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Functional Space For Your Lifestyle

And then we want to really move into the lifestyle, which is an extension of that piece of how you entertain, but, of course, that it was relevant to life stage, because I think cute that does change, like, are you entertaining formally changes, depending on what life stage? And if you're single, you're not having dinners for twelve, but ifyou're may be married with a lot of children, and you're having holidays, you are, so that certainly goes teo is sort of attached to the idea of the life stage, but lifestyle. There are other elements to think about and let's see what some of those are and see if he could miss this where you are in that, uh, as far as your lifestyle goes, so we've talked about this, but do you love to entertain and socialize in your home? So you started to say most of you that you love somewhat casual entertaining, even if you have a formal seated dining room, you're spending a lot of time on the deck outdoors. A lot of you are wanting to bring outdoor spaces into th...

e equation, which that's the great thing about outdoor spaces, they can really almost double the size of your home a lot of times, right? If you have wonderful decks or patios or yards or other things, but asking yourself how you entertain how many people are there how do you socialize in your home? You know this is part of that lifestyle peace this is a friend of mine's house that we did this fun little entertaining story and they have this great room they added on it's a it's just a dining room it's like a sun room almost and it's glass on three sides and has doors on three sides which is wonderful so you can open all the doors up onto the patio they live on a golf course and it's the beautiful space because they entertain often outside so they have a big patio attached to it and so they can have seated dinners in this room or they can open it up and it khun b the buffet table for all these great spaces outside so they knew when they added this under their house how they lived how they entertained and they entertain a lot of people like they'll have parties with fifty sixty people in their backyard and so they knew that and they were creating a space that really he would accommodate that so again just because you entertain that could be a lot different for a lot of people because you're probably not entertaining fifty or sixty people in your loft um but I mean you might be but probably not and so but that you know so outdoor entertaining can mean different things to different people certainly joining us from the netherlands welcome depth on but she was saying that in dutch homes tend to be very much smaller mention it being a big debate in her home with her husband toe have also have not a dining room her husband thought it was totally unnecessary but she thought the home was unfinished without it in fact over she says she really entertains she uses that so table so much for other things as well and she actually said she feels naked in the house without it I'm a little bit the same way I really love a formal dining room I think there's one of the more beautiful spices in the home um and I do like to entertain and I like to have dinner party, so I like to have them but it's an interesting debate interesting conversation because it's actually one of the more expensive rooms of the house to to furnish and so very expensive particularly now there's a trend for fully upholstered dining chairs that are very comfortable not unlike something almost is largest this chair I'm sitting in on dso when you spend a thousand dollars or more for upholstered dining chairs I mean just the chairs could be eight thousand dollars a table, a sideboard, a buffet ming you're spending thousands of dollars to furnish you know usually one of the more expensive lighting fixtures is in the dining room and rugs and so you you put a huge amount of money and a significant square footage into a dining room that you may or may not go into so again, I'm certainly not lobbying against them because I very much love them, but it's at least worth saying, how can we also use the space for something else? Or how can we incorporate dining into a different part of our home? So I think that's, really we're going to talk about that even more throughout this course. Let me show you some clever solutions that some people have used to really make a multipurpose dining space see, I don't know if she lost the battle or not with the husband of the donor, but she says she has around thirty different sitting places, so obviously chairs there appeared a big thing for death, right? Well, that's what this is about, do you need plenty of spaces for people together and that's one of the mean that's, one of my favorite things to do as well. This is a friend of mine's design, kathy greeley who's, a designer in north carolina, but I really loved this space, and I decorate like this a lot of times in that I love having a lot of different chairs and places to see sit in a space, and I left also to use other what I would call floating pieces of furniture things that tuck under like little ottomans that took under a console table or like the things we've been talking about already that the coffee tables and the consul tables and things that are multi purpose that you could bring into a space because I liketo have the option to accommodate a lot more people when we do have an event or we have a family gathering or we have a cocktail party uh then we do on a regular daily basis so thinking about how many people you need together in a space and I asked the specific question when I'm helping design design their spaces they're living spaces I say how many people are going to use this on a regular basis and I say, oh, you know, there's five of us three kids to two adults or you know, an outside well then do you host holiday dinners and which ones do you host and do you host anything else? And they'll say, oh, I host husband's office christmas party periodically or I'll have my book club over for with twelve women or I'll have, you know, whatever they do and it's important for me to know all of those things and all of the activities that they're dealing with because it can change the entire scenario for what we need tohave in that space so this is where that lifestyle piece really comes into play anything else? What other