Nice follows function

I've been an interior designer for over twenty years now, working part-time to design and renovate kitchens, bathrooms and other residential projects. Offers for interior design services come sporadically, with many clients leaning more towards decorating their homes. 

There is a general consensus that interior design is mostly about decorating and furniture arranging. This unsurprising assumption has been circulating among people outside the industry for a long time. It doesn’t help that society places a higher value on interiors that look “nice”. However, interior designers don’t merely focus on aesthetics. 

Interior designers problem-solve within spatial boundaries. We take into consideration the needs and expectations of the inhabitants and creatively transform their environments to enhance appearance and functionality.

Work for the most part has been enjoyable — especially as people are happy with the end results, but if I’m being completely honest, client emphasis on aesthetics rather than well-being tends to leave me feeling a little hollow. 

Since my Pratt Institute college years, I’ve ached to go deeper — to go beyond creating for function while making spaces look "nice." I love to learn about what makes people function better within their living and working communities; to think about what it means to place people at the center of the design process, to tailor solutions around their deeply researched needs.

I have quietly argued for a design approach that prioritizes the users well-being — the human-centered interior design approach. This method emphasizes a built empathy between the designer and client, translated into well designed spaces.

Join me on my journey to figure out what this all means.