*...What does the way someone decorates their living space tell you about them?...*
Being an Interior and Environmental Design student, the impact a space has on a person is an issue which needs to be thought about all the time. The atmosphere a space creates and the mood it puts people in is an important part of your designs. Through colours, furniture, size and shapes, the effect of the space can be altered and therefore can alter the atmosphere and the impact it has on altering someones mood.
I started by thinking about what a living space and the way it is decorated meant to me...
Living Space: live. relax. eat. drink. personal. watch. chat. listen. read. think. mood. warmth. comfort. family. friends. relationships. chill. atmosphere. decorative. feelings. expressive. learn. creativity. hobbies. laughter.
Through my mind map I looked at the different areas of a living space and the sort of things I wanted to find out about - sentimental items, where they get their ideas from, who or what are they influenced by, what colours they use, how much time they spend in this room, does it have one function or multiple functions. I started to think about not only how the decoration of someones living space reflects their personality, but also how it affects their mood. This then lead me to think about what I wanted to gain from these interviews. To get the answer to my question, I wanted to find out the main uses of their room and what they used it for, who or what they thought influenced them when decorating or choosing furniture (people, magazines, TV), where or who the decorations (paintings, ornaments etc) in their space came from, and how much the room reflected them as a person.
I realised that talking to someone about their home and main living space, especially when you had not been in it, was quite a personal thing to do, so because of this I tried to make my interviewees as comfortable as possible by chatting to them before, telling them a little about the course and design studies. Through doing this I found that they appeared to become more relaxed, partly because they were getting to know a bit about me as well and partly because they were learning more about why I was doing this research and the other sorts of assignments I had done in the past.
I spent a lot of time choosing my questions, and thinking about how I myself would answer them if I were to be asked one, as well as how close friends and family might answer them. I found that by doing this the questions I decided on worked better and provided people with the option for a more broad answer than if I had just thought about what I wanted to know. By thinking about how I would feel being asked these questions, I was also able to limit how personal the questions felt, but still making them so that the answers would give me the information I needed. In the end, my interview consisted of 8 main questions. I felt that although the guideline of 5 would have been enough, by adding a few more my end result was better, and by still keeping the number fairly low, the interviews did not take very long, which was what I had intended so as not to make people feel they were being interrogated and also so as not to take up too much of their time. On the whole, the people I was interviewing answered the questions the way I hoped they would - in detail, but keeping it fairly brief, and giving me the main points I was looking to get, with a few others too. Some of the questions required a little persuasion through other questions to get the kind of answer I was looking for but, by rewording the question, or asking one which was similar, I found that I got what I needed from it. Through some of my questions needing a bit of persuasion and for me to give the interviewees a different way of looking at them, I found that I was beginning to think about how I could have worded them differently to make them easier to understand, which I feel is good as in future I will now know more for when I next need to interview someone. I found that shorter questions were easier for people to answer and gave the most in depth answers, which was the opposite of what I was expecting, which was that the questions that asked more information would give the longest answers. If I were to do this assignment or any interview again, I would make all my questions fairly short to make them easier for people to understand. It was interesting to see that people sometimes only picked up on one element of the question, and I occasionally had to reword another element later on in the interview to receive the answer I was looking for.
An interviewee signing the consent form.
Although my interviewees were all female, they all led very different lives and it was interesting to see how the answers to some of the questions differed and how some were very similar. It was interesting to discover that whilst in my home TV is probably one of the main uses of our living space and the TV is on a lot of the time, in other people's it does not feature greatly in their lives, and one of the people I was interviewing didn't have a TV and hadn't for 18 months. She described this as 'difficult at first, but you get used to it' and went on to say that she realises now that she doesn't really need one at home and she does watch TV at friends' houses. All of the people I interviewed said that their living space was mainly used for relaxing, listening to music or watching TV, doing small hobbies such as crafts and sewing, and for comfort. Through the answers to the questions, I was able to determine who was close to their family and who wasn't. One of my interviewees mentioned, while talking about the main uses of her living space, that it was used as a place where the family gathered to eat, relax and be together. She also later mentioned, when asked about the sort of decorations and personal items she had displayed, that she had lots of family photos and things which she and her husband had gathered whilst they had been together. When asked to give a brief description of her personality and her life, she mentioned her family and husband in most of her main points which, along with the previous information, made me able to tell that she and her family were very close. In contrast, one of my other interviewees said in the description of herself and her life that she wasn't that close to her family, and that she 'was fond of them, but liked to keep them at a distance'. By receiving a short description of people's personality, I found I was also able to link it to the choice of colours they described in their living space. One person described herself as 'laid back, calm, sensitive and caring' and said she had a calming influence on her friends, family and the people around her. Her space was decorated in neutral colours, and had a relaxing and calming feeling. She had no bright colours in her space and the decorations such as cushions and curtains were also in neutral and calming colours. In contrast to her, another person who described themselves as open and friendly, and came across as quite chatty and bright, had her room decorated with neutrals (as her house was dark) but with splashes of very strong colours. She had two bright red walls, one with a mural on it, and the accessories in the room were all in strong colours. She also mentioned that she had a lot of sculptures and paintings. It was very interesting to see that with all of my interviewees, colour reflected their personality well.
Through my interviews I found that everyone I spoke to had a collection of decorations such as ornaments and paintings from around the world which they had gathered, or in one case made, themselves. They all also said that most of the things they displayed in their space were bought by themselves, or them and their partners throughout the time the had been together, and none of them mentioned anything which had been passed down or been a gift from family members, despite me asking questions which would have led directly to them telling me if they had. I found this quite interesting as it proves what I had originally thought about at the start of the assignment, which is that a living space is a very personal space, and although you may be influenced by magazines, family members or TV, the main decision maker and influence when it comes to decorating your home is you.
One of my interviews taking place.
Overall, I found that there are many factors of a person's personality which come through in the way they decorate their home. Colour, accessories, uses and influences all reflect someones personality well, and through asking questions about these, I found I was able to link the way people decorate their living space to how they described themselves, and also how they came across to me and my first impressions of them. I would definitely use an interview in future projects, as I found that it was a good way of getting a range of opinions and views on something, and you are able to gather all the information you wanted to, and sometimes more.
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