At this point, you are probably wondering exactly where I am going with this and what on earth fierce conversations have to do with interior design. What first struck me was how similar the principles of fierce conversations are to the principles of interior design - balance, emphasis, rhythm, proportion and scale, harmony and unity, but what really piqued my interest was the correlation between silence in a conversation and space, empty space, uncluttered space, is in an interior.
We Americans feel the need to stuff our homes with more and more things and fill our conversations with words and small talk. As Susan Scott notes in Fierce Conversations "It is a phenomenon of our times that, for many people, silence is almost unendurable. Silence makes us nervous. So do innovation, change and genius." In the movie, Proof, Jake Gyllenhaals character, Hal, wrote a song for his band entitled "i". It is not a song at all but silence. No lyrics, no melody - just silence. When his band plays "i" at the funeral for his teacher, Robert, everyone sits quietly except Roberts daughter, Claire who, unable to endure the silence, nervously fills the empty space with her laughter.
Embrace space in your interiors with these rules of thumb:
1.Avoid placing furniture around the perimeter of the room. This "ballroom" feel is not conducive to interaction and conversation.
2.Allow a minimum of 24" to 36" between furniture for traffic flow.
3.Avoid placing the sofa on the longest wall; this reinforces a bowling alley type of feel to a room. Try floating the sofa into the room to create visual impact.
4.Mount window treatments 8" to 11" above the window frame depending on the height of your ceiling. This balances the entire treatment on the wall and visually makes the room seem larger.
5.Leave a place for the eye to rest. Don't be afraid to leave some spaces unadorned. Less can be more!
"Memorable conversations include breathing space -or just space, of any kind. My motto is: Don't just rearrange the furniture. Toss it out. Become a minimalist."
- Susan Scott
