Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: house Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. This very
Speaker 1: program is also the house Whisper podcast that you could
Speaker 1: listen to anytime, anywhere on demand, hundreds of episodes, all
Speaker 1: searchable by topic. It is a home improvement reference library
Speaker 1: that we have built for you here year after year,
Speaker 1: and it's all there waiting for you. And if you're thinking, hey,
Speaker 1: that's been great. I love the conversation today, but we
Speaker 1: probably need Dean and Tina standing in our home staring
Speaker 1: at the problem, well you can do that too. You
Speaker 1: can book an in home design consult with me and
Speaker 1: the t Just go to house Whisper dot design for
Speaker 1: more details. All right, it is time to return to
Speaker 1: our conversation about great architecture and great design being theater.
Speaker 1: And I'm not doing this just to you know, Ellude
Speaker 1: Sedate and wax eloquent on what great architecture should be.
Speaker 1: I'm doing this in order to give you more handles
Speaker 1: to grab on to your home with because so many
Speaker 1: people when they think about home design, architectural design, they're like,
Speaker 1: I have no clue, I have no clue what I'm
Speaker 1: doing Dean. I don't even know where to start. And
Speaker 1: yet we're all fans of theater. We're all fans of cinema.
Speaker 1: We all watch TV, we watch movies, we go to
Speaker 1: plays at times, and so if you understand how theater works,
Speaker 1: then my contention is you can start to do a
Speaker 1: better job of understanding what your house needs. It doesn't
Speaker 1: mean that you're going to be the creative idea that
Speaker 1: solves the problem, but for you to see the problem
Speaker 1: to begin with, to really identify what it is, that's
Speaker 1: where everything changes. So we've talked so much about things
Speaker 1: like how do we enter this space from where? What
Speaker 1: do we see right? Focal points? Focal points are what
Speaker 1: you know in architecture we call hierarchy of elements. Focal
Speaker 1: Points are something that every great director, every great film,
Speaker 1: every great stage play has. In other words, we've got
Speaker 1: leading actors. We divide up the cast, we divide up
Speaker 1: the elements. We've got leading actors. They have the most
Speaker 1: lines and they are telling the lion's share of the
Speaker 1: story that's happening. We have supporting actors that come in
Speaker 1: behind them. They come in and out and they help
Speaker 1: support that and undergird that story, and then there are,
Speaker 1: like in a film, extras, just people in the background
Speaker 1: giving atmospheric content. You know, you're in a cafe scene
Speaker 1: and there's people in the restaurant eating and laughing and
Speaker 1: enjoying their time, not competing for your attention, not taking
Speaker 1: your attention away from the lead actors who are telling
Speaker 1: the main story. So now you start to understand that,
Speaker 1: and you understand that in a home, in any given
Speaker 1: space architecturally, there are these elements at play, and quite
Speaker 1: often the focal point that should be in a room
Speaker 1: is not. Quite often there are too many voices speaking
Speaker 1: too equally across the board, too many to tell a
Speaker 1: story effectively. Quite often we aren't giving people direction as
Speaker 1: to where they should look first and then second and
Speaker 1: then third in a room. And when it comes to
Speaker 1: a visual art, you get about three hits. Generally speaking,
Speaker 1: you get about three hits. You get the first hit,
Speaker 1: and then a second hit and a third and then
Speaker 1: you kind of have to release people to sort of
Speaker 1: explore the space. But if you aren't taking advantage of
Speaker 1: the first three, now my mic just literally fell off
Speaker 1: of the mic stand. If you aren't taking advantage of
Speaker 1: those first three hits, then you aren't taking advantage of
Speaker 1: telling the story as completely as you can tell the story.
