“I keep the subject of my inquiry constantly before me, and wait till the first dawning opens gradually, by little and little, into a full and clear light.”

-Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)

Creating a joyful home requires careful planning in order to choose the perfect interior design details. When you understand the underlying psychology of colors, patterns, textures, and finishes, you avoid costly mistakes in decorating your home.

In planning your home makeover, start with the feelings you want to bring about in each space. Consider your personal emotional needs. Think about the way you currently feel in your home and the way you want to feel.

Not all of your desired feelings need stimulation in every space. For instance, you may want your child’s bedroom to inspire creativity and your main bedroom to inspire intimacy, while your whole home inspires comfort, peace, and joy.

Choose from the following emotional groups you desire to inspire in your home:

1. Happiness, Joyfulness, Cheerfulness

2. Peace, Serenity, Tranquility

3. Elation, Excitement, Enthusiasm

4. Humor, Congeniality, Playfulness

5. Fantasy, Inspiration

What are your preferences? Did you choose a particular group, or a mixture? Defining your desired emotional support first, before you start your home improvement projects, helps you get your home decorating right — the first time!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm

Tags: home decorating, home improvementprojects, interior design psychology, Jeanette Fisherhome decorating, home improvementprojects, interior design psychology, Jeanette Fisher

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If you are planning a home makeover or remodeling project, here are some ideas to help you.

Inspiration to make a home planning journal from “Joy to the Home Planner:”

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context — a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”
- Eliel Saarinen (Finnish Architect)

Declaration of Intent

Form your unique design plan encompassing your entire home, from the first glimpse, all the way throughout your home, and to the far reaches of the back patio, garden, or yard.

Think about the feelings you want to bring about: joy, peace, comfort, and contentment. Add in ease, simplicity, and economy. Start with your feelings and the emotions you want to bring about for yourself and those you share your home with.

Write down your ideas. Start with your desired emotion and expand until you create your personal design goal. Something like this:

“I desire peace. I want my home to sing in perfect harmony with the universe. I need to encourage nature’s music of bird songs and plan a birdbath.”

“I want natural warmth. I want the sun to shine in! No heavy window coverings will block out natural daylight. Ethereal light will be encouraged with soft, sheer window dressings for privacy.”

“I feel like relaxing. I desire a padded rocking chair on my back porch with a table nearby for iced tea.”

“We want joyful rooms to play together in. Only necessary furnishings will take up valuable play space.”

When you first think of how you want to feel in a space, then you can choose the decorating details that will bring about your emotional well-being. I want everyone to feel welcome to my home, so I planted yellow and white flowers. I want my friends to feel refreshed when they park their car, so I planted shade trees. I want all who come to the front door to feel happy, so I painted my door a joyful shade of red.

Enjoy writing your desired feelings and playing with this concept!

Joy to you!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm

Tags: home makeover, home planning journal, interior design psychology, Jeanette Fisher, remodeling projecthome makeover, home planning journal, interior design psychology, Jeanette Fisher, remodeling project

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Window coverings are important to the overall look and feel of a room, of course, but when designing window treatments, don’t forget to take into consideration what your overall design will look like from the outside of your home.

As a general rule, window coverings should all be of a similar coloring, which will significantly improve the look of your home’s exterior. For instance, a house with a blue-curtained window on one side and one with yellow curtains on the other won’t look harmonious from a curbside viewpoint.

Your window dressing colors should also harmonize with the home’s outside color scheme. For instance, white-lined draperies are generally too light for dark-painted exteriors, while small printed designs, such as white on white, can be effective for adding greater interest to the outside view of a plain house.

Draperies lined with light pale yellow make a house glow at night. If that’s your desired effect, even sheer white or lace panels can be tinted with a pale yellow dye. If you use a patterned material, lining patterned window coverings with a heavy lining fabric stops the pattern from shining through at night when the lights are on.

For privacy without bulky fabrics, etched or stained glass windows can also be great investments. You can learn the art of stained glass fairly easily, and though the stained glass windows my husband and I made for our home may not be perfect, those imperfections make them more special to us than the ones we had professionally made.

Incorporating jewels into windows adds sparkle and rainbow-like effects to a room. Etched glass designs, made with rubberized stencil paper and sandblasting, is easier to do than creating stained glass windows. Etched windows look great from the street, adding an extra touch of elegance and class to the exterior appearance of your home.

Creating great-looking rooms that make people feel warm and happy is an important part of decorating, but no matter what style of home you live in, you can greatly improve its overall allure by also paying special attention to how your window treatments look from the street.

Copyright (c) 2004 by Jeanette J. Fisher

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm

Tags: home decorating, Jeanette Fisher, treatments, Window coveringshome decorating, Jeanette Fisher, treatments, Window coverings

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