“How do you make a house a home? By bringing out its soul. By designing it, building it, furnishing it and maintaining it in such a way that it offers emotional security and comfort and supports the love and enjoyment of those who live in it” Thomas Moore

We have been decorating our homes, for longer that we might realize, but initially not without ulterior motives. Parallel with so many early traditions, the creation of beautiful interiors had less to do with simple embellishment, than the assurance of a place in the Afterlife. The Egyptians were the first to seek this assurance by adorning their rooms, as well as their departed loved ones with symbolic objects, inspired from nature, and fashioned from gold and colorful precious stones such as turquoise and lapis lazuli in a manner that would rarely be found today.

In contrast, the Romans, during their years of Empire, were compelled to display their wealth and status by way of grand living and perpetual comfort. They created homes with seasonal rooms to withstand the heat of summer and the cool of winter, where they applied mosaic floors, painted walls and an abundance of delicately carved stone work. They introduced velvet drapery, soft furnishings, and their banquets were afforded spacious halls to accommodate long nights of food and indulgence.

With the fall of the great Empires, an opposing mood swept through Europe, and the new constraints of Christianity resulted in an absence of free expression as well as the banning of craftsmanship. Under the perpetual threat of invasion, homes became bleak and fortress-like, with dark paneled interiors and austere furnishings, but the pendulum would inevitably swing in the opposite direction with the birth of the Italian Renaissance period in the sixteenth century. This was a time of nprecedented
creative expression, with wealthy patrons competing for ever higher levels of grandeur and power, by engaging in great commissions of architecture, art and design.

It can be said however, that it was not until the 18th Century that the accumulation of all of the various facets of interior embellishment were formalized in England by the Adam brothers, Robert and James, who set about creating a greater cohesion between the elements of architecture, construction, interior details, furniture design, textiles and color, and calling it for the first time, Interior Design. But this formalization remained a privilege of the wealthy until the industrial revolution, when social dynamics shifted, and only as recently as the post war period, when the mass production of furniture began in earnest. It was then that the idea of “Interior Decoration” became accessible to all.

The Business of Trend
With so many centuries of design evolution to draw upon, we can see historical styles become continuously modified and revitalized, principally within the fashion industry, with home interiors following a few years later. We can also see that all design is an expression of what is currently happening in our world, and that today the changes occur with ever increasing speed. Even during the past fifty years, we have witnessed a dramatic shift from an embellished style to one of minimalism.

We now have at our disposal an overwhelming amount of design information, underpinning what has become a global multi
billion dollar business. From this, has sprung a plethora of magazines and television shows, as well as lifestyle stores, online
shopping and endless “How-To” information, all offering an almost unlimited choice of interiors, furnishings and ideas for living.

The Confidence to call it our own
With these choices, we have the great fortune to be able to make decisions that are more closely associated our own individuality and way of life than trend than ever before, and with patience, we can narrow to one, a harmonious result of pleasurable surroundings that are unique to each of us. In North America, we have the added advantage of homes in a wide variety of architectural styles, even within the same neighborhood.

We may want our own home to seem like a guest within a beautiful setting or above a commanding view. We may want the visual pleasure of art and meaningful objects to take center stage or to simply surround ourselves with inherited and gathered
pieces from the past.

We may need high efficiency and function, or the hospitable drama within which to regularly entertain. On the other hand, we may simply prefer to cocoon ourselves from today’s fast and uncertain world with textures and colors that will appease us.

It can be argued that each of us is innately influenced by our own personal reference to color, texture, pattern and form. We may have memories of the colors of our formative years, our home land, our culture or even our Grandmother’s sofa, which may comfort us, or cause us to run to express our own personality.

The greatest challenge is in narrowing the myriad of options to one seamless, beautiful idea that we can truly call “Our Own”.
We may want to take up this challenge by ourselves, or to enlist the help of a Professional who can become our own hands and eyes. We may opt for someone who already has their own “Brand Identity”, or who is constantly on the leading edge of the next trend.

No matter what decisions we make we can thank the Egyptians. We have never been so well positioned to express our own individuality within the walls of the only place that we can truly call our own, and we can now take advantage of the choices that we have, at any budget level.

Be sure to enjoy the process!