Yesterday was my birthday and had a little time to reflect.

So many things are great about my life but I realize I don't often take the time to smell the flowers.

The Japanese concept of "ma" is the intentional use of negative space to create balance and harmony.

You can totally change the way your house or job or life looks. You can start today.

It is remarkable what can happen in a relatively short period of time (maybe a year) if you put concerted effort towards it.

Small & unique objects, placed in a relatively simple and plain space, can do quite a bit to elevate it and make it more visually interesting. Just imagine beautiful colored glassware on a white shelf.

You know that feeling when you walked into a hotel when you were a kid?

"what's to see here?" "what am I going to find?" "where is the drinking fountain?" "do they even have a drinking fountain?"

The best spaces do that.

Last week we discussed Lines of Sight & Focal points. Every room needs a focal point. It becomes the central part of your theme in each space.

But after specifying a focal point, what do you do?

It's everywhere you look. Another one of those subconscious principles that seems hardwired into people.

It originally comes from the Greek mathematics and was later expanded upon by Pythagoras and & Leonardo da Vinci.

Good designers take chances and try to do the most interesting thing. Something you don't see every day. Often not the safest mainstream choice.

It's been hardcoded since our cave dwelling days, but even if you never lived in a cave, you were still once in womb.

One of the things you struggle with when redesigning/renovating a home is defining what it's supposed to be and where it needs to go.

If you were creating a theme in your property, this exercise might be the first step. You have to strip the project down to it's essence (easier said then done) to know what to do.

We talked a last week of getting down to the essence of a building. This is a critical first step.

But what about the whole process? Here's roughly what I do as when approaching a new project.

Last week we left off on Part 1 of The Whole Design Process, breaking down how I typically approach designing a space.

I answer some of the most common questions I get!

This is an absolute bear of a topic. It's one of the harder things in design. I have made a lot of mistakes over the years!

Got to stay at a really fun contemporary house in Topanga Canyon for the 2 days, about to head back home.

Yesterday I was consulting a gentlemen on the renovation of his newly acquired NYC condo. I said something during the call that I've repeated a bunch of times in different ways, but I think it's important to reiterate.

Good design, as I see it, is really combining three different things in a space. If you can do all three (most can't), you are that much more likely to hit a home run on your projects: function, harmony & visual interest.

Yesterday afternoon I posted a video on Instagram and Tik Tok. Already my most viral video (4M+ views across platforms) and it hasn't been 24 hours.

Musicians can't finish songs. Designers can't finish rooms. Interior design is a lot like creating music.

Much of what makes a space great is seeing things you don't see every day. Much of what makes a good designer is being an idea machine.