D is for Design

I love DESIGN!!  I think maybe I always have.  Other than climbing trees – which I also love – most of my earliest childhood play memories involve design.  I would lie on the sunny spot of my bedroom floor drawing and coloring.  My subjects were always the same trees and houses.  If it was a cold or rainy day, you could find me building elaborate multi-room blanket forts.

Years later I figured out that my mom had taken a decorating class at the local community college and this was most likely the source of my interest.  I remember being out on Saturday or Sunday afternoons and we would stop at mobile home or camper sales centers just to look.  To this day I still love looking at models and open houses.  There’s always something to be learned about layout or efficiency.

I am a huge fan of Mid-Century Modern design and current interpretations.  Attending the Harrington Institute of Interior Design in Chicago was an education in more ways than one.  I was able to fully understand the passion I have for commercial and furniture design over residential.  I also learned that I am NOT a decorator – like I needed anyone to tell me that.  I am amazed by those who are able to take a room that is furnished and give it life and a beauty it was lacking with just the right accessories.  My vision just doesn’t go there.

I’ve said for years that I would be happy living in a concrete and glass box.  I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with architects designing our dream house that we will eventually build on our farm in the mountains.  This process is as much about self-examination of how we live as it is about structure and construction methods.  Priorities are evaluated and shifted.  I see the metaphor in the plans and how we are actively designing our lives on a daily basis.  It’s fascinating!

13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! 

Psalm 139:13-17 NIV

3and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

Exodus 31:3-5 ESV