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THE SOMMELIER’S GUIDE TO INTERIOR DESIGN

My very first exposure to the art of gastronomy and wine pairing was in Old Montreal club Le 375 c… This private club truly set a tone for high quality in design, service and food from A to Z

This traditional building speaks history and is juxtaposed with modern architecture. The drinking lounge is anchored with dark lacquered wood and upholstery wall paneling. The lighting is moody and quiet with gentleman lounge chairs. The interior design is Art Deco inspired reminiscent Old Hollywood from the 1950’s.

HISTORY + ARCHITECTURE + INTERIOR DESIGN + SERVICE + FOOD + WINE = MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
The 8 course menu with wine pairing was a delight…absolute perfection. Three to five bites per course with wine paired perfectly from light to dark transitioning smoothly through the four seasons.

FOOD + WINE + AMBIENCE = MEMORABLE EXPERIENCE
Great sommeliers are the resource to all the wines around the world and have extensive knowledge with grapes and its origin. They will direct you to the right choices and elevate your dining experience to a new level.

PSYCHOLOGY OF SOMMELIER = PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERIOR DESIGN
A high end interior designer should have the same mindset as a sommelier…They are educated and trained with their eyes and have extensive knowledge with resources in furniture and finishes. They also guide you to choosing the right style and selecting furnishing that suits your lifestyle and compliment your space.

Furniture + Art + Ambience = Memorable Experience

In winemaking, vintners pay attention to the details. Taste is obviously most important. They bring out the nuances of each grape so that you and I can taste the notes of the fruit and what the environment brings to it.

But they never neglect the aromas, color or clarity. And they leave us to appreciate all of these features as we swirl it around, watch the wine’s legs form on the glass, smell and then finally taste the wine.

NOTES + NOSE + LEG = COLOR + TEXTURE + LIGHTING
Quality Interior design is highly focused on the details. By paring colors, textures and appropriate lighting, they activate our visual and emotional sensory that sets the ambience for quality design and experience to remember.


SUBMIT YOUR GUEST POST TODAY

We’d like to give someone else a chance to do the work for a change.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been having lots of fun bringing you all of our tips and views on high end interior design. And we’re going to keep doing so. That said, we’ve gotten to know so many quality interior design bloggers over the last few months, and we are beyond impressed.

That’s why we’re putting out a call to any blogger who writes about high end interior design, luxury, or real estateto submit a guest post to us. We’d like to feature your work here so that all our fans, readers, and clients can come in contact with all the great talent out there.

To submit your guest post email your suggested topic to my personal account at intbysteveng@gmail.com or Tweet to @intbysteveng.


QUALITY INTERIOR DESIGN NEEDS A GREAT FLOOR PLAN

Miami interior designer Steven G. tackles getting the perfect floor plan from a brand new angle.

DESIGNTV WITH STEVEN G.: EPISODE 16

Watch Miami interior designer Steven G. sneak up on one of his top renders Crocodile Hunter style.

THE ONE THING YOU SHOULD ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND WHEN THINKING ABOUT REDECORATING

I always loved the The Wizard of Oz.  When I was a kid, watching it ranked right at the top of my highlights of the year.  Right after Christmas, of course.

Scary, fun, happy, sad!!! All these emotions wrapped up into one movie.  It wasn’t until I grew up and took a film history class in college that I realized the real genius behind this film.

Firstly, I had hated most musicals as a child.  I could just never understand why seemingly normal human beings would be engaged in a highly interesting conversation and then feel the sudden urge to burst out into a little tap dance and a song.

I tried doing it in school.  Needless to say it didn’t work.  I did take tap dancing however and that didn’t help either.

But then the professor of my college class began speaking of The Wizard of Oz as a musical.  Are you kidding me?  I’ve been watching a musical my whole life and didn’t even realize it.

Now that is a good musical.

It’s genius!  It’s like serving brussel sprouts to a kid in a totally unique way that makes them like it.

