The Interior Design with Your Personality in Mind Quick Mini Quiz

Over the years I have developed a theory about the impact of interior design and colour selections on different personalities. It all started in the 1980’s. In the early 1980’s I studied art but soon realised I liked working with people as much as going art work.

We bought our first house and I wanted to decorate our home to a high standard. So I did a couple of interior design and decorating courses. This eventually lead a offer of a job as a kitchen designer. But I wanted to be involved with all aspects of design and applied and was accepted into the interior design course at the Queensland College of Art. I was delighted to find I could combine my artistic flare and my love of people with a career in interior design.

During the 1980’s I also became involved with success motivation and personality profiling. So began my interest in personality. Over the years I have studied psychology and counselling. I was and continue to be fascinated and study people and interior design.

I have written a series of four articles called ‘Interior Design with Your Personality in Mind’ if you would like to read the articles please follow this links below:

Part 1:
 

http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/interior-design-with-your-personality-in-mind-part-1-2403304.html

Part 2:

http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/interior-design-with-your-personality-in-mind-part-2-2403321.html

Part 3:
 

http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/interior-design-with-your-personality-in-mind-part-3-2403342.html

Part 4: 

http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/interior-design-with-your-personality-in-mind-part-4-2403355.html                                                                                                                          

In the articles I provided a link to this blog. If you have read the articles and followed the link to the ‘Quick Personality Quiz’ here it is.

If you would like to do a full personality test go to http://www.discinsights.com/cyber/Scripts/disc.asp

If you want some fun go to http://www.gotoquiz.com/personality_plus_1 you will find a quiz on the subject connected to dating  

On reading this back I have noticed a few errors. The personality style most likely to have noticed and been annoyed with the errors would be the melancholy. Most of us do notice errors but the melancholy person likes perfect and therefore is most likely to be upset by the mistakes.

As designers we do need to be detailed people. For this reason I would usually go back and check for mistakes and the correct them. But for this blog I have noted the mistakes and left them. I have noticed it is very easy to make mistakes while blogging. I do try to double check but I am sure I miss a few so I hope you will forgive me.

Frank Lloyd Wright stated  

‘A doctor can bury his mistakes 

but an architect can only advise 

his client to plant vines’  

The German Youth Movement and The Vienna Secession

Art Nouveau in Germany was expressed in the ‘youth style’ or Jugendstil. In Austria the Vienna Secession group of artists and designers created a form of Art Nouveau. The Vienna Secession group of creative individuals had a great impact on what we call modern design.

It always amazes me (I know it shouldn’t) how even during difficult times the kindness, care and provision of God shines through.

‘I believe in the sun 
even when it isn’t shinning

I believe in love even when I cannot feel it

I believe in God even when he is silent’

Written on the wall by a Jewish prisoner in Cologne

Art Nouveau in Germany
In Germany the best example of Art Nouveau was August Endell’s ‘Atelier Elivra’ built in 1896. The façade was asymmetrical, the windows and door openings rectangular with curving corners. The building was decorated with a bas relief of curing lines giving a wave like appearance.

In Munich the German Art Nouveau developed as the ‘youth style’ or Jugendstil. In 1899 Richard Riemerschmidt designed a music room for the Dresden exhibition. He designed furniture, lighting and wall decoration. One of his chairs from this time has become a ‘classic’ and influenced modern design.

For the Paris exhibition in the same year he worked with Bernhard Pankok to create a dining room. Pankok also designed a smoking room. He lined the room with carved timber shapes creating what was called by some a Jugendstil fantasy world.

Another designer working in the Jugendstil style was Peter Behrens. The interiors of his home Darmstadt built in 1901 are an example of his work. Peter also designed electric fans, kettles and other products for the German electrical industry in a more reserved modern style.

The Vienna Secession
A group of artists and designers in Austria become known as the Vienna Secession. In 1897 they withdrew from the Vienna Academy in protest because the Academy would not accept modernist works. Gustav Klimt the painter headed up the group.

Joseph Oldrich created a design based on natural forms for the decorative detail of the Secession Gallery in 1897. There were hints of classicism in the symmetrical rectangular building. The arched ceiling had skylights and flowing Art Nouveau motifs decorated the walls. Oldrich also designed the Villa Friedmann.

Another architect involved in the Secession style was Josef Hoffmann. His later works became more rectangular. The Puckerdorf Sanatorium built in 1903-6 has white walls. The interior are simple with patterned tiled floors in black and white. The furniture is inclined to be of in straight lined modern style. His most famous work built in 1905-11 is the Palasis Stoclet found in Brussels.

The building is asymmetrical with sculpture placed on the large tower. Interior walls are thin marble sheets edged with gilding. Klimt created large murals for the dining room.

Adolf Loos was involved with the group but became concerned with what he thought was a superficial decorative slant in the movement. His work includes bentwood furniture for Thonet.

He also worked with the glassware firm Lobmeyr. His Steiner House built in 1910 was very austere with white block like walls with scattered windows.

The work produced by the Vienna Secession tended to be simple and geometric in form; craft orientated with the result it has had a greater impact on modern design than the other forms of Art Nouveau developed in France and Belgium.

Was Gaudi gaudy?

