Humans are emo­tional crea­tures — it is truly what sep­a­rates us from other ani­mals. Some peo­ple, espe­cially cre­ative types, embrace emo­tion more com­pletely, delve into it more deeply, explore it more intently than the aver­age per­son would con­sider wise. Some peo­ple are more sus­cep­ti­ble to emo­tions gen­er­ated by the envi­ron­ment in which they find them­selves. If you have ever stood in a red­wood grove or Notre Dame or your own liv­ing room and been unmoved, you are not one of these people.

The process of inte­rior design is fraught with emo­tion. If you read my ear­lier post, you know it often starts with fear. Fear of open­ing up, fear of let­ting go, fear of the unknown — inti­macy is scary. And inte­rior design is inti­mate. Start­ing a new rela­tion­ship can bring anx­i­ety and ner­vous­ness — how not when you are fil­ter­ing it through your prior expe­ri­ences? If you have no knowl­edge base to draw on, anx­i­ety is nat­ural.  But once you take a deep breath and that first step, those but­ter­flies morph into excitement.

With rap­port between your­self and your designer, explo­ration is a joy. Con­sid­er­ing pos­si­bil­i­ties, see­ing how the ordi­nary can be ele­vated and changed to sup­port and enrich your life — inte­rior design is rel­e­vant to every­one, regard­less of bud­get. It's not about how much money you spend, it's about emo­tional invest­ment in the process and emo­tional return when the project is completed.

Well-designed spaces evolve from emo­tion — anx­i­ety, trust, joy — often with fits and starts along the way. Ulti­mately, they gen­er­ate emo­tion — con­tent­ment, pas­sion, warmth, peace — to those that inhabit them. Whether it's a tran­quil white oasis or a spir­ited mid-century mélange, your spaces should embrace you and engen­der the emo­tional sup­port you need.

Go ahead and take the leap — the return is worth the investment.

Inte­rior design­ers, at least those I know, rec­og­nize well-designed spaces. We under­stand the effort that goes into each aspect of a room, and see how the whole exceeds the sum of the parts. Even when the style does not match our per­sonal aes­thetic, we appre­ci­ate the com­plete pic­ture. So too, when we eval­u­ate a poorly designed space, we see where it falls short — be it func­tion­al­ity, color, tex­ture, scale. It's not meant to be judg­men­tal, it's more an occu­pa­tional haz­ard — we can't shut it off. But what none of us can see with­out direct knowl­edge is the ulti­mate link between all the parts — the client.

I think suc­cess­ful inte­rior design has tan­gi­ble per­son­al­ity — and that per­son­al­ity should always be of the peo­ple who inhabit the space, not the designer. How do you explain, to some­one who has never expe­ri­enced it, the added value an inte­rior designer brings? That abil­ity to instill com­pletely per­son­al­ized solu­tions ver­sus the "room in a box" one can pur­chase at a major retailer? I think it is human nature to seek out the famil­iar — hence the pro­lif­er­a­tion of chain stores and cat­a­log fur­ni­ture retail­ers. But have you ever looked around, a lit­tle dis­sat­is­fied, and thought "is this all there is?"

It's an inti­mate busi­ness, inte­rior design. And there are a lot of peo­ple uncom­fort­able with inti­mate rela­tion­ships. Those peo­ple are going to be hap­pier pick­ing from the lim­ited menu at their local store. No need to open up to any­one about how they live or want to live. Pick one from col­umn A and one from col­umn B and call it a day.

For peo­ple who are not afraid of a new expe­ri­ence, the design process can be eye-opening. It's a chance to explore and exam­ine your own per­son­al­ity, wants and needs, along with those of your fam­ily, and see it all made manifest.  It can be a lit­tle scary to unveil so many aspects of your­self, but free­ing too. Inte­rior design at its best is about com­mu­ni­cat­ing per­son­al­ity — yours, not your neighbor's or your mom's or that guy in the next cubi­cle at work. Clients who rec­og­nize and embrace that are always the hap­pi­est.  They enjoy the jour­ney and the destination.