Then there was the fact that The Wizard of Oz came out during high quality color film was brand new.  It was filmed in a 3 strip Technicolor process, to be exact.  This means that there are three strips of film passing through the camera at the same time.  One in red, another in green, and the last in blue.

Even by today’s standards, this process is the gold standard of cinematography.  It just became too expensive.

In the case of The Wizard of Oz, it was fitting that the film began in black and white and then transitioned into vibrant colors.

Most people in 1939 had never experienced a big screen colored film.  Going to a movie in those days was a huge deal because television did not exist.  It was an escape from everyday life.  The story line of the Wizard of Ozseemed serendipitous to the technology that happened to be occurring at the time.  And that’s what made it so magical.

So why am I spending so much time talking about my favorite film on a blog about high end interior design? Because it illustrates the power of serendipity…and allowing serendipity to happen is the most important thing you can do if you want to end up with a truly quality interior design for your home.

WHAT IS SERENDIPITY AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Serendipity as defined in the dictionary is “an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.”

As a full service interior designer in the New York City area, I found early on how important it is to optimize your environment to make the most of it.  And I learned that you had to be prepared to accept the parameters and the obstacles of that environment to shape the world you want.

Serendipity is often about placing subliminal footnotes of your design obstacles in the back of your mind and to refine them as opportunities.

HOW THE MOVIE BIG CHANGED HOW PEOPLE LIVE IN NEW YORK
The movie Big was released in 1988.  Some of you may remember it as a quirky, funny movie with Tom Hanks.

The movie certainly did a lot for Hank’s career,  but it also had an unexpected, serendipitous effect. It planted a seed in the average Americans mind of a new lifestyle possibility.  Yes, the movie was fun.  But what about that kick ass LOFT apartment?  It was great.  Wide open and tall enough to use a trampoline in.

I know when I saw it, I immediately thought to myself,  “Hey I could live that way.”

The movie changed how people visualized what a home environment could look like.  And as a result it started a trend that serendipitously revived the abandoned industrial areas of many downtowns across America.

MAKING SERENDIPITY WORK FOR YOU
Don’t Fear:  Don’t fear your space.  Don’t let a difficult space get the best of you. Don’t let it drive you crazy.  Hey it’s only space.  Relax.  If you begin to worry, you won’t be able to leave your mind open to see truth or the best solution. That hurts the creative process.  This is true in anything in life.   If you worry it will make you do things that wouldn’t ordinarily do with a clear mind.

Preconception is a Killer:  Don’t preconceive how a space should be in your own mind.  No design and no space are perfect.  So stop setting yourself up for failure and setting your standards on a cloud that will likely vaporize.  I have clients that want perfection.  I’m dying over here because this column or window is in the wrong spot.  One of your legs is longer than the other also.  Get over it. The problem with preconception is that once you have a particular idea in mind, it’s difficult to get it out.  But if you persist with the idea you may end up forcing the issue.   As a result, your design will appear to be forced and without flow.

Give and TakeHigh end interior design should be a process of giving and taking.  It is a gray abyss.   If you force something and it goes wrong, it often manifests itself and has a chain reaction effect. Likewise, when you have done something correct, it feels easy and at one with you and begins to flow like the river.  Everything in design is connected in some strange invisible universal web. It’s like some weird physics equation that no one has found a formula for and no one has defined yet . You have entered a vicious circle in which escape is difficult, a vortex of calamity. I call it the Twilight Zone of design. Beware.

Allow serendipitous moments to happen:   Be open minded.  Don’t dismiss something because you haven’t the ability to visualize it right off the bat.  Give it a chance to live a moment even if the initial thought doesn’t work let your mind exercise on it.   It may take you in a direction that will work. I often find myself trying things and thinking of things that I really don’t like.  But I never dismiss them without first asking myself why I don’t like them.  I look at is as a valuable learning process. When you ask yourself these questions you will discover things that you have not yet verbalized or realized.

