full spectrum design
The first snow of the year is coming down hard and fast. Coating everything with a big, billowy blanket. The kids are pumped. They want to go outside and experience a different world.
And it is indeed a different world. Part of the reason winter is fun is that it makes the contrast between indoors and outdoors even starker. Freezing outside, warm and toasty inside.
I'm looking forward to using the sauna this week while it's so cold. We just need that power to stay on, fingers crossed.
But assuming it does, I imagine that at least twice a day, I'll walk out into the snow in shorts for a 25-minute pilgrimage to our little cedar hot box.
I know it's going to feel terrific after sledding today.
I originally thought about building a sauna indoors, but I'm so glad we did it outside. It would have been easier and significantly less costly inside, but it also would have been at the expense of a ritual.
What makes it nice is that it actually forces you to step outside into something that's not a part of your house. It's a sacred space, with no phones. A different world than your house - hot, analog, and silent. It's a contrast to the routine existence that just wouldn't have been the same if we'd built it into the basement wall.
I was listening to music this morning to get in the proper headspace.
Pantheone sent me these amazing hifi sculptural speakers. What a treat to listen to full-spectrum sound. You realize, in listening, especially to songs you've heard many times before, that you are missing out. To certain frequencies, crisp hi hats, to bowed upright bass low end, there's a whole lot more there than what you get with earbuds.
So, in design, contrast and "full spectrum" are what make the world come alive. If you're into design & beauty, you've probably seen this chart around the web over the last couple of years. It shows the reduction of color appearing in photos over time. Things are getting more grayscale.
My whole mission is to push the Overton window of design wider, advocate for a greater dichotomy and spectrum of interiors, and to make exciting buildings something we build again.
White walls are great, but they are even better when paired with a contrasting artwork or piece of furniture, like a gallery.
When I say things like "good design should make you a little nervous" or "make your space more interesting," I hope it's taken as how it's intended: permission to wade into the deep end and do something slightly uncomfortable.
Good design, like a snow storm, a roasting hot sauna, or rich bass rounding out the mood in a song, should wake you up a little—just enough to feel alive.
PS: Speaking of exciting buildings, I was just doing our framing walk yesterday at Lot 1 of Arrington Woods. It's going to be incredible, I'm so excited for this home!! I'll do a video about it soon. A mostly single-story, low & cool courtyard home surrounding a garden pool oasis.
This is our render made more realistic with AI. Please excuse the throw-pillow insanity; otherwise, you get the picture.
