This week was exciting because I was able to start constructing some of the furniture for my miniature bedroom. During our first critique I was able to get some very helpful suggestions on my construction process and decided that my original plan of starting with the actual structure might make things more difficult. I want to be sure of my scale before I begin with the room so I decided it was best to begin with my furniture, I spent a good part of the week attempting to create a bed frame from a piece of basswood, however I struggled with this because I have no prior furniture designing skills, after countless hours of sanding and shaping I decided it might be better to find a set already sized but not yet put together. I was able to find a build your own dollhouse funiuture set and started the assembling process.

Once I had my pieces, and the construction idea together I wanted to see what was the best way to design these items. I assembled some and began painting while others I kept as pieces and painted separately. I wanted to see which made the best presentation, in the end I think that painting the pieces before construction produced the best results.

According to my book, it is important for the feng shui of the room to pick colors that are pleasing and uplifting. I chose to pick a very light pink, white and calming green.

 

It was also important to my process that I choose furniture that was light in color because darker woods can cause a bad flow of chi. I thought about the pieces of furniture that would be in my room based on the knowledge I acquired from reading the bedroom chapter of my Feng Shui and Health: The Anatomy of a Home book where she discusses the importance of keeping your work space separate from your sleeping space. It was discussed in the book that it is also important to make your room as comfortable as possible so I wanted to begin making a mattress and pillows for my bed. This was the first time I have ever used a sewing machine so I was excited. It took me quite a while and a few YouTube videos

Click here to view the embedded video.

to understand how to load and use my sewing machine. I started with pillows because they were going to be simple square patterns. Then I was able to move on to bigger items like my mattress……Finally I began decorating my furniture in a fun style that I have enjoyed in my own home called shabby chic, I wanted the room to be girly and fun with lots of jewels and fabrics. This decision was based on the information acquired from my book, the author says that one key factor of good feng shui is to decorate with a style that is uplifting to yourself. If you don’t enjoy walking into your room then you wont enjoy sleeping there.

This week I thought it was important to get familiar with feng shui and it’s principles. When beginning my project I wanted to look at design in multiple ways, and explore not just the aesthetics of design but function and feel. I wasn’t really interested in how homes were put together growing up, in fact when my mother moved us into a new home my freshman year of high school, her renovating was more of a discomfort than an exciting experience. It wasn’t until I got a place of my own that I realized how much fun it actually was to create and design a space to your own personal tastes. It can give you a sense of accomplishment and comfort, especially in my situation because I lived in an apartment and didn’t have any control over the design of the building it’s self. As I picked colors and patterns, accents and furniture I began to see how just the change of color in a room can actually change it’s feel.

When I got to Evergreen, I enrolled into the Picturing Domestic Space program because I thought it would give me a chance to focus on something I already knew I enjoyed while at the same time letting me explore it new ways and I was right. During the first quarter we studied space and furniture, photography and light, all things that are going to help me with this project. The second quarter was filled with the study of aesthetics verse function and I got a chance to focus on one room in the house, the kitchen. By focusing solely on this room I was able to explore it in ways never considered before. I go a chance to look at it from the view of a designer as well as a consumer. I was able to put myself in the shoes of a cookbook designer as well as an inventor and I think these different angles helped me see the kitchen in new light. I wanted to keep this frame of mind when I pursued this quarters work. I wanted to look at what I call “the bones of the home” from not just an interior decorator’s aspect but from a home owners view as well as a designers view.

I thought it best to begin with the bedroom since that is the room where we spend most of our time. We do everything from sleeping to eating and even working or relaxing in this room. I began reading Feng Shui and Health: The Anatomy of a Home by Nancy SantoPietro and quickly realized how much of feng shui is based on the energy and flow of not just our homes but of the neighbor hood and area that surrounds it. As I read more what I found most appealing about the book was that not only does she explain how to achieve good fung shui when designing your own home she offers alternate examples for people who might be stuck in a place that is unchangeable. She touches on everything from where your bed is positioned (best to be facing the door) to the size of your door ways. She explains the importance of view, how what you see out your window can effect the energy in your house just as much as what you see from the position of your bed. The author offers suggestions and changes that anyone can make in order to improve the chi (energy flow) of their homes such as mirror placement or color changes in furniture or wall colors. The most interesting thing I found out was how important it is to keep your work space out of your bedroom. She explains that we have different mind frames for different situations in our lives. It’s important to your health and wellness to keep your working and problem solving mind separate from your relaxing and repairing mind frame. She also touches on EMF’s (electric and magnetic fields) and how the power that your television gives off during the night can actually disrupt your natural sleeping patterns. She places emphasis on the importance of keeping recreational activities such as reading or watching t.v. separate from your sleeping area.  As I began to think about and design my own miniature bedroom I wanted to keep all these things in mind. I wanted to illustrate proper feng shui in my model and so I began to design….

 

 

I am extremely excited to be learning how to create a WordPress site. This is the first time I have ever designed my own website and I am excited to be able to share my project and ideas with the world. This is also going to make it easy for my family and friends to follow my actions and give me feed back on my progress. More to come soon…. be sure to check back with me on a regular basis.