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? I hope. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a couple of stories. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a story of the house
Speaker 1: that does everything it can to frustrate me entering it. Okay, Now,
Speaker 1: this is not one particular house that I have in
Speaker 1: mind here. This is, in fact something that we see
Speaker 1: maybe I don't know how often, Tina, eighty percent of
Speaker 1: the time when we walk into a home, the entryway
Speaker 1: is one of those hits that is usually not working,
Speaker 1: not firing on all pistons. Okay. So and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: I thought you were going to talk about my family
Speaker 1: room or my dining room. Team. Now we can talk
Speaker 1: about those, But here's the thing. How do we get
Speaker 1: into this story, the story that is your home. Well,
Speaker 1: we get into it usually if I'm your guest through
Speaker 1: the front door. Everything starts from the street, and we
Speaker 1: could talk about curb appeal, and that's a whole nother thing,
Speaker 1: but I'm not doing a landscape design show, so I
Speaker 1: just want to focus on this. I arrive at your
Speaker 1: front door, I knock on the door, I ring the doorbell,
Speaker 1: the door opens to me, and whatever it is that
Speaker 1: I experience as I step into that entryway is in
Speaker 1: fact the very first element of storytelling that happens in
Speaker 1: a home. Okay, And the entryway is an important thing.
Speaker 1: It's an important thing no matter where you live. In fact,
Speaker 1: I would say the smaller your home is, the more
Speaker 1: important a sense of entryway is. And why is that, Well,
Speaker 1: that's because most of us don't want to just go
Speaker 1: from outside to inside immediately. We like to be eased in. Okay,
Speaker 1: and entryways are in fact, both entryways and hallways inside
Speaker 1: a home are what we call transitional spaces. They are
Speaker 1: a part of the story that gets told while you
Speaker 1: are transitioning from one environment to the next. This is
Speaker 1: why hallways are important inside a room, because the experience
Speaker 1: you have walking down a hallway is what is getting
Speaker 1: you out of where you were and setting up for
Speaker 1: you or where you're going. But an entryway is even
Speaker 1: more dramatic than that. An entryway is like an airlock.
Speaker 1: When I step into the entryway of your home, hopefully
Speaker 1: there is an entryway, And like if you live in
Speaker 1: a condo or an apartment, quite often those areas struggle
Speaker 1: to have this, but hopefully there is at least some
Speaker 1: space where Yeah, technically I'm inside, but I'm not inside yet, right,
Speaker 1: I'm not fully in your home. I mean you'reway, I'm
Speaker 1: in the foyer. Okay, I am not fully inside, but
Speaker 1: I'm not outside anymore. It's this liminal space in between
Speaker 1: the two, right, And that's a very comfortable feeling, not
Speaker 1: having to just go from outside to end. So here
Speaker 1: I am. I step into an entryway. And so this
Speaker 1: is the story of a house that does everything it
Speaker 1: can to frustrate my entry. And I'm just gonna set
Speaker 1: up the elements for you here and we'll talk about
Speaker 1: it after the break. But here it is. I walk
Speaker 1: up to a double door, lovely, beautiful double door on
Speaker 1: your porch, right, and immediately that double door disappoints me. Well,
Speaker 1: why is that? Well, we'll talk about it after the break.
Speaker 1: And then when I stare down at the flooring underneath
Speaker 1: my feet, I quite often see flooring planks or lines
Speaker 1: of flooring that are set perpendicular to me as I
Speaker 1: walk in. Okay, lines set perpendicular to my path, and
Speaker 1: it really gives me paw. It halts me right, and
Speaker 1: it doesn't draw me, and it halts me. And we'll
Speaker 1: talk about that too. And then of course, again, what
Speaker 1: do I see? What do I see from here? Normally? Well,
Speaker 1: I would not say normally. I often will look for it.
