Interior Design More or Less … sings In My Time of Dying
:: Living through the Swan Song
via TopatoCo.com
In its most basic and superficial sense, Interior Design has been about . . . stuff. Stuff — new things, material goods, junk, clutter, accessories, gadgets. Its about buying furniture, consuming products, adding rooms. Always more stuff, more space . . . more more more.
I grew up in the seventies and eighties, and entered my adulthood and professional life in the nineties. It was a time of Growth, if that’s even the proper word. Unmitigated growth is what we were all sold on during this absolute orgy of consumption: flipping houses, buying new, bigger, more expensive cars every two to three years, the advent of bottled water, always more stuff, always more, bigger, better, newer, with no end in sight. In every other facet of life, unmitigated growth – with no ebb and flow, no cycles, no downturns – is considered cancer . . . right?
And what does cancer do? It just keeps growing and growing until it has crowded out everything good around it. And in these conditions, the host can not survive.
Flickr :: source below
This concept of growth and consumption has fit perfectly with the whole concept and industry of interior design. Helping people buy and consume stuff properly, to fit their house, fit their lifestyle, keep up with the Joneses, display their wealth.
You want to lounge just so, while you’re watching TV? Well, you just need the perfect type of sectional sofa. You’re not sure what to do with that weird open area at the top of your stairs, or your unusually large foyer, or your formal living room that no one ever uses? Well, let’s just figure out the best type of Stuff to stick in there that will hold more Stuff, impressing people when they come over, and giving everyone a perfect place to perch themselves when you’re having those grand dinner parties you’re dying to have.
Would it be considered revolutionary to say, maybe the best solution is to leave the space empty?
So here we are. The first decade of the 21st century is over. Our country is in the worst economic shape I’ve ever seen in my lifetime thus far, and even my parents have never seen anything like this. People are losing jobs, businesses and homes left right and center. It feels like a bloody nose that just won’t stop gushing.
Flickr :: source below
The upside has been the reassessment of Value that’s been going on. What is valuable? How do you define it? What is truly worth our time and our money and our emotional commitment? More and more we’re turning to things that are not tangible. Environmental and conservation movements are starting to mesh and jive with the changes in thinking that this economic crisis has spawned. Saving, reusing, refurbishing, salvaging, recycling, organizing, streamlining . . . doing more with less. That’s all great. I’m so glad. It feels virtuous and pure and dignified and clean. And it is. I feel that way. I grew up with the same bedroom furniture that my mother bought second-hand and lovingly hand-painted herself from the time I was two until I left for college, and then she repainted it and it became my sister’s furniture.
But it really sucks for Interior Design. Here is an industry built on the assumption of unabated wealth and consumption. What’s an interior designer to do when no one wants to buy anything and it’s not cool or economical to do so? What’s an interior designer to do when the common view is that anyone can do this – your credentials are only one TV show away? How can this industry survive when the paradigm has shifted to one of less consumption, everything you could ever want is just one click away on the internet, and cheap is the new black; in fact, there are whole cable networks dedicated to doing it yourself?
I was inspired by Danielle LaPorte’s guest post recently for Bindu Wiles. You can find it here: http://binduwiles.com/buddhism/the-law-of-the-ugly-chair-guest-post-by-danielle-laporte. It’s called the “Divine Law of the Ugly Chair”, and Danielle wrote it in honor of Bindu’s latest program called the Shed Project. It’s a great idea, really. Shed your stuff and your baggage, little by little. Peel back the layers of crap that have built up around you, and that you have allowed to accumulate in your life, your mind, your house, your body, all of it. Strip it down and let it go. It’s beautiful.
I’d like to change interior design to fit this type of intensely cathartic undertaking, by subtracting instead of adding. 
Would you hire an interior designer to help you get rid of the right stuff, aka the wrong stuff that doesn’t serve you? Could you actually be comfortable living with empty rooms? A meditation teacher I met recently said that some meditation novices are uncomfortable looking at the full moon for any prolonged period of time. Something about being alone with your own thoughts and exposed to the Universe. If your rooms were empty, would you look around yourself in awe of the possibilities or would you be freaked out? What would you do with some space around you? Would you dance? Would you breathe deeper? Would you stretch more, meditate more, hang out on the floor, read a book, play with your pets and babies, play Twister with your friends?
But my big question is: Is interior design, as we know it, dead?