kinds of things are you doing in your sounds besides like how do you have any other kinds of groups of people over or uh, book clubs or any kind of things like that way dio yeah, I d'oh so is it just gathering with friends? And I'm just I'm just looking at this picture and this is exactly my next big project my formal living room has a large it's a nice sectional sofa but it's a sectional and it's big and it just dominates the room and it's not good for this I would much rather have this kind of seating and this kind of circular, huh gathering I have to convince my husband I think that's that's also a great observation because there are times when a sectional stuff is really, really functional like in a family room is particularly when you're it's people that are all in the same family that are going to pile on to the southern and when you bring guest in, people have a thing with personal space and zones and no matter how how much they like one another, they don't want to sit that close to each other a lot of time so then people are sitting on the floor and you're thinking well, there's an entire sofa here and there's only four people on it ah, and other people aren't really comfortable. So so in that scenario, something like this with several chairs is actually much more functional. Well, and I think it's nice to tow have different types of chairs because not everyone's comfortable sitting on a big, soft piece of furniture, like I prefer the smaller, firmer seating, right? Some people love that big cushy, so makes it nice that, you know, you can choose your seat. I agree with that, and so some people like a really deep sofa that's really like you're saying plush and you sink into other people, maybe aren't and it's funny because some people that aren't very tall don't like to sit on really big, big furniture and their feet don't even touch the ground so that's not very functional for them or his people age it's hard to get out of certain pieces of furniture. So lots of really good observations there just from this one. Um, one question that we're asking right here, how many people do you need to sit and it's? Not just how many, but what kinds of people, what kinds of scenarios and what kind of seating, which is a great question. Because I mean that looks to me like a very comfortable real room even though it's very structured and there's lots of things in there but for me I've never bought furniture for comfort I buy it for its style its look and I don't care if people are comfortable they hate to sit in the studio in my chairs thing is if you don't like people that much which it sounds like you know I haven't thought of it ugo have you thought about that remember to me it's all about the style it's not necessarily about comfort or function I guess would be no questions no so I'm looking forward to learning more about the where that's interesting so when you're in your own home then where do you sit? Oh, I'm quite happy to sit I mean this works for me happy to be in hell yeah because I'm not uncomfortable but I mean well I mean is that I don't buy things for comfort by computer clearly for style right now I have the barcelona furniture I switched it out, I have the oh, I'm kind blank the docs from company is going and I switched it out for this so it's always stealing black leather pieces aren't uncomfortable exactly, but that's not what they're designed that they're not plush, they're not overstuff, they're not downfield and all of them after and after a while you do find yourself shifting a mother and leather is not quite as easy to get cozy and sometimes either too well that's good to know so see that could be part of your life so if you don't want people to hang around very often don't I never thought about uh and then we already know that several of you like this but really how much you offer your life do you want to be outdoors? This is a project I've just finished uh recently for a client well it's the same we've seen this interior of this house before that was on the cover of house beautiful awhile back but this is we just built this outdoor verandas space for them and we went back and forth on whether it was going to be a closed in like a climate controlled space or open and we ended up just leaving it open it's not quite like in california because we have all seasons this is an arkansas and so there's times for theirs snow on the ground and everything so they can't use this all year round but they can use it a good um several months of the year there's a fireplace in it there's a bar there's a television a huge grill it's a really really neat space but they wanted to accommodate a lot of people and this was an interesting one because we were accommodating everyone from their youngest grandchild who is about probably for when we started building this tio one of their mothers who was in their nineties and they were both going to be there because they have lots of family gatherings and in fact they were using this when we were trying to rush to get it done so they could have, uh, the birthday party for the grandmother there and have other elderly people there. And so how do we make a space that's fun for the grandkids that makes the teenagers grand kids want to come over and visit um the little frank it's can use that they can use it on a regular basis and I could even have their aging parents over on dh but they want, you know, lots of people outdoors even up teo fifty or sixty people again at a party. So when you entertain outside what is for you so it's barbecue like cooking outside hanging out justin excuse to get outside e mean, you do whatever we want, but you have tables and chairs outside. Do you have it more comfortable lounging furniture out there like what's that look like we have a lot of adirondacks just because they're cheap budget, but we call that budget friendly differently uh and you know, they're transportable and whatnot, but I definitely I could see something like that my feet at all it's missing is like a pool boy I really want I agree with you but you could probably rent that have the full boy if you have the pool and the and the verandah yeah eso haven't eat when you entertain outside um there's there is a barbecue grill and I have two different of a the patio that I have is actually the width of the apartment so it's the living room and the bedroom which airs side by side and so I've got one