When I set upon the idea of the ultimate living space, I had a couple of priorities that I wanted to make sure I addressed.
The first was it had to be aesthetically pleasing, but still practical. You see all these beautiful interiors that you’d visit, but they’ll have these chairs that look incredibly uncomfortable. Or maybe those chairs won’t even be for sitting. Maybe they’ll just be a prop in a corner to put one book on. While it looks cool on a camera, it’s pretty dumb from a usage standpoint.
I mean look at that chair? No back support and it’s just sitting there. Yes, the space is open (a big plus for me) with a lot of natural light (another big plus), but it’s a poor use of the space. The chair doesn’t look comfortable, so why would you want to sit in it? What other purpose would it have? This is my cynical side to interior design. I’m very much a practical guy and I want my space to reflect that.
The second item on my list was that I want my space to be pretty minimalist. I don’t own much, don’t plan on owning much and so I don’t need a bunch of pieces of furniture to hold my stuff. This harks upon my love of the open and airy. When I think about my ideal space, it doesn’t have much going on, but again, there’s a practical use for everything and…
My ideal space needs to have a theme. It doesn’t have to be a tight knit theme where everything is truly tied in, but I want to have some sort of overarching idea so that I can feel like my room has a purpose and is tied in together.
All of this leads me to my bedroom.
When I think of a bedroom, I think of this:
and less this:
And there absolutely should be none of this going on too:
As time has gone on, the bedroom, to me, has become a place of peace, relaxation and, most importantly, decompression. Leave all your worries and troubles on the other side of the door. Let your room display your ideal place of relaxation, where you can read a book quietly or just contemplate. But the bedroom shouldn’t be a place that houses other activities other than those that relax you.
That means no TVs, computers, or anything that else emits blue light (side note: you may already know this, but doctors say if you avoid blue light an hour before sleep you’ll sleep MUCH better. It does for me).
So keeping in mind my design ideals and how I view a bedroom, my room would have the following items.
- A bed
- An end table or two
- A dimly light lamp to go on those end tables, say 40 watts at most
- A dresser (which would hopefully fit in my closet)
- A ladder shelf that would hold what little else I can’t fit on my end tables
Five things, but they need to be tied together with a theme.
Well, say hello to…
The West? Vintage Railroading? The Pony Express?
Ok, so I don’t really have a proper title to give this theme.
It’s not truly vintage, but it’s inspired by the old ideal of expanding the vast, unknown territories West of the Mississippi. I’m a winter guy over a summer guy, and I love mountains so much more than beaches. Naturally I’m drawn to what’s in the Northwestern part of the US than I am the beaches of Florida or LA. There’s a sense of grandeur and inspiration that comes from those mountainous regions. And that’s where I draw this inspiration.
Things like old TnT barrels, railroads, the Badlands of the Dakotas, Old Faithful, large Sequoias, untamed rivers, vast areas of nothing. Those are inspiring. Those leave you speechless. Those bring about an inner sense of calm. And that’s influenced how I view my room. I’m not going to give away how I plan on putting together my room just yet, but it’ll give you the idea of what I’m going for.
Until my next post, where I reveal the plan for my living space.
