What Is Your Concept of "Home"?

Irwin Weiner ASID - Most of us take for granted what "home" is. I've known people who have lost their homes due to foreclosure and eviction, and it's a life-wrenching experience. I was intrigued by this National Film Board of Canada video from Montreal focusing on four different home experiences, all in rehabbed buildings. Is "home" where many people can live together in community - yet have their own space or territory? Are we drawn to a building because we love it enough to want to save it? Is "home" where the heart is, or is it merely a roof over our heads as we go about everyday living ... and in some cases, aiming just for baseline survival?

This video got me thinking about my own concept of home. It's not always about professionally decorated spaces. It's not always about our mid-century, romantic notions of home and the nuclear family. Sometimes "home" is about found furnishings and salvaged goods; it's about relationships between people; it's about what you can afford; it's about choosing (if you're fortunate enough to have the means to choose) between something new and something old; and it's about bringing your personality and your essence into any space. My thoughts are with you and your families today, and hoping that your home - whatever and wherever it might be - is a happy, productive, and nurturing place.  

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258-Square-Foot Apartment in Former Pigeon Coop

 

Irwin Weiner ASID - I'm all for turning wasted space into something comfortable and livable - but a pigeon coop? Literally perched on top of a Barcelona building, this tiny space was reclaimed by Austrian photographer Christian Schallert, and architect Barbara Appolloni shows how his apartment "works" in the following video. The space was inspired by the ingenuity of

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Small Apartment Decorating

Irwin Weiner ASID - French designer Tony Lemale turns a flat French apartment into a zingier whole using bright colors, stenciling, and coordinated furnishings. I'm appreciative of the respect he showed for his client's color preferences, and the way - as the designer - that he pushed his client's envelope and went beyond the scope of her imagination. Good decorators dream bigger and see more possibilities than their clients are able to, and that's only one of the payoffs in interior design. Look at the way Lemale turned architectural weaknesses in the client's bedroom into strengths with paint colors versus remodeling and construction!

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