Behind Glass
Designing Your Home In the Digital World
We’ve really embraced the Digital World this past year. It’s been our Captain Marvel helping us keep life on track from behind the screens. If anything, we’ve discovered how essential it is in modern life, and once this pandemic is over, we're going to leverage it even more. All from behind glass screens on our digital devices.
The digital era of home design is upon us! Consumer interest in interior design products and services has - sorry, apologizing in advance - gone through the roof. There are virtual home tours, HGTV, designer Instagram and Facebook pages, and influencers to follow. We have access to websites with everything we could possibly imagine for our home, and the search engines and algorithms to find it for us. Vendors are open 24/7 and offer free shipping. It’s never been easier to click and buy. Any chance you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all?
Why do the photos and videos make putting together a great-looking room look so easy?
How do you know if one thing goes with that other?
Why doesn’t it look as good in your home as it did in the picture?
If you’re feeling somewhat frustrated and unfulfilled after hours of surfing and pinning and watching HGTV, and your home is still not what you want it to be, I offer the following perspective; For all its power and amazing virtuosity, the Digital World can’t design your home. The internet simply has limited information. Too much reliance on the internet for home design is even driving bad design.
Let me explain. . .
Your experience of glossy magazine photos, videos, and digital images are all 2-dimensional. A vast, but limited experience. Lots of possibilities, trends, pretty pictures and amazing products, all with algorithms seeming just right for you. But not much about these 2D experiences, at least in my book, is personal. Even CAD drawings and virtual imaging tools take reality only so far.
From the other side of the glass, you don’t know what the chair is really like to sit in, what the fabric really feels like, colors and textures vary. Images and videos may tell 1000+ words, but there’s no substitute for the real experiences, especially in our homes.
Homes are multi-dimensional, real experiences, not just trendy furniture and paint colors.
Homes are crafted out of rituals and routines, who you are and who you share your life with. Your home reflects how you’re wired and so many other unique qualities you bring to the table.
So as helpful as 2D imaging can be, well, they’re kind of like hugging your mother on Zoom -the thought is there, but not the warmth of a real embrace. When designing a home from behind glass - that is, with too much reliance on the internet for products and ideas - design gets pretty flat, just like the Zoom hug.
Adding more dimension and experience to the process of creating your home reaps enormous benefits.
Certainly, make use of the tools and resources the Digital World has to offer. Then go off-line. Make decisions with real samples in your actual space. Go to stores, sit down and test drive. Visit some art galleries and museums. Assess the things you have and what you love the most. Gradually your home will evolve and your style will become so much more than any algorithm that previously caught your attention.
A real human can help you with this process - I’m one of them and I’d love to help you! You don’t have to create a home all by yourself. Thanks to the internet, I’m just a click away. Let’s connect.