Today, there are myriad choices available, from building new houses to remodeling old houses, that were not around when undertaking the process decades ago.

One should be aware that this process should be approached as living in today’s world and not living in the past.

The capability of computers and cell phones has enhanced the visualization of construction processes which can be seen on them. Such is an aid for designing and comprehension and shouldn’t be expected to produce the same results as Santa Clause or the Easter bunny. Be realistic.

The causes of climate change, energy usage, the affects to the environment, the warming earth atmosphere, the amount made and disposal of trash, et cetera should be considered thoughout this entire process.

Windows, walls, floors, and ceilings that are insulated against heat, cold, sound, and weather conditions are offering more opportunities for natural light, enhanced views, profuse design choices, and higher quality aesthetic options.

The presence of more “interior designers” offering opinions, guidelines, suggestions, rules, and services is becoming apparent. It is advantageous to research for their education, qualifications, experience, talent, business savvy, and results produced before hiring them.

The quality and movement of indoor air for health and comfort needs to be addressed.

The amount, types, sources, and placements of energy used during construction and the lifetime of the structure are important financial and environmental factors for a successful project.

The role, number, desirability, requirement, or necessity for smart house design elements of present and future usages requires consideration.

The abundant choices of materials, colors, finishes, maintenance, off-the-shelf and custom made, et cetera available for materials, paints, and construction methods require attention.

The need for environmentally sound and healthy practices for all spaces and aspects of residential interiors should be fulfilled.

Be alert, be open-minded, and evaluate while choosing wisely and well.

Food for thought.

The effect of artificial intelligence upon our lives has been compared to those changes brought about by computers.

Good news. Artificial intelligence is not going to replace humanity.

Information learned at a recent trade program specifically for interior designers can be applied to other professions.

We are not going to become servants of artificial intelligence that will replace our control of our lives.

Artificial intelligence is like a personal administrative assistant which does not have to be paid, does not get sick, or take vacation time off.

Artificial intelligence can handle first-level routine and repetitive operations.

It can process e-mails, phone calls, text messages, et cetera, evaluate them, and prioritize their information, importance, and timing of responses.

It can take over repetitive tasks, organize, research, and other basic administrative tasks that do not require designer’s input, creativity, imagination, et cetera.

As time passes, uses of artificial intelligence will expand into other and more areas of our lives.

Are we getting to the stage where communication between people is only at the intellectual level as seen in Star Trek and other futuristic civilizations societies?

No one I’ve asked what role artificial intelligence will play in the creating design process will answer.

The results seen in other fields examples can only be kindly described as warped.

The interior designer controls, and is not controlled by, artificial intelligence and does not have to agree with or accept its results.

The raison d’etre of artificial intelligence in the practice of interior design is to free the designer’s time for creative, intelligent, and imaginative uses

The reality of the human race is an evolving and growing expression of the infinite intelligence which manifests as the physics of this universe in which we are.

Artificial intelligence is one stage in this process.

Food for thought.

Coming across my desk are more instances of using biophilic principles for the inside of residential interiors.

According to my research, there are six principles to be used for achieving such.

1 Natural light: Using natural light is desirable for all interior spaces for its physical, emotional, and intellectual results and is not limited to biophilic interiors.

2 Natural materials: Materials used should be the best possible for the desired design results. Choices should be made as such. Is natural the best choice or is it chosen just because it’s natural?

3 Plants and greenery: The use of plants, in healthy and designed places, enhances the ambiance of our connection with nature and beauty.

4 Views of nature: Outside views, especially pleasant ones, affect positively our overall well being in many different ways. Views of nature are generally more desirable.

5 Water features: The use of any water feature for any residential interior should be thoroughly designed for function, maintenance, and aesthetics to completely fit into its environment. It should never just be added.

6 Natural shapes and forms: I have a problem with this one. Shapes and forms should be used for the highest designed results. A tree does not look like a table. Should a table look like a tree? Nature should be used as inspiration for aesthetics and not be duplicated.

Choices made for all designed residential interiors should be based on the laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics to fulfill to the highest level possible the function, aesthetics, and personality traits of those people who will use it.

Choose what fits best for you.

Food for thought.

Over the past many decades, what is now called residential interior design was known as “good taste” in home decoration.

Good taste was the gold standard of the upper socioeconomic class to which the rest of the population should aspire.

Such was an unwritten law.

The emphasis was on formality, etiquette, breeding, past period designs, traditions, and the personal home furnishings and lifestyle choices of those who proclaimed these standards.

These standards were of ultimate importance and determined hierarchy in society.

Based on this rigid expression of desired beauty standards, certain things, or expressions, did not “go together” in good taste. Comfort, personal likes, convenience, and logic were not players on this stage of life.

People not adhering to this standard were considered to be lower class.

Changes, advances, discoveries, sources and types of financial status, incomes, communication, education, politics, entertainment, and the arts brought about a different, advanced, freer, less rigid, logical, and more personal status of life on this planet.

Changes constantly continue in the flow of life.

In many current designed residential interiors, there is an almost total disregard for adherence to aesthetic principles, definitions, and the quality level of beauty.

Today, the qualification for the beauty of these designs is what individuals like, what’s comfortable, and what’s uniquely personal.

The highest levels of quality aesthetics are becoming more dissolved to express individual taste.

Anything goes if one likes it.

While individual personal expressions are good, healthy, and desirable, somewhere along the way, have we not strayed from what took us to the highest quality experience bar of beauty that can be known?

What is beauty, for designed residential interiors, and what is its priority and role in the current drama of life played on this planet?

Food for thought.

“The human mind has a tendency to absorb the environment with which we are surrounded.” Napoleon Hill

Our environments are the things and conditions with which we are surrounded.

We don’t always have choices in what surrounds us, but we always do have choices as to how we react to it and what we do about it.

