearing him describe it, I could immediately tell he was taken with the place, a love only deepened by his nearly twenty years of living there.

It was only a few minutes' worth of conversation that day, but he'd relayed enough about his life and lifestyle that, when he contacted me recently about beginning a home renovation, I already had a starting point.

For me, creating home isn't about putting pretty things together in a room; it's about creating a sanctuary that speaks the language and lifestyle of the person (or people) who lives there. It's about sparking the synergy that happens when the essence of you is written in the dimensional language of fabric, wood, glass, metal, and stone; the intangible interpreted in a tangible way. Deeply resonating, honest, good.

If I were to create a space for living without first understanding the people who live there, I would have missed the whole point. To aid in this understanding, and translate it into a language between my clients and I, I craft a lifestyle board. It's a collection of photos that describe, without words, the essence of the person I'm designing for. It's the twin step to the sort of gathering I described in the last installment of Becoming Home, and just as important. One collection of images defines your taste and style in interiors, the other defines you. Both are equally valuable and will inform you more than you may have thought possible.