Tell us what you think. Post your comments below.


CALLING ALL CREATIVE GENIUSES – WE WANT TO INTERVIEW YOU

One of the reasons we created The Psychology of Design blog was to give you a window into the heads of people who have the wisdom and experience to help you make better high end interior design choices.

Sure, our own premium interior professionals have been blogging like crazy to make this happen, we’ve heard a lot of positive comments about what they’ve published. But despite what we like to tell ourselves, the world doesn’t begin and end with Interiors by Steven G. (well, ok maybe it does, but that’s besides the point).

That’s why lately, we’ve been interviewing some people outside of our firm whose creativity we admire. Other quality interior designers, architects, and real estate-developer-entrepreneurs, but also innovators of all kinds. It’s gone well. So we want to do more of it and need your help.

If you’re a creative artist or business person…or have a connection to one…get in touch. We’d like to have you share your wisdom with our readers, friends, and fans.

To be considered, Email me at intbysteveng@gmail.com or Tweet me at @intbysteveng.


DESIGNTV WITH STEVEN G.: THE FLOOR PLAN EPISODE

In this episode of DesignTV With Steven G., the Miami interior designer talks about why the highest quality interior design work always starts with a great floor plan and what you should look for in yours.

MY SURPRISE INTERVIEW WITH SUCCESS MASTER GRANT CARDONE

We’ve been fortunate enough to have Grant Cardone and his lovely and talented wife (the actress Elena Lyons) ask us to design their home. But little did we know Grant would stop by our showroom for an impromptu interview with yours truly.

For those of you who don’t know him, Grant Cardone is one of the world’s foremost business and sales experts. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, appears regularly on almost every major network, and has who-knows-how-many Fortune 500 clients.

He’s also one of the most unique and energetic guys I’ve had the pleasure of meeting…and that’s something coming from me.

But don’t take my word for it. Take a look at this video of our interview.


THE HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF HIGH END INTERIOR DESIGN

I love Harry Potter (there, I said it).  As an interior designer, the world that J. K. Rowling creates is a true inspiration.  Extremely detailed, imaginative, fanciful and of course magical.

As wonderful and exciting as the design field is, I hate to tell you that it is unfortunately not always magical.  Interior designers would love to have magic wands where we can transform spaces with the flick of a wrist and a beautify charm but I still haven’t figured out how to do this.  (Please let me know if you have.)

However, there are some fun lessons that we can learn from Hogwarts that can help inspire and direct your design decisions.  So put on your Sorting Hat and lets get started.

CAST A SPELL
One of the coolest things that can be done in the Potter world is Transfiguration or the magical skill of changing the form or appearance of an object.  High end interior designers do this on a daily basis.

In the world of Miami interior design, we could just be changing your condo layout from looking like the one above and below you or we can be creating a focal point or making something disappear (like an ugly vent).

The aim is generally to make something look new and unexpected properties.  Potions with magical effects, we have to make sure that we add just the right amount of each ingredient to make the “potion” the correct mixture (proportion and balance).

CREATE A WORLD
One of the main reasons that Harry has become so loved is that the books are so detailed that you feel like you can step into the magical land through the pages.  Truly high end interior design should do the same thing.

When making decisions about your interior design, always think in terms of whether this is something that will help build the world you’ll be living in.

FIGHT FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN
Harry always did what he felt was right in his own heart and this is something that everyone should do when it comes to their spaces.

I hear clients saying that they fell in love with a piece of art, for example, but that they didn’t buy it because it didn’t go with their décor.  So so sad.

It is more important to surround yourself with things that you love instead of having your art match your sofa.  Something you love can always become a welcome addition to your home if your home truly reflects who you are.  The way to assure this is to consistently evaluate what is already in your home as well as what you are bringing in and only keeping the things that you truly love.


OUR FAVORITE HIGH END INTERIOR DESIGN SERIES STRIKES AGAIN


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