Sometimes we do have choices.

What we thusly choose for our residential living spaces is a big factor in what we experience there.

Are you aware of what you want to experience where you live?

Do you have a conscious mind about what completes your authentic self?

Do you expend your intellectual resources on all aspects of your residential interior living spaces, or not the whole, but just on the financial, useful, convenient, and practical features thereof?

As preparation, cooking techniques, and seasoning affect the final taste of what we eat, the same intellectual expenditure approaches given to the aesthetics of residential interior design determine the pleasure and delight experienced living there.

So, what do you want to experience when at home and what do you choose to do, or not to do, about it?

Food for thought.

Students are evaluated for the level at which they can perform.

People can be tested for their intelligence level.

Financial transactions are determined by financial levels.

Among the many other aspects by which a person can be evaluated is their aesthetic level.

This aesthetic level can be seen their verbal and aesthetic choices.

Does one eat their morning cereal from a plastic bowl or a highly decorated Chinese- pattern container?

Does one complain about the weather or note the beauty thereof in nature?

Intelligence, education, background, personality traits, life’s experiences, et cetera are among the many factors that determine one’s aesthetic level.

What is the importance of one’s aesthetic level?

One’s aesthetic level determines the experience of beauty in one’s life in much the same way that taste determines the joy of what one eats.

What is your aesthetic level, what does such mean to you, and what do you do, or not do, about it?

Food for thought?

There are billions of peoples on his planet and thousands of different cultures.

I am constantly interested in the variety of expressions for residential interior designs, from around the world, that come across my desk.

With endless cultures, situations, environments, et cetera, what is the element that makes each of these residential interior designs good that they are internationally published?

The interior satisfying sensation experienced when eaten is what makes food taste good.

It is an emotional, intellectual, mental, cultural, individual DNA, sensational experience of which there are a myriad of examples.

What is the “it” that people find attractive and satisfying about the residential interior environment in which they choose to live?

Through and above all of the other elements involved, it is the element of beauty that finishes it off and makes it complete.

Beauty is the” it taste good” of residential interior design.

We know that line, form, mass, color, and texture determine the physical characteristics that we use to describe beauty.

What are the intangible elements that determine our reactions to physical beauty?

With the unlimited choices available, what are yours, and why did you choose them?

Food for thought.

What is the optimal lifestyle while occupying our limited time on this whirling planet?

Human behavior has evolved in relationships with the natural world and with other people and evidence shows that it is best served by maintaining those relationships.

Recent decades have shown tremendous changes in lifestyles since the discovery and increased use of electronics. Now, artificial intelligence is becoming a major player on the world stage.

Cell phones have become almost like a necessary permanent attachment to our physical body, more of our mental tasks are being done by computers, almost any subject information is readily available on the internet, and more of our interior environments, and outdoor activities, are electronically controlled.

How do these changes affect our relationships with each other and with outside nature?

Human behavior patterns, with increasing use of electronic devices, reveal a decline in communication skills with others and awareness of nature outside of interior environments.

Are we on a path to becoming intelligent androids, as manifest in science fiction, void of human emotions and other behaviors?

What happens with our creativity, imagination, spirituality, fun, and the experience of merely being human in our day-to-day behavior patterns?

Electronics have greatly increased knowledge and the availability thereof while leading to discoveries and techniques greatly enhancing our lives.

Are we going to a stage where our functionality dependence on electronic devices destroys our humanity?

Where is the stage, or line, which tips the scales?

How have electronics affected the quality of daily living for your residential, interior and exterior, environments with nature and other people?

Food for thought?

There are, today, more options available, when it comes to choices, for what is available and can be done for residential interior designs than at any other time in the history of civilization.

Research and discoveries are constantly being made for new, better, and more variations of products and possibilities.

Computers, the internet, cell phones, and other electronic devices have made possible access to basically world wide unlimited information and education on almost any subject.

Today, there are floods, more than one person can absorb and comprehend, of information relating to all aspects of the design of residential interior living spaces.

“What’s a mother to do?”

Who are you, where are you, where do you want to go, how do you want to get there, and what are the options, available to you, for achieving those life goals for your personal living spaces?

Research for all of the information that can best help you achieve these life goals and discard and/or ignore everything else.

You will then be in the best knowledgeable position to plan and execute your desired life style expressions.

For residential interior design, as well as for all other professions, it is advantageous to engage the services of knowledgeable results-producing persons in the field.

Regardless of everything, the ultimate goal should be to manifest the best designs possible, for the circumstances, using the principles of aesthetics and the laws of physics.

And take Shakespeare’s advice: “Unto thine own self be true.”

What have you done to affect your choices for the ambiance and functions of your personal living spaces?

Food for thought.

Grandma said there is more than one way to cook chicken and Julia showed us many different cooking chicken results.

Environmental factors, such as cultures, traditions, times, locations, circumstances, and personal taste preferences, affect chicken cooking .

Additionally, kind of chicken, cooking method, preparation, seasoning, cooking time and temperature, serving, et cetera affect the ultimate goal of taste.

Yet, for all of the above, most people have favorable eating experiences with chicken on menus.

These approaches can also be applied to residential interior design.

One way of designing does not fit everyone’s personal life style.

The population majority will go for the designs that are most popular, readily available, and of the time and location of where they are.

These masses, like sheep, follow the crowd and come a part of it.

Some people, who are confident and strong, choose individuality, away from the crowd flow, in expressing their personal living environments.

Seeking unique, custom, personal, functional, and aesthetically pleasing environments for residential living spaces is par as is wearing custom made clothes.

Both the cooking of chicken and the designing of residential interior spaces are like recipes in that each of the multiple element choices involved is a part of the whole and affects the experienced aesthetic results.

How do you cook your chicken?

Food for thought.