Using Your Home to Tell Your Own Story

by Caroline Millett  ©2001

Throughout the country, a growing number of Americans are using their homes to tell their own personal stories.  Perhaps as a reaction the conformity of cookie-cutter housing, they have begun to celebrate their own unique histories, fascinations and dreams.  I call this approach to interior design the Narrative Style.  Ideally, each statement in the Narrative Style is a one-of-a-kind, custom-made solution to a particular individual requirement.  A most spectacular example of the story-telling method is that of Napoleon’s Empire Style (1804-1820).  Ever a master of self-promotion, Bonaparte commissioned the most accomplished artists, architects, and artisans of the day to create singular furnishings reflecting the glory of his conquests in Egypt and Italy.  He and Empress Josephine filled their palaces with powerful architectonic pieces replete with ancient military symbolism – eagles reigning over beds and lions’ feet supporting chairs.  (Empire Style adaptations remain remarkably popular today.  The American version is known as Federal, while the English version is known as Regency.) 

Narrative Style is most easily understood as the opposite of packaged style.  It provides an alternative to frozen period rooms, strict Minimalism, and rigid International Modernism, with its “machines for living.”  At the same time, however, this is not to imply that you either eliminate period arrangements or that you ignore current trends.  Far from it.  Cultural heritage and immediate environment necessarily influence all interior design work.  What I am suggesting is that you begin a project by focusing on yourself instead of a formula, old or new.  Forget model rooms by this designer or that.  Ignore standardized floor plans, no matter how seductive.  Trash “guaranteed” colors schemes.  Tell your own tale, and you will be well on your way to making a personal statement of style. 

The idea of expressing personal preferences has become a primary goial in interior design, along with the more traditional foals of beauty, comfort, and efficiency.  This notion “personal style” has, in fact, entered the mass consciousness.  Filmmakers love to compose rooms that reveal a character’s personality.  For instance, in the movie The Specialist, Sharon Stone plays a gone-wrong girl who seduces a Mafia lord as a means to revenge the murder of her parents.  The audience, however, knows that she is still a “good girl” at heart because she returns to her childhood persona in a modest apartment filled with family photos, immaculate linens, and charming keepsakes.  When the heroine is forced to leave her home to live her lover’s skillfully decorated seaside mansion with sparkling white marble floors and jagged black sculptures, she takes one look and says, “Next time you order a hit you ought to consider taking out your decorator.”

Character and Panache

 The goal is to design personal environments that are not only comfortable and efficient, but that also display a certain character and panache.  And although every project is different, there are certain steps to follow.  First, evaluate the general ambiance of your world.  Think about the landscape, the architecture, your community in general.  Second, you must always take into account interior architectural and other functional considerations.  The third step is a bit more fun.  It’s a treasure hunt.  You can learn a great deal about yourself by identifying the things that are most precious to you in your home.  Your treasures may reflect a concern for family, status, past accomplishments, aesthetics, and/or memories.  Using myself as an example, I count among my prized possessions a book printed by Henry Shirley Millett, the first published west of the Mississippi, a sculpture by Noguchi, given to me by the architect Louis Kahn, and collection of ceramic pots made by a man I loved.

You, yourself, may find that your view of the waves crashing against the rocks gives you more pleasure than any object in your home, but whatever the case, identifying the things that you treasure will take you well on your way to developing a personal design concept. 

In design parlance, a “concept” is the central theem that integrates the artistic whole.  That “pulled together look” that is so much sought after is a result of conceptualization.  A case in point, a client of mine, a gracious widow, after careful self-examination, realized that gardening and cooking for friends were the central interests in her life once her children had grown up.  She therefore transformed her four bedroom ranch house into a two bedroom “garden villa” enlarged by the creation of several outdoor rooms, one for poolside cooking, another for potting plants, and best of all, a secluded courtyard for courting!  The former bedrooms were connected to an expanded kitchen/dining area, brightened with new French doors and skylights, as well as graced by seasonal flowers and herbs.

The Unavoidable Step

Editing!  Almost everyone needs to eliminate clutter – and anything that’s dirty, ugly, or just plain boring.  This process is challenging, but it’s essential for anyone who wishes to refine and elevate his or her style.  The finest residential design is invariably a product of evolution.  Like any endeavor, it helps to have at least a basic understanding of the principles, and this is where some professional guidance may really be very helpful.  A skillful interior designer can stimulate your imagination, eliciting thoughts and ideas you never knew you could have.  Home design is a special kind of artistic expression, one that has a powerful impact on the quality of our daily lives.  Be patient with yourself, and take time to create what gives you the greatest pleasure.