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Photo Credits:
Stuff is Awesome via http://www.topatoco.com
Udo’s new playroom via juhansonin’s Flickr photostream
Couldn’t pass on Evil Erin’s Jumpin Project via Evil Erin’s Flickr photostream
The Shed Project presented by BinduWiles.com
Physical Graffiti album cover via http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com/
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Excellent post, and quite thought provoking. I agree that the “age of excess” is being forced out(for most folks) but the real issue is going to be the divide between the super-rich and the rest of us. The middle class is shrinking and those of us in the design/homebuild/remodel industries will have to do one of two things: clamor harder for the fewer “big-time” jobs or change the way we do business.
Love the “shedding” idea and have done it even in our business. Once you cut through the fluff, you can see that the good stuff has often been hidden underneath!
Great post, Tammy.
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Fantastic post, Tammy. Really resonates with the green movement especially & the mindset of using only what you need. The scary part is that internal unexplored frontier that most people barely know is there!
On the bright side, what bigger design challenge could there possibly be than rejuvenating & reconnecting not only within ourselves, but also with our planet?
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Fantastic! I think it would be easy to argue that Interior Designers are needed NOW more than ever. It’s easier to be a glorified shopper and just fill a space with trinkets and pattern than it is to be a conscientious designer who makes the most of a space with the least amount of “consumption.” That is what takes real talent. A space isn’t empty if it is filled with thoughtful purpose.
And YES I would totally hire you for that!
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Rich, wow right back at you. Thanks so much for the back up!
Nick, you are so right. I don’t want to be dependent on the crumbs falling from the rich. That’s not why I got into this business, but the longer I’ve been in it the more it seems to be like that.
Becky, thank you. It’s definitely time to stare at the moon for a while.
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Thanks Tammy. Your article was in part a revelation. I appreciate when a professional talks openly and honestly. I believe there will be a growing trend towards a minimalism design philosophy as a result of this economy. Just think…. What if a new movement evolves where the motto “less is more,” adopted by Mies van der Rohe, and “doing more with less,” adopted by Buckminster Fuller unite and become “more no more?”
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Some very interesting points raised Tamara. I think if designers have built their entire business on filling rooms with stuff, then yes, they will be suffering in the years ahead. But savvy designers help people live better in the spaces they have, usually incorporating plenty of things those people already own. I don’t think that’s a dead business at all, nor reserved for the wealthy.
One other thought regarding emptying out rooms – anyone who has rooms that serve no useful function, with or without furniture, has too much space. The age of McMansions has hopefully passed. -
I think this is an excellent article, but probably not for the reasons others do.
I think this highlights the vast chasm between decorators and designers. I think designers are needed more than ever. HOW do we make more with less? HOW do we create efficiency with smaller spaces? HOW do we create a more sustainable and gentle existence upon our planet? HOW do we do all these things while not dropping into something austere, Puritanical and rigid? How do we transform the built environment (interiors, furniture, fixtures, equipment, products.) into things that reflect and work within these new paradigms?
That is design.
More, better, consume, consume, consume, accessories, make the neighbors jealous, conspicuous consumption. This is not design. This is decorating. It’s the stuff of “design television” (which isn’t.) It’s the stuff of “how to make more crap out of the crap you already own so you can store more crap you just bought!… but you know, not actually getting rid of anything.” I agree with you, this stuff’s gotta go.
But this stuff isn’t design, either.
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Thank you all so much for your comments! It feels good to vent.
And Avril, I completely agree with you. You’re right on the money. There is a huge chasm between design and decorating, & the general public has ended up misinformed & confused, while many in the design community have bought into these notions & inadvertantly acted to dilute & undermine our important contributions to the built environment by jumping on the bandwagon of “pretty.”
Thank you for helping me flesh out these thoughts running around my head. We designers have a lot of work to do!
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jb pointed me to this post. he said it was kismet, I’m stumped. As usual. He is so much smarter than me.
I agree with freeing ourselves with crap. That I do. It is so liberating.
Here’s my thing… people will always buy crap. They won’t stop. It’s another addiction.
The movement to recycle and re-use is just that. Many new people have jumped onto that band wagon for now. When money starts to flow again, they will be the first ones to line up and treat themselves to something new and so the cycle will start over.
The more I study history, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Life seems to be about fads.
Wow, I kinda feel like Debbie Downer in this post. Shame on me! ;-p You know I luv ya, Tammy!
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Thanks for weighing in, Alycia! I don’t disagree with you. I think our industry (the design industry) is going through the perfect storm right now & it’s necessary for us to rethink why we’re out here doing what we do, and what is really the point of all this. Hopefully some of the new habits will stick & the design community at large will figure out ways to continue making a living doing design work that isn’t dependent on mass consumption of junk (green junk or otherwise).
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Wow Tammy. Just wow. You are singing a song that has resonated inside my soul for a very long time. It is so nice to hear it aloud, in tune, and full throated. I hope it becomes an anthem. Sing it, sister. I am backing you up.