Conscious Home Design for Joyful Living

Our grace is making the invisible visible…and the feelings of the heart when they manifest are beauty itself. When others see it, they attune to their own beauty. So your designs are designs for ecstatic, graceful living.

                                                               — Dr. Gurcharan Khalsa

A quality living design isn’t created in a vacuum or out of a theory. The person living in the space is essential to create a living environment that works for that individual at every level. The best home design is even a creative projection, into the environment, of the person who lives there. And that person is you. So who you are, what you like and what makes you feel alive are essential to the process. When you project your vision, aesthetically and functionally, into three-dimensional space, you create a comfortable, delightful, beautiful environment that expresses and nurtures your essential self.  

To design a home that truly reflects and embraces you, that you find beautiful, pleasing and comfortable, it helps to view the space as if for the first time, with new eyes and a “beginner’s mind.” How can you see, from a new perspective, something you’ve grown used to, that you’re utterly familiar with, that you take for granted? 

To see your home with new eyes, you’ll need to interact with it in a different way, look at it from different viewpoints. Most of us were taught to see space as empty or flat, or we were never taught to notice it at all. We notice objects and perimeters, but tend to ignore space and forget to take it into account. But space isn’t empty or nonexistent. Every space has its own quality, depth and temperament. 

When I help clients design their home interiors, I look through the rooms and spaces from multiple perspectives, from different physical locations. I also talk with them and get to know them a bit. I need to know some essentials about them to help them find their design. What are the essentials about you that you need to take into account in creating your own interior design? 

For example, who else lives in your home with you? What are your practical needs? What experiences and activities do you want to have in any particular space? What are your emotional and spiritual needs? What feelings, reflections or memories do you want the space to evoke in you or invite you into? What part of yourself or your life do you want your home, or any space within it, to express? How do you want others to feel when they come to visit? Do you want your living environment to foster tranquility, harmony, playfulness, sensuality, creativity, inspiration or spirituality? What colors do you like? What kinds of images or art deeply affect you? What do you do for a living? What are your personal interests, your fascinations, your tastes in music, art, travel and life? 

After pondering these questions, do the meditative exercise below. It will help you look at your home with new eyes, and see and feel the spaces in a new way. 

Walk through your home. Spend time in each room and each space you want to transform. Explore, pay attention and be present. Look, listen, feel and imagine into and through each space. Listen to the space. Listen to your gut. Listen to yourself the way you would listen to a child. Believe that your heart, creativity, consciousness, sacred intentions and positive projections combined can create a space that is loving, restorative and uplifting to you, your family and those who come to visit. 

At different times of day, sit or stand in various areas in each room to get different perspectives. Investigate your home with a beginner’s mind. Pretend you’ve never been there before, that you’re seeing it for the first time. Listen to it, notice it, smell it, feel it. What do you see? What do you see past? What do you see through? How does it feel? How do the qualities of the space affect you? Are they calm, still, shadowy, flowing or bright? Do you feel comfortable? Are you restless? Are you centered and calm? What draws your eye from any point in the room? 

What are the components in each room? Notice and feel the walls, their shadows as well as their colors. Are the colors stark, oppressive, bland? Are they warm, vibrant, soothing? Notice and feel the lighting. Do you like the fixtures? Turn the lights on and off. Are they too bright or too dim? How do they feel? What are the particular needs of each room? Bathroom lighting ought to be bright, for good mirror reflection. We need to see ourselves clearly to shave, brush our hair, put on makeup, or get ready for work or to go out on the town. Bedroom light should be softer, warmer, less intrusive. 

What about the windows? Do you have quality curtains, basic white or off-white blinds? Do they feel good, or are they merely baseline functional? What would look and feel good here and there with the furniture, lighting, carpets, paint, blinds? What do you really want? What would you love? What can you afford? What are your options? What is possible? What comes to mind as you look at any space and any component in any room? Ask yourself, how can this space be used? What could it look like? What would I like it to be? Ask yourself, how can this space serve me? Think creatively.

Do a slow walk-through of your home, starting outside the front entrance. What do you see when you approach the front door; when you first enter the house; as you walk, from different directions, through the house, down its halls, into and through its rooms? At each point, what naturally draws your attention? 

As you do these exploratory exercises, keep a pen and notepad handy. Notice what opens up in you or becomes clear to you. Write down meaningful impressions and creative ideas that come to you. As you do these exercises, you’ll feel your perspective shift as you access a new clarity and vision. This will help you make practical and creative choices that delight and feel right to you. 

At some point you may feel intuitively drawn to certain colors, tones, images or other elements. You’ll be intuitively guided to helpful information and resources. You’ll want to do outside research: go to furniture stores, bookstores, the library; look at photographs in magazines, on websites and in books like this one.  

You don’t have to be an expert in sacred design to turn your home into an altared space. All it takes is some conscious reflection, some inspiration, and maybe a little help. Then, in the process of doing it, you’ll discover how to do it. The ideas, suggestions, exercises and photographs in this book will support you in this endeavor. 

-  Posted by Jagatjoti S. Khalsa,  author of a new book, Altar Your Space, A Guide to the Restorative Home.  For more information about Jagatjoti Khalsa, his writing or work, see his website,  www.jagatjoti.com.