The Spanish architect and designer Antoni Gaudi was considered gaudy by some. Yet others found his work inspiring and individualist. He was an architect and designer. Gaudi expressed himself in stained glass, ceramics, wrought iron and furniture as well as architecture.

Antoni was interested in tonal values as much as colour. He used natural forms; sinuous and plant like. He would use clay or plaster to model his design ideas in 3D sculptures. 

Gaudi designed apartment blocks, churches and parks. He was influenced by the Art and Craft movement, Viollet le Duc and from his own desire to design without artistic reference. His Casa Batllo 1904-1906 brief was for the apartment to be refaced and refurbished. 

He created interiors with undulating ceilings unusually shaped windows and door frames. The furniture he designed was biomorphic and carved in solid oak. Panel doors were studded with small mirrors.

The Casa Mila a six story apartment block was begun in 1905. The exterior made of rippled cement was created around open courtyards. Balconies have iron railings and the chimneys and air vents are sculpture like structures. He also designed the furniture.  

   

Gaudi considered aspect and ergonomic principles important. He used bits of rubble, bricks, shade of pottery, paint and whitewash to create unique work. He also used the advanced technologies of the industrial age. This is how many Art Nouveau designers differ from the Art and Craft movement designers. He stated:

‘Those who look for the laws of nature 

as a support for their new work 

collaborate with the creator’ 

Art Nouveau was originally a term used for the French and Belgium designs of the early 20^th century. It was only later the term was extended to include work like Gaudi’s. It has become the term used for design created in nontraditional naturalistic styles in many countries during this era.

               

Horta, Van de Velde, Bauhaus, & Bing

It is often suggested Art Nouveau first appeared in France and Belgium. This is mainly considered the case due to the work of the great architect Victor Horta and the designer Van de Velde both from Belgium. Their work first appeared in Belgium; townhouses featured elegantly twining wrought-iron staircases, balconies, and gates.

Velde moved to Paris and designed a shop for Samuel Bing. The La Maison de l'Art Nouveau shop would give its name to the Art Nouveau movement. Velde designed everything in his own house down to the table silver and cookware.

He was inspired by English Arts and Craft design and established a bridge between the two. He moved to Berlin and designed the Art School in 1904-11. This school would eventually become the world leading Bauhaus.

Victor Horta designed furniture, light fittings, stain glass panels, door and window frames and hardware. One of his most famous buildings the Tassel House (hotel) was built in 1892. He used flowing curves in the steps and iron railings of the stair way. He painted or stenciled mute coloured patterns on the walls and ceiling. The metal columns were slim, hanging light fittings with shades in curved flower like shapes and the floor was mosaic placed in an S curved flowing pattern.

Horta’s own house is now the Horta Museum. He used white tiles on the walls and ceiling in a brick like fashion. Timbers built in cabinets were created with stained glass inserts. Curved lines dominate the furniture and room.

Horta used a centralized floor plan instead of the usual corridor design of the era. He supervised all the interior decoration and furniture design in all his buildings. The four major town houses he designed Hotel Tassel, Hotel Solvay, Hotel van Eetvelde and the Maison & Atelier are located in Brussels. In 2000 the buildings were listed as World Heritage.

Victor Horta used

· Iron railings in curved lines

· Stenciled walls and ceilings

· Mosaic floor tiles

· Irregular shapes

· Exposed cast iron structurally

· A centralised floor plan

· Glass and iron facades

· Asymmetrical balance

· White tiles

· Muted colours (olive, mustard, sage, brown gold, salmon…)


France

Hector Guimard is the architect who developed the style in France. He designed the Parisian Metro subway entrances in 1898-1901.

Emile Galle’s glass work, Louis Majorelle’s furniture designs and the posters of the artist Alphonse Mucha are all contributors to the Art Nouveau movement.

Maxim’s Restaurant also had fashionable Art Nouveau interior décor. In 1909 Paris was invaded by the Ballets Russes. They used scenery and costumes in bright primary colours instead of the pastel shades of the era. This influenced the interior decoration of drawings rooms and salons. The rooms become richly textured, with patterned curtains and heaps of cushions in reds, green and orange.

"The artist is nothing without the gift,

but the gift is nothing without work."

Emile Zola (1840-1902)

Just a Wee Bit Of Art Deco in the Middle of Art Nouveau

When I have finished writing the series on Art Nouveau I will move onto a series of blogs on the Art Deco style. I interrupted this series because I have already written and published an article called ‘How 2 Create a Jazzy Art Deco Bedroom’ and I would like to show some examples of Art Deco schemes I have created on Sample Board Online.

So for those of you who may have clicked the link to this blog here are a few examples to keep you going until I complete the series on Art Nouveau. The sample boards were very quickly and easily created on the SBO site

I invite you to revisit the blog and follow the blogs on Art Deco. There is a suggestion by some; the Art Deco style will be coming back into vogue. I must admit after spending time looking at the splendor of both these styles I am tempted to redecorate in either the Art Nouveau or Art Deco style with a modern twist. But I have to constrain myself we plan to move in the next few years. Then I can let myself loose and create a totally different home.

If you would like to read the article here's the link http://www.articlesbase.com/interior-design-articles/how-2-create-a-jazzy-art-deco-bedroom-in-6-easy-steps-2315727.html

 

Winston Churchill stated

“We shape our dwellings. Afterwards our dwellings shape us”