Speaker 1: I'll see a wall. There's a wall in front of me. Now,
Speaker 1: I don't want you to move the wall if and
Speaker 1: maybe I want you to move it, but I'm out
Speaker 1: assuming you're going to move the wall. The question is
Speaker 1: what's on this wall? Because it is straight ahead of
Speaker 1: my face, it is the most natural focal point, it's
Speaker 1: usually dark, it's usually underutilized, and quite often then the
Speaker 1: view that I see from the entry away could be
Speaker 1: if it's sort of an open plan, could be of
Speaker 1: many many different things. And the question is is there
Speaker 1: one of those things that is directing me? No, no, no,
Speaker 1: look here first, I'm the main view versus seeing, for instance,
Speaker 1: the living room and the kitchen and the set of
Speaker 1: stairs and who knows what else all at the same time. Now,
Speaker 1: if that house sounds anything like your house, then you
Speaker 1: hang tight because we'll talk about why those things are
Speaker 1: important to change. But we'll do it.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on Demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I literally my mic arm literally just collapsed holding the
Speaker 1: mic out. That whole last segment. I was holding this
Speaker 1: whole thing of my microphone so that we could continue.
Speaker 1: And during the break there I had to run got
Speaker 1: some duct tape, and now, well it's not optimal, but
Speaker 1: you know what, it's good enough. You know we're gonna
Speaker 1: get the We're gonna finish the show without this thing
Speaker 1: falling on my face again. How about that ya duct tape?
Speaker 1: All right, let us continue this conversation about great design
Speaker 1: being theater, and right before the break, I set you
Speaker 1: up with this house that does everything it can to
Speaker 1: frustrate my entry into it. Okay, So the double entry
Speaker 1: door is a frustration, usually, the bare wall on the
Speaker 1: other side of the entry a frustration, the flooring planks
Speaker 1: that are going perpendicular to my path to frustration, and
Speaker 1: the view an equal view of the living room, the kitchen,
Speaker 1: and the stairs. Okay. So there's a particular house that
Speaker 1: I'm actually drawing this from that has all of this
Speaker 1: going for it, I should say, all of this working
Speaker 1: against it. But you can pick out elements of your
Speaker 1: entryway that are the same and I'm not just picking
Speaker 1: on entryways. But it is the very first beginning of
Speaker 1: the story, is it not. When you enter into somebody's home,
Speaker 1: what's going on in the entryway sets you up? Or
Speaker 1: you know who lives here? What are they like? What
Speaker 1: is this house all about? How does this make me feel?
Speaker 1: What do I see? These are all the things subconsciously
Speaker 1: that people are picking up on, even if they're not
Speaker 1: consciously asking the question. So this is where the story begins.
Speaker 1: Double entry doors. You've probably heard me talk about this before,
Speaker 1: and if you haven't, then very quickly, here's the thing
Speaker 1: about double entry doors that I don't like. I like
Speaker 1: the fact that they're grand and they're lovely and they
Speaker 1: look good on a floor plan. But we all know,
Speaker 1: we all know that a double entry door is not
Speaker 1: a double entry door. We know that a double entry
Speaker 1: door only opens on one side and that other side,
Speaker 1: that other door. It stays fixed except for the day
Speaker 1: that you move in and the day that you move out,
Speaker 1: and anytime you change out the furniture or bring in
Speaker 1: a large appliance. Okay, that's when that door gets opened,
Speaker 1: otherwise for cargo purposes. Otherwise it remains shut. And so okay,
Speaker 1: Dean so what's your beef man with the entry door. Well,
Speaker 1: my beef is that a double entry door is centered
Speaker 1: on the entryway, and it may be a relatively small entryway.
Speaker 1: In most homes, it's modest. It's centered on the entryway,
Speaker 1: and in the entryway, maybe there's a chandelier hanging down,
Speaker 1: maybe there's a light fixture hanging down. Maybe the entryway
Speaker 1: is not so large, and it's just nice to stand
Speaker 1: in the center of your entryway. And yet the double
Speaker 1: entry door puts me in all the way to the
Speaker 1: left or all the way to the right, depending on
Speaker 1: which door opens. In other words, it makes me a
Speaker 1: promise that it doesn't keep, and you should be aware
Speaker 1: of that too. So so often when when a client
Speaker 1: will ask, well, what do we do with this double
Speaker 1: entry door, Let's change it out to something else, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, great, let's change it out to a single
Speaker 1: entry door set in the center of the entryway with
Speaker 1: maybe some sidelights to the left and the right of it. Why, well,
Speaker 1: it can be big, it can be elegant, and yet
Speaker 1: most importantly, it lets me in to the center line
Speaker 1: of your entryway, so I don't have to immediately dodge
Speaker 1: or step left or step right. That's the way to
Speaker 1: tell the story. So first problem with this home, double
Speaker 1: entry door into a relatively modest entryway. So I'm coming
Speaker 1: in all the way on the right and that's not impressive.
