Meditations on Design: Reinventing Your Home With Style and Simplicity

by John Wheatman

Home is a place to express yourself. Whether a five-story walk-up or a palatial penthouse, home should creatively reflect its owner, whatever the size, location, or budget. Renowned designer John Wheatman has worked with apartment dwellers, country homesteaders, and city sophisticates over the course of his extensive and award-winning career in interiors. Now, he's making the expertise usually reserved for clients available to all with his first book, Meditations on Design , a simple and sumptuous study that applies his distinctive design principles to every kind of interior. Every idea and suggestion is based on Wheatman's philosophy that while a living space should be functional and comfortable, it should also reflect the life within it and make that life more enriched and fulfilled. John Wheatman's trade secrets in Meditations on Design will enable readers to claim their living space, make it their own, and display the things they love so their home can say, "This is who I am." From "tablescapes"--the art of arranging collections--to "letting the outside in"--an approach to incorporating light and nature to any room--John Wheatman lends his artistic sensibility to home-making.

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Interior Design

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Erika RS · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book considers features which make a successful interior design. I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of Pasanella's Living in Style Without Losing Your Mind . I appreciate how the principles Wheatman discussion are not limited to any particular style.


Wheatman's list of principles:
- Edit what you have
- Rearrange things (to make the old seem new)
- Make the most of limitations (see them as an opportunity to do something different)
- Invite nature inside (pulling the view inside makes rooms feel larger)
- Let nature and travel inspire the colors in your home (natural features such as rocks or tree bark can provide ideas for wonderfully varied palettes)
- Collect shadows, textures, and reflections (you wouldn't just let color happen in a well designed interior. Be intentional about these other things too)
- Find a light for every purpose (generic lighting is boring)
- Build a room outdoors (even better, give it an indoor/outdoor connection)
- Display the things you love (you live in your home, not a magazine add)
- Invest in quality
- Realize that something special is often very simple
- Look at the space around an object (empty space is part of your composition of objects)
- Discover new ways to store things (make your storage beautiful)
- Create focal points for each room
- Buy furniture that is flexible (e.g., chairs which work as well at a desk as at the dining table.
- Work with illusion to scale and alter your space (colors, angles, mirrors, indoor/outdoor elements can all do this)
- Pay attention to transitions (use color, shape, furniture to both provide continuity while also providing differentiation)
- Plan a kitchen that helps you cook
- Design children's rooms to expand with their imaginations (and decorate them in a way that is playful but not childish. E.g., buy a dresser that they would still use when they go off to college. Also, have one purely child oriented feature.)
- Set aside a place in which to be happy alone
- Learn the art of sharing your home (welcome guests)
- Finally, a good room is never done. Your life changes, so should your home

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wheatman is not interested in trends but in living spaces that nurture us. The "meditations" consist generally of three or four pictures (with notes) plus a page or two of text. His 21 principles include: Edit what you have; rearrange things; invite nature in (placing a flower/plant inside in front of a window is one of his tricks for this); display things you love (collections); look at the space around an object; discover new ways to store things; set aside a place in which to be happy alone; learn the art of sharing your home.

[Jessica Whittemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is simple and short, worth reading cover to cover. It consists of effective design tenets that could be applied in any space and any style, supported by a couple pictures. I wish there were more pictures, and ideally including more diversity of style. Though John Wheatman might say he is not representing a particular style in his interiors, they certainly lean minimalist/Asian-inspired/Craftsman/contemporary. I think the ideas are sound, so sound that I want to be shown how they could work in any style—as I'm sure they can.

[Marissa Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice.

Mostly warm colors.

Display a cutting of a flowering bush in a vase near the window that overlooks the bush, to create a sense of connection between outside and inside.

Frame art between two panes of glass so the wall color becomes the color of the "matte."

Display an illustrated book open on a table, and turn the page every few days.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book full of serene spaces. The author’s taste is a little too formal for my taste, though timeless in many ways. A lot of clever use of mirrors and some straight forward advice for creating appealing spaces indoors and out.

[Laura Haske · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was delivered simply, memorably. The design concepts were presented in a broad, philosophical structure. The pictures are lovely, and - although they don't reflect my personal taste - do create a sense of home. I needed to be reminded that designing a home is a continuing process that changes as we change.

[False · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love his philosophies about keeping only the best and what means the most to you, in an effort to reduce clutter. His own tastes is very heavy on Asian culture in one room-space. He did a clever thing to pick up and extend a view of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco by expanding the windows and then added side mirrors to carry it out even further.

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Focuses on natural design elements.

[Lorraine Hollingsworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book on design-a visual delight and lots of wonderful inspiration. Plus John Wheatman lives in an incredible apartment in San Francisco-the pictures are fabulous.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, for the photos but more importantly for the text. The manner in which the author writes just spoke to me and made me comfortable; he is approachable.

[Travis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find things you love, get rid of the things you don't, edit and rearrange.

No big revelations there.