Tuesday, August 19, 2014

INTERVIEW WITH CALIFORNIA HOMES

What Are Advanced (Interior) Design Techniques: An Interview with Theresa Mawson of Theresa's Interiors

Please tell us a little bit about your company and the services you offer.

Theresa's Interiors began 35 years ago as a traditional design firm offering fine furnishings and interior design services. After several life-altering events, I became passionate about how our environment affects us on so many levels. Interior Insights (tm) was born, taking a somewhat a holistic approach, wherein all three dimensions (physical, psychological and spiritual) are utilized to understand and execute effective uses of space for an individual's needs. My interests in health, science, physics, spirituality, cultures, behavior and how the brain works led me to study and apply areas that are directly related to how we respond and interact within our environments, in my design firm. I offer traditional interior design from concept to completion for both residential and commercial clients, or "Interior Insights" using Advanced Design Techniques, ADT (tm).

Can you briefly talk about what Advanced Design Techniques are and who they are for?

Advanced Design Techniques utilizes what we know in science, health, physics and spirituality and implementing that broad scope of information to create a beautifully designed space personally tailored for the people that live within that environment. It is my hope that ADT becomes a movement, a life-changing mindset . . . a shift in how people relate to their home, family and the items they purchase to create their home.

Are there any simple tips that someone without any interior design experience can start using now?

It has taken over 40 years to bring so many parts of a system together for the whole. Before my interior design practice I worked in the women's health field and have used that experience within my design work. There is nothing simple when working with personal interests, personalities, toxins within the body and home, hormones, energy, mass, emotional responses and philosophies!

How does a home's environment affect the people who live there?

The field of psychoneuroimmunology studies the interaction between psychological processes and nervous and immune systems of the body (or stress on the body). When I apply my ADT, my interviews are deep. They include discussions surrounding personal lifestyle, childhood associations, and how the client's particular belief system can be incorporated into their space. Any environment can affect chemical changes within our body, positively or negatively. For example, our surroundings, in all of its dimensions, have the potential to increase the fight or flight responses. This, in turn, impacts cortisol levels, heart rates and circulation. Therefore, the design impact in a home is especially important when one has health issues, relationship issues, or a high-stress occupation. Addressing these issues jointly with your physical environment plays a key role in health and well-being.

What is one of the most important things for people to keep in mind when they are decorating their home?

My favorite quote is, "You don't know what you don't know." In the last 20 years, there has been a shift in mindset toward interior design. There seems to be an old agenda that encourages an "anything goes" attitude when marketing to the masses, and it has worked. People need to keep in mind there is power in space, universal laws and energy in action. These elements can be enhancing or destructive. Sometimes we crave things we may be allergic to; sometimes we prefer the color red but have high blood pressure and should not have red walls. Many designers do not even know the right questions to ask of their clients to bring out the optimal design approach. Advanced Design Techniques will become a new interior design shift, the new agenda for the dynamics of well-being in home environments.

Is there anything that gets commonly overlooked that should be considered?

I believe that the impact of toxicity in our homes, as it relates to our health, has been significantly overlooked. The incognizant layering of toxic compounds, making chemical soup in our homes, and its effect on our health is often considered only minimally, if at all. I encourage completing one small task a week to eliminate the toxic products that relate to many chemical sensitivities that clients may not even be aware exist. These sensitivities include symptoms of fatigue, asthma, sleeplessness, headaches and more.

What's the best way for people to contact you and your company?

I can be reached in the following ways:

Website: www.theresasinteriors.com
Email: theresasinteriors@gmail.com
Facebook page
Phone: 661-742-6022.
Please leave a message and your return number, as I do not answer while in the zone or with clients.
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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Living the "IT FACTOR "

In order to live IN the IT FACTOR you have to find it!

That indescribable sense of AHHHH!  My goal for my clients in interior design, and most recently I was told... that is the crux of what I provide.

One of my personal IT FACTORS is living amongst mature landscape. I love an open vision of beautifully landscaped space, a view I can see from every room in my home.  A "Viewscape" gives me a sense of freedom and expanse, stability and acknowledgement of the changes in life through the seasons.  Open space and intimate settings have been an instinctive calling when living in all of my chosen homes.

The first home was in an older neighborhood with huge trees lining the streets. I remember loving the sound of our huge pecan tree, dropping pecans on the street and rooftop, during fall winds.  The beautiful colors of autumn leaves piled high just like in the storybooks!!

The second home was semi-custom new construction and the beginning of my design experience. Much love went into creating an oasis of varied elevations and flowering foliage with pine trees to give privacy and an element of calming water. A true labor of love, with 42 yards of contoured dirt from our swimming pool and neighboring swimming pools. Tom loved playing with the borrowed tractor!  Definitely fond memories... and all our baby girl wanted was the green tractor we passed everyday in the farmers yard!

  The third home, was planned to be the final.  I was fortunate enough to have total "hands on" experience with the architect in the design and construction phase of the home and complete control in the landscape. The back yard was a test of patience...as we patiently waited for the yard of our dreams.  Our thoughts were to make it a retreat like space, as there was not much time to travel.... work was 24/7, on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We saved up, I contracted the work and created a park like atmosphere that was enjoyed by all.  Intimate pockets of space within a commercial acre of land was indeed the retreat we were after.

The next two homes had expansive views due to the golf course locations,  providing much needed openness and mature landscape, realizing a need to feel unsmothered.  I have come to realize this constant nurturing of nature is a vital component to enriching  my everyday living.  And...as current Evidence Based Design has acknowledged, is a very healing factor involved in our well being. I now look back and see the innate insight when I created "Viewscapes" in my beginning design practice over thirty years ago! AND why I love what I do!

The next example of my IT FACTOR, is the mixture of rich woods in my furnishings. I need light and dark finishes, burled woods and inlayed or carved craftsmanship.  I love the visual pleasure and interest
of textures.

 Where does that special feeling come from, deep inside of you?

 I am suggesting your discovery of self within your most nurturing of environmental space. An environment that enables increased energy, productivity and an overall sense of peace within. A place where you lose the sense of time and don't really want to leave.

  My research in advanced design studies has provided the tools and skill-set, developing an insight toward what makes up this perception for our individual sense of well-being. A subliminal feeling, partly extracted from one's history, a history which has been previously set into a deep cavern of experiences and senses from a childhood of various memories, only as correct as the last reflection in our memory bank.  Surprisingly, our memory really only pulls up the last recollection, not the first, which is why the stories and interpretations seem to change throughout time.  Irregardless, those sweetest of memories are the ones that are the most impactful and comforting to the soul.

An environment encouraging multi-faceted growth in mind, body, and spirit with the benefit of arousing all of our senses requires deep thought and the knowledge of many modalities.  A space that accounts for health, personality, constitutional make-up, and many other personal characteristics is profound toward creating a balanced individual space. Different for each individual, yet a mixture of delicious chemical soup in the best of family environmental dynamics.  A far cry from the chemical soup I speak of - regarding the toxins from various substances and furnishings within most homes. No, this chemical soup is from our own essence, which is mutable, as we have discovered.  The dynamics within a family and their space, that has good energy and momentum, balanced positive and negative charges can be a power of influence.

Let me help you make a difference in your world one step at a time, use the wisdom we now have and implement the changes needed in your space.

Bye for now,

Theresa