Tag: Interior Design

Flowers – Why they are so much more than just a pretty thing?!

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Function
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Flowers, – why are they so much more than just a pretty thing?

This time of year is always a little confusing to me, my mind and my body. My self-care practice needs to be at 100% or else I start going a little crazy. Kinda like a bear who is just starting to wake up after hibernation, or a deer learning to walk for the first time. But this state is also my favourite. As we transition into a new season we get to embrace a new life, warmer weather, maybe even a rebirth, if you may.

As our moods begin to shift from an introverted winter to a more energetic and outgoing spring, it is important to shift our homes and office spaces as well. One of the easiest ways to do this is by bringing in new life! Yes, I am giving you permission to buy all of the plants and flowers!

Why should you buy fresh flowers?

1. They freshen the air! Sure they make the room smell delicious, but they also filter the air! Some remove toxins and can even improve your sleep because they give off extra O2.

2. Brighten your space! Maybe you own your home, or maybe you are renting a space where what you are allowed to do to it is quite limited. Flowers are the easiest way to add a splash of colour without the commitment factor of painting the walls!

3. Self Care! There are so many studies on the benefits of fresh flowers, with benefits that include:

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduced feelings of anxiety
  • Help with fatigue – Hello O2
  • Improved cognitive function

  • My top 3 low maintenance plants for air purification:

1.Devil’s Ivy or pothos (Epipremnum aureum)

This is my absolute favourite plant! They are harder to kill than they are to keep alive! It stays green even when left in the dark. I love this climbing beauty. 
  • Water every 7-10 days, allow the soil to dry out before watering
  • They love sunlight, but only indirectly!
  • Propagate when ready!

 

 

2. Spider Plants

These are my favourite plants for the bedroom because they filter out carbon monoxide from the air and they are very low maintenance. Plus, when the plant matures they produce “pups” which you can plant and make more plants!
  • These do really well in a hanging pot
  • They like indirect sunlight
  • They like dry soil and to be in a cooler room

 

3. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)

Need I say more. These beautiful plants are great for low light spaces and, if your pot allows, this will grow extremely large. they produce beautiful white flowers!
  • To be watered weekly
  • No Direct Sunlight
  • Commit to a pot size – Whatever size you plant your Peace Lily in, –  it will grow!

The bottom line for all Plants & Flowers in your space… give them love and they will do the same.

My Shift – From Family to Family Business

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You

My Shift – From Family to Family Business 

I work in a family business. I started working in my mom’s interior design firm shortly after university, about 7 years ago. What started as a basic desk job, answering phones and pouring coffee, slowly but surely blossomed into a career. Mind you, a career in a field I had never imagined working in, AND LOVING, let alone working so close to my mom every single day. When I tell people that I work in a family business, they tend to say in a very obviously presumptions shitty tone, “so, like, you work with you mom every single day? That must be hard!” It leaves me thinking, why isn’t it as hard as it once was? How did we get to the successful place we are now?

On reflection, we created several strategies that worked well for us to succeed in a family business environment and culture. The strategies work even for those who might not be part of the Sprague clan but are part of the team and live/work/play in our company culture.

Establishing Boundaries and Permissions. 

Redefining the family relationship in the work space is key. Creating a “contract” of sorts. For instance, it is easy to let old habits or old stories bubble over into the work space. Our strategy was to agree that certain topics and conversations are booked and planned for outside of the work space. Not left to fester.  For any interpersonal conversations we agree to firstly ask permission and commit to actively listening.  Enduring our discomfort for the good of our culture — conflict, resolution and witnessing each other at the expense of the comfort of both parties. In other words, just sit in it.  

We Acknowledge Family First. 

We are a family first business. That means, if someone in our family circle is qualified to do work that we have, we will give them that work. We have made this policy overt and clear to ensure it doesn’t confront others we work with. 

The lamp is a shining example of this. It was handmade for a client by my very talented brother-in-law. Just one of many of his beautiful pieces.

There is No Work-Life Balance

This is a conscious decision we made in our business. We believe in the flow of “life”. This was put so beautifully by a speaker at the recent season opener Grace Club YVR event we attended as a team. It resonated deeply with me. She said (basically),“it’s not like we have a switch in our heads where we can flick from personal to work. They are all one and must be lived that way.” This policy does require open communication and honesty which brings me to the last strategy…

Show Up in Your Truth

We have been working to have a conscious and mindful workplace. This is a HUGE part of our culture here at our Studio and it is central. What ever you are feeling, our place of work is a safe space to express that feeling.

This is the framework: 

  • speak your “feel” without blame
  • take personal responsibility if applicable
  • identify your need around what’s happening for you
  • ask for support and help around that “need” 

This is the part of our work environment that I love the most. It’s not always about checking your baggage at the door. And, it’s also not about unpacking that baggage in a hot mess everywhere in the work space.

It’s about:

  • carrying that baggage into the space
  • expressing that it’s heavy and you need help carrying it
  • and what that help might look like for you today 

I love working in a family business.

I do acknowledge that it can be challenging but establishing these strategies as part of our work culture has been worthwhile journey. I feel honoured to work with my mom and in our family business every single day. Plus, our staff are pretty much like family after working here, so… welcome to the Good Space Plans Online & Dwaina Sprague ID clan!

 

How Home Makes My Heart Feel

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Function
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How Home Makes My Heart Feel

Homeward Bound.

Home for me has always been my safest place in the world. It was in the Fraser Valley- Maple Ridge, BC – on a beautiful piece of acreage. It was spacious, functional and fun. It was something I was unbelievably proud of; always full of food, family and friends. It was my place in the world to feel safe, no matter what. When I came back home from university in Nova Scotia, home was always there waitingfor me. I knew how blessed I was to have this anchor of home. It was a physical place to me as well as a feeling in my heart. At the time, I didn’t distinguish the difference, they were synonymous.

Lost. 

It was in 2012 we lost my father to suicide. The loss was and still is unfathomable. It threw our entire family & community in the deep end of mental health awareness. It left a gaping hole in everyone that knew him. I was left… shattered. I needed to go home, but it didn’t feel the same anymore. The safe feeling in my heart was gone. Shortly after, we sold the family home & property along with a lot of our family possessions. My physical anchor and safe place in the world was gone. At the time it felt like that experience might last forever. After the sale, I ended up renting an semi- furnished apartment off a family friend in Vancouver. It was a space that never felt like mine – I wasn’t sure how it felt, but I know how it didn’t feel, like home. 

Found. 

The next year or so was a blur of trying to make sense of what was now my new normal. It was in late 2013 I moved out of that semi-furnished apartment in Vancouver and into a basement suite in Burnaby with my new partner. I was working for my mom’s interior design firm, Good Space, answering phones at the time. The interior designers at the studio offered to help mock up some space plans for me of my new basement suite with the few furniture pieces I had accumulated. 

They showed me the best flow for the open space feeling of my basement suite and also helped me make a shopping list of things to get for the space in the future. The day my partner and I moved in, we followed our floor plans and began to set up our new space. I filled the shelves with my things, I set up the lamps I had, side tables and some of the personal possession I had at my family home. I felt better about my new space but it wasn’t home, it wasn’t the safety and security I once knew. I didn’t know how to shift this, I felt very stuck.

Home is Created. 

Let’s jump forward to 2019. I still live in Burnaby, still live in a basement suite, and still living with my partner. If you were to ask me today where my safest place in the world is, I would have to say the home my partner and I created in Burnaby. I reflected on how I got here from where I was before and it was a combination of things:

  • Addressing function first in the space I am living, working and playing. It was really thinking about how I use the spaces in my home and honouring their purpose. 
  • Putting aside the desire to have my home look a certain way and understand its about how I want to feel about the space.
  • Making goals and lists for things to get in the future to always be improving the space and function around me. 
  • Most importantly, giving my home the attention it was asking for. 

I honoured that it wasn’t something that was just going to happen, or somewhere that I could just show up at, expecting something from. It is an experience that I am capable of creating in any place I live. It needed nurturing, creating, love and energy. 

I learned that home is something I can create anywhere I want to. It’s a combination of energy, function, purpose, my possessions and their meaning to me. It’s a place and feeling that I have learned is both tangible and yet intangible.

Styling a Room – What Does That Mean?

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Goods
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Styling a room versus filling it with crap… there is a book for that.