seated table with chairs around it and then over here in the corner I've got kind of ah several low to the ground kind of a more lounge e area you've recreated both the living and dining space outdoors that was kind of my question that's what I was asking that some people are just dining outdoors and then other people haven't almost creating entire living spaces which this actually has both also but so you're having different kinds of activities going on outside yes on the same free yeah actually are our situation is pretty ideal even though it's not formal like this thie smoker and grill is on the patio in the back behind the kitchen and then we have the deck which is outfront which is a little more formal off of the dining rooms what I tend to do is have buffet in the dining room so the food is covered in protected great within the doors are open to the deck we haven't adirondack chairs I actually think they're comfortable we yet and we move them around we haven't been the yard and on the deck so it's casual but I still get that prettiness in my dining room and get kind of entertaining there with flowers and you're allah I'm like you I love to garden and have flowers and that really so you kind of spend time bringing the indoors out and the outdoors in and they sort of meld together yeah yeah that's great s o a lot of people now just just like people having pits more and more people are really having a lifestyle that includes outdoor entertaining outdoor dining I think because we stay cooped up indoors so much now on working we work long hours and we're attached of all all of our electronics many of us want to escape by getting outdoors so this is a huge piece of our whole the whole puzzle when it comes to if our house is functioning for us and what is our, um and and not necessarily a pool there's many, many people who don't have a swimming pool and I don't want to deal with all of the the things that go into caring for a pool but still want great, beautiful outdoor spaces on we've even taken pulls out of projects because people just didn't want to care from them anymore and just made beautiful gardens and outdoor living rooms basic here's another piece of that. So, yeah, if you're constantly throwing these barbecues for friends, or you're just spending time out there in yourself, I mean, it might be the difference. And if it just your backyard, it small and quiet, you're back there in a hammock versus having space for lots of people visit just in the summer. Is it all year long? And this was my left blast home. And we had part. We would have charity parties one time. This was a fiesta that I three for a local charity of it. And we had a lot of people in the backyard, but we had different zones. Um and so we were thinking constantly planning for and also included. I took out two windows and added french doors that brought the living room out onto the back. Petty it, just like you were saying to connect the spaces and people could flow through. But really, we were always thinking about ways to entertain and reasons for entertaining and s so that, you know, we had to think about different kinds of needs there for different people. Um, how many of you do work in your home? I think we ask this questions the sally like you do you do so? Um, that starts to bring in a whole other scenario for a lot of us. This is a in a home design studio for a friend of mine who's in north carolina. She actually has it add in her over the garage and like a studio apartment, but there's, so many things that come with all of our our jobs that we need to have at home, right? There's a lot of people I know that watch creative live that air photographers, and they have all of that equipment. Interior designers have tons of equipment samples and paint samples and tile and all of that bulky stuff. What's your job? I'm, uh, direct marketer. So is it mainly, like a computer free? So that's pretty streamlined, which is a good thing? It is, and one thing I did is I need a printer, but not all the time. And I didn't want to look at this big, black, ugly thing all the time. So I keep that in a closet plugged into an extension cord that I just plug in when I need it just so that I don't have to it's not part of my everyday life, but what rights? I don't have to pull it out and drag it out every time I need it, so we're going to get into a section on home offices and there's such technology that you can use with even wireless printers and all kinds of things these days, but that's good that you don't have tons of stuff that goes with with your work. How about you two? Do you have any anything in particular? That's changes your lifestyle with your working from home I just I'm running several businesses from home, and so the filing, even though I'm trying to be paperless, there's a lot of stuff that you just can't even incoming mail and having to separate that, and I'm trying to work from a glass disk and gave it very clear and clean and have everything just in this one yellow tray sign, not waking it's really not waking e saying earlier aspirational versus reality, so shines we would love to work from this beautiful glass desk in one little outbox and in box and it's, just not the reality of what happened. It has a view and I've got my laptop and totally it works to me emotionally, but then if you approach it from the other angle, where you can see everything I've stashed down there behind the sofa because I don't want to look at it, it is not aesthetically really working we're gonna add something I think you know I mean I don't really have ah works space I need for space is set and I'm really just working on my computer is such I mean when I'm working home I'm writing or whatever so I don't need you know we want to be comfortable while you were working or no I said I wanna be style so I have to jacobsen seven siri's chairs which the student used having here in the students hate that's I'm fine with that as long as you look at while you're doing all that you know when you're going teo three that is a piece of this whole puzzle I mean this lifestyle and life stage will see when you become an elderly may and if you could still sitting there already toby it's elisa is makeup that makes me look young eso working from home certainly we're going to get into a lot certainly affection your lifestyle but you know do you need a home office set up somewhere do you not like