Speaker 1: Second problem, when I get in, I look down at
Speaker 1: my feet and there's no nothing on the floor that
Speaker 1: demarcates me standing in the entryway. It looks like I've
Speaker 1: walked in on a hallway that's crossing me and the
Speaker 1: flooring planks. In this case, it was a hardwood floor.
Speaker 1: The flooring planks are running perpendicular to me. In other words,
Speaker 1: there's just line after line after line confronting me, saying,
Speaker 1: you know, halting me because I In artwork and in architecture,
Speaker 1: we have these things called lead lines. A lead line
Speaker 1: is any line or any linear element that, basically, because
Speaker 1: it's moving from where you are away from you, it
Speaker 1: leads you in in okay, it leads you into a
Speaker 1: property or down a pathway. And in this case, all
Speaker 1: the lead lines are perpendicular to me. They're all saying stop, stop,
Speaker 1: stop stop, nothing exciting happening here. They're going the wrong way. Okay.
Speaker 1: Third thing is after I look up from there, I'm
Speaker 1: looking straight ahead, about five feet in front of me.
Speaker 1: Six feet in front of me, just a flat wall, dark, unlit,
Speaker 1: no artwork, no nothing, just a flat wall. That's about
Speaker 1: twenty five percent of my viewing angle in this home.
Speaker 1: And it's right in front of me, which means its
Speaker 1: importance is greater than twenty five percent. Because it's right
Speaker 1: in front of me, it is in fact the most
Speaker 1: natural focal point. And since there's nothing to look at there,
Speaker 1: then I kind of scan from left and right. And
Speaker 1: because of where things are set up in this home,
Speaker 1: and this is where I would want to move a
Speaker 1: wall or at least a doorway. I am literally standing
Speaker 1: and by the way, this is a lovely home. This
Speaker 1: is a nearly five thousand square foot home with this entryway.
Speaker 1: And when I'm standing in it and I haven't even
Speaker 1: entered in fully to the house, I can see the
Speaker 1: living room, the dining room, I can see a set
Speaker 1: of stairs to the upstairs that isn't the main stairs really,
Speaker 1: They're just sort of off to the side. And I
Speaker 1: can see in through an open doorway into the kitchen
Speaker 1: and see the toaster oven. I can see the toaster
Speaker 1: oven from the entryway of the house in other words,
Speaker 1: I have equal view of a utility space and your
Speaker 1: groceries and your keys and your purse sitting on the countertop,
Speaker 1: and your most formal, beautiful living room area and your
Speaker 1: lovely dining room and then a set of stairs that
Speaker 1: go up you know, and so, and they're all speaking equally,
Speaker 1: and that, I hope you know at this point is
Speaker 1: the whole point of what not to do. Okay, they
Speaker 1: all have an equal voice, and I don't know where
Speaker 1: to look. And the formality and the beauty that is
Speaker 1: the living room and the dining room area of this
Speaker 1: house is overtaken by this bare flat wall and a
Speaker 1: view of the kitchen all at the same time. You
Speaker 1: see what I'm saying. So there is such a thing
Speaker 1: as an open plan being too open, but that's not
Speaker 1: so much the issue. It's not about open plan versus
Speaker 1: non open plan. It's about focal points in a scene
Speaker 1: and whether anybody has given any thought. And the funny
Speaker 1: thing is, these folks have lived in this home for
Speaker 1: thