What does your Soul want on your walls?

What would you put on the walls of your home if you were totally unconcerned about what others might think? A comment from Design on Design to my last post, Multiple Personalities need Multiple Rooms, prompted me to ask myself this question and now I'm asking you.

What do you currently have on your walls? What effect do they have on you? Do they inspire you? Excite you? Challenge you? Take your imagination on flights of fantasy?  Do they express or feed the many characters of your soul?

There are any number of things we put on our walls -  family photographs, tribal artifacts, collections of souvenirs and paintings, of course.  Would you have art like this on your walls?  If so, which ones? And which walls? 

Image from here

Image from here

Image from here

3-D Street Art Image from here

Image from here

Perhaps something from Amazon?

   

  

 

Multiple personalities need multiple rooms

"I like to imagine a person's psyche to be like a boarding house full of characters. The ones who show up regularly and who habitually follow the house rules may not have met other long-term residents who stay behind closed doors, or who only appear at night. An adequate theory of character must make room for character actors, for the stuntmen and animal handlers, for all the figures who play bit parts and produce unexpected acts. They often make the show fateful, or tragic, or farcically absurd"  James Hillman

Does this at least partly explain why we have different rooms in our homes, each designed and decorated to satisfy  our different characters, their particular moods, fetishes and indulgences?  I'm inclined to think so.

So, how do we create individual spaces for our soul dwellers, some of whom are only too ready to show up for extravagance and vulgar ostentation and others who must be lured out with the assurance of quiet, reflective nooks and brooding crannies. 

"Ah, the perfect brood 'bode" 

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"Now she won't be able to see me"

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"Oh, come on Henry, don't be such an insufferable bore"

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What about you? What kinds of spaces do your characters seek out?

Refresh the soul and then be ready to soar

"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the sense but the soul"    Oscar Wilde

I was looking for somewhere to rest my soul, a place where no demands would be made of it. Just a place to refresh, regroup and start again. And here is where, after some searching, I felt I'd found it.

 Image from http://besttopdesign.com

I felt the muscles in my face stretch as I smiled. I felt energy flow through me once again, making me realize how congested and stagnant it had previously been.

With a fresh(er) mind, I began to wonder about this room and what struck me was this: How does a space that appears to be full of stuff still breathe harmony and exude a sense of freedom and comfort?  

In this case at least, I think it's got to do with the light and gently bright colors that are repeated in every part and every purpose of the room.  It's enchanting in a very different kind of way that I usually experience 'enchanting'.

I love the fact that you can be hidden without being in the dark as you work in that spot under the bed.  There's privacy without its typical 'cloak of darkness'. That feels playfully nice.

I think it's a room designed for a teenager but I could easily make myself comfortable and efficient in it. For a while. After that, having got its rest through a combination of harmonious space and creative work, my soul's mood might rise into a space for higher thinking. A space like this perhaps?

Image from http://www.ahoys.com

The following items are available at Amazon.com
 

   

An 'exhibitionist' room and a 'doodler' room - which would your soul prefer?

I had no idea I was going to have so much fun with this blog.  I mean, look at what I've discovered, and not just about designs and furniture but, more excitingly, about myself.

OK, call me self-indulgent or narcissistic if you like.  I don't care because I'm finally allowing myself to discover  new worlds out there. 

For someone who has been so absorbed in her own world for so long, afraid to check out the universe, on and offline, and not realizing how absorbed and afraid she was, this is an achievement of proportions equaling a turtle swimming across an ocean.  The only difference, I suppose, is that the turtle probably doesn't think it's a big deal.  But I do and I'm not ashamed to say so.

I suppose I should explain.  But only briefly.  Actually, let me see if I can do it in one sentence.

I have been a scared, prudish (who would have thought?), better-than-thou (might that also be prudish), foolishly modest and unimaginative in aspiration or ambition, critically dismissive of luxury, inventiveness and fun for their own sake woman with a largely un-lived life.  Alright, I may be exaggerating here, but not much, I assure you. Still, let's move on.

So, what have I discovered?  Well, look at the hotel room below, for goodness sake.  It's fully mirrored. 

 This image from here

When I first saw it, I thought it was an outdoor room, but it isn't/  How's that for creating an illusion of space and seamlessness?  Just don't anybody have a tantrum and throw things at the wall or the ceiling. (Now there's an interesting thought - people don't tend to throw things vertically when they're in a rage, do they?  Any idea why?)

   

 

I like the idea but I wonder if it would tire me after a while, you know, make me feel exhausted?  I kinda think the soul would object too.  Too much exposure when I know it prefers to emerge cautiously and unnoticed.

This next one is just one cool room, perfect for the soul to scamper around and doodle. I wouldn't mind having a room like this in my house but I'm not sure I'd sleep in it.  Wouldn't rule it out completely though.  With different lighting, it may feel quite cozy in the evening, like being surrounded by my best friend-thoughts.

 This image from here

It looks like it's designed for a child. Mmm...for a couple hours perhaps, but I wouldn't have had my kids in there all day and night. The senses need a rest, some quiet spaces.

I do think it's a great idea for an adult's room too. A doodle-ed room.  I'd have replaceable or, better still, wipe-over walls (no, they musn't need chalk or toxic inks to write or draw on), ones that you could easily clean so you could doodle away to your soul's content.

       

 

Exhibitionist or doodler?  Perhaps a bit of both?