j k I was just saying I love this image it's not my design it's liz is again but I love this idea of being ableto have different functions and and making a space just carved out for a workstation and still be really beautiful ah and that looks really pretty but we're going to get into more of those as we go through the week together and you know if you do plan to work from home do you like to hide your home officer doesn't need to fit into you know part of the room layout is it tucked behind doors like I was suggesting for some of the clutter and for some people that's not gonna work but I wanted to be out I don't want to put up a hole cabinet to tuck everything in so there's some give and take and some of the things we want sometimes as a designer I unfortunately have to say you can't have your cake and eat it too we need to make some decisions either you can have the glass desk with the cords running off the back or we could move things into the cabinet but even that can't miss I barely have both and it gets into them saying which is more important which is really going to make the most difference for you are you a collector any of you have lots of things in your house I know j k o does not have lots of things and it's like total minimalism are any of you more of a have more of a traditionalist thatyou did you like right theresa yeah s so what kind of things are you trying to store collect? I'm well books of course but I have nice book shelves for my books so that's good I'm a sucker for antique markets vintage shops things like that I especially kitchen wares and glasses and plates on what I found really works well, our glass fronted wooden cabinets, and I just put all kinds of things in there and they, you know, look really pretty and because they're glass, I can see them, right? And also because they're behind glass, they don't get dusty that's good. Yeah, so any of you collectors of things that you said you were trying to get rid of? Lots and lots of your things, right? Yes, anna and I did, and so now I'm trying tio have things that matter to me on on shelves, but but not too many of them I'm a fan of not having is the filler for the sake of it being filler like you're saying, just having things that are really important that he maybe remind you of a certain person or a place or something really special are you do you collect? I would say that I am seeing that makes me really happy I think I edit myself a lot. This is my friend scott made him what he is a designer here in san francisco and he's a master at layering and collecting, and so I mean there's a lot of stuff happening in that space, but I still think that it looks I mean, if probably not going to be somewhere that j k wants to just hang out, although that's, what comfortable does sisi? I'm fascinated by that space? I to me that's suggest maybe an older person that I was sort of in visage of my grandmother's home because, you know, as you get older, you've collected all of this stuff and I would love to visit that home, but it wouldn't work for me to actually live in it. And this is pretty small because it's here in san francisco, scott's just kind of an old soul he's not very old, but he's an old soul and he he had he comes from the south, even though he's lived here for a long time so he's for a mississippi native and said he has a bit of that southern mentality mixed with hey also was a, uh does that? He worked for the raft lauren company for a long time, so you see a lot of that aesthetic showing up and now he's been interior designers who was in fashion and then interiors, and so he loves this collected look, I'm also fascinated by it, but it does bring about a whole different set of needs for function if just doubling as a function thing like doesn't look like you have to dust that thing all the time. Well and that's what I was saying earlier about personality types because someone who's going to be really be bothered by the fact that you have to dust things all the time is not going to be the right personality type toe have this kind of collected look most likely or it's going to need to be in the cabinet like you say behind doors completely driven by that like I was saying with the shower door I don't like I want to do is little cleaning it's possible? So definitely I think that's a good idea agree so and if you are a collector, this is another view of his home that was just recently in house beautiful so pretty to me but you know dio if you have collections are books like how do you want to display them? And does that have that has the whole piece in this function role but that's part of his lifestyle part of who he is and what he does so important to think about this, isn't it? Another back to my friend kathy greely has a big collector she lives in north carolina this is these air collections, but I think they're done in a really edited clean way as well yeah, you would have to dust um the flow blew on the wall, but I still think it looks really simple in the way it's presented but she's very much a collector and has lots of heirlooms and family heirlooms and thinks she's purchased so she has entire cupboards and closets that she designed in her home just to hold her collections of flow blue china and she has tons of it and it's very valuable and very beautiful but it's a big piece of of the puzzle of her home and she lives in a pretty small cottage there's my dog, carly the little sixteen year olds so do you have pets in your home? And how did they know again? How does that really affect me? Your space and the function of your space in your lifestyle? Are they allowed on the furniture for most of us that ends up being a yes, even if you have a rule that they're not going to be on the furniture is just like all the rules you have for kids those only last for a little while and before you know it, they're at the window you're shaking your hand that's the way probably imitated but never got somebody that he sits on me if I'm on the chair but he would never get up there if I wasn't there take care do you think that the most comfortable thing in your houses your dog's bid now my bet is the most comfortable thing you dog dog gets a christian, doesn't he yes, no one else gets a cushion. He's totally work like what you want. But for most people, for most people that animals end up on the on the furniture, at least on the rugs. But they're part of that piece.