During my most recent  book shop crawl I found this gem of a book called Styled: Secrets for Arranging Rooms, from Tabletops to Bookshelves by Emily Henderson. If you have art and travel treasures and things you love and find beautiful and meaningful and want to display them in a way that honours them and inspires you then this book is for you!

Define Styling…

Interior design is a mix of technical work and artistry. I define “styling” for our clients as placing and arranging all their art, collections, books and “treasures”. Styling with art and objects that have beauty and meaning. This is the perfect way to finish a technically well planned space. Styling a room is like the jewellery on an outfit. It finishes it and adds soul to the space. It reflects the most important thing about your space which is you.

What I believe:

I believe the things you have in the room should have meaning and value to you.  In that they make you happy or remind you of people or experiences that feed your soul. Things that inspire you with their beauty or function. The bags of knick knacks from home decor shops dragged into your home in the hope of injecting this feeling is futile. I strongly discourage it! Personally I am not a fan of over doing “stuff” in a room. Stuff for stuff sake or “shelf shit” as my friend calls it detracts rather than enriches a space. An empty shelf or table top is better than one that is filled with things that mean nothing to you.

How Good Space Plans Online deal with Styling:

We have worked out a way to help our Good Space Plans Online clients with styling. Good Space can do that when we are not in the same city  let alone the same room!  There is a great styling section in the Good Space online plans that we create for our clients.  I know this is really helpful for hanging art and placing treasures

Happy Styling!

 

How to improve your home for free!

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You

What if there was something totally free that you could do to feel good in your home even if your home isn’t perfect or close to how you want it to look yet?

What are you focusing on?

It​ ​is​ ​becoming​ ​a​ ​well​ ​documented​ ​scientific​ ​fact​ ​that​ ​our​ ​brains​ ​search​ ​out​ ​and​ ​hang​ ​on​ ​to​ ​the negative.​ ​I​ ​invite​ ​you​ ​to​ ​start​ ​to​ ​notice​ ​when​ ​you​ ​do​ ​this​ ​about​ ​your​ ​home.  Raise​ ​your​ ​hand​ ​if​ ​you​ ​have​ ​ever​ ​welcomed​ ​guests​ ​at​ ​the​ ​door​ ​and​ ​immediately​ ​apologized for or pointed​ ​out a​ ​mess​ ​or​ ​a​ ​flaw​ ​in​ ​your​ ​wall​ ​or​ ​furniture?​ ​My​ ​hand​ ​just​ ​went​ ​up​ ​for​ ​sure!  

We​ ​unconsciously​ ​and​ ​sometimes​ ​consciously​ ​find​ ​the​ ​flaws​ ​or​ ​failings​ ​of​ ​our​ ​homes, furniture​ ​and​ ​fittings​. This causes us to ​spend​ ​precious​ ​energy​ ​focusing​ ​on​ ​it​ ​without​ ​any​ ​intent​ ​or willingness​ ​to​ ​take​ ​action​ ​to​ ​change​ ​it.​ It becomes a habit and unknowingly starts to change the relationship we have with our homes. ​I​ ​don’t​ ​believe​ ​this​ ​serves​ ​us​ ​or​ ​gives​ ​our​ ​homes​ ​the love​ ​they​ ​require​ ​to​ ​support​ ​us​ ​as​ ​we​ ​live​ ​our​ ​busy​ ​modern​ ​lives.

What we focus on expands.

There is a fun game that my grandson and I play it can be played inside or outside. We say,  find all the blue or red or yellow and it is amazing what we see. Suddenly so many objects with that colour appear and we didn’t notice them before. All that changed was that we focused and looked for it! I think this is true about our homes too. If we focus on the flaws then they too seem to expand and become all we see.

Change the focus.

It seems reasonable to conclude that  if it works one way then it can work the other way too. By focusing on what we love or what makes us feel good in our homes we expand and notice these things instead. This seems like a healthier more productive practice. To be grateful for those things that sustain and enrich us and to openly express what we are grateful for and love about our homes feels so much better. This becomes the path to making good choices and planning for changes to our homes.

Let’s find the good and build on that.

Through our work as interior designers we have the privilege of helping people find the good in their homes as we work together to create beautiful and sustaining spaces. Whether it is online or in person we believe this is the foundation of our work. Find the good and what our clients feel they really need and want in their homes and build on that!