As a Design Psychologist, do I make buildings lie down on the couch and tell me their problems? I might help clients solve their color problems but the only couches involved are the ones I re-arrange.  Still  . . . I do help people design from within to create places that support positive growth and change.

Recently, for example, I’ve been working on a NYC apartment renovation for Marian, a lively widow. After her beloved husband died of cancer, Marian bought a pied-a-terre in New York’s vibrant Upper East Side.  This allowed her to slowly transition out of her 6- bedroom suburban house/life that now seemed too solitary.

Taking her through my Design Psychology exercises, we explored her past, present and, most importantly, future sense of ideal home.  She imagined:

My ideal home is homey, warm, and comfortable with strong colors and textures. I want a good flow from open, airy and light-filled room-to-room complete with family art.  I want to be able to look inside and out at the life force and energy of nature’s greenery - - all the time feeling embraced and nurtured.

Marian realized that she needed to move on from the muted white/beige colors throughout her suburban home which reflected the modest, cerebral personality of her British husband. Slowly she’d been adding red touches to the house – now up for sale. Once settled in NYC, her apartment’s deep red color scheme will express her natural warmth and exuberance.

Couches in her new airy, light-filled living room will be carefully positioned so Marian can lie down, look out at a spectacular cityscape of soaring skyscrapers against blue sky, and draw energy from “Color in the City”.

TIP:

You want to buy a house.
You want to redecorate
You want to design a school,
a workplace, a hospital,
a park, a city.
You look to magazines, to books,
to designers, to mentors.
And then you can look to . . .
YOU, just you
and all you are, and
all you have been
and all you have the power to become . . .

Copyright Toby Israel, 2009.