Our homes are always in a state of change.
It can happen slowly, frequently, suddenly, and in stages - planned, or unplanned. It ages. We care and maintain. We assemble and disassemble. We demolish and build anew or renewed. While spring and summer are the high points of the year when these renovations and redesigns occur, we often consider and plan for changes throughout the fall and winter.
With that in mind, what are some concepts and approaches to reflect on our current spaces? Below are some prompts and tips to consider, whether “home” is currently a house, apartment, ADU, a converted garage, or a partitioned living room. As designers, we think about these topics often in client visits, space planning, and in our own home lives. As a manufacturer, we even put these considerations into practice in our use of the workshop floor.
Flow: Personal Reflection
- How do you move from one area of your home to the next on an average day? Consider your “hot spots” and your walking path in the home from the moment you get up to the time you go to bed.
- What paths do you take when you get ready to leave your home versus arriving back?
- Think about your daily functions versus the ones you do weekly or monthly. Which routines are seamless versus disrupted experiences? What recurringly hinders a smooth use of your space?
- Consider annoyances big or small, and make incremental plans to improve your experience.
- Upon reflection, you may be surprised that even the tiniest functional changes can make a significant improvement to your day, be it through time and/or emotions!
Comfort: Multiple Senses
- In all the spaces of your home, where do you find the most comfort? Why?
- Is there a space that is NOT comfortable in your routines? What do you dislike about it?
- When evaluating “comfort”, think about multiple senses. For example, sound is often an underappreciated design consideration when it comes to residential spaces. In some cases, color may be impeding your ability to relax – and on the other hand, color could be impacting your ability to feel energized!
- Identify comfort disruptors. Which ones can be physically moved, removed, contained?
- Review who uses the space: is it just for you, family members, visitors? Whether used more often during the day or night, brainstorm ways that small or large changes might improve overall comfort for different people in your home circle.
Space: Positive & Negative Distribution
- Which environments in your home feel open and spacious? On the flip side, do any feel crowded?
- Brainstorm what elements contribute to this feeling. You might feel crowded because of a tight walkway, or perhaps because many things at eye level are competing for attention from different parts of a room.
- Drawing the eye from floor to ceiling throughout the space, do you like the distribution of objects vertically? For example, are there a lot of objects below the waist, and very few above? Evaluate what you like or don’t like about the presence and density of objects and fixtures throughout the space.
Many of these considerations work together to impact our home experiences. It’s worth asking these questions and allowing yourself and/or your family unit the space and time to form and develop opinions. Nothing needs to change right away when you work through questions like these. More time might just allow those tech algorithms to serve up ideas to solve your frustrations – we can’t promise they will be helpful though.
We’re putting together a printable worksheet set that you can use to brainstorm the above… Check back for an update in a few days!
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Mahalo for being a part of our world here at JOHI. We are always grateful to be a part of yours.
Post by Holly Apau Badr-El-Din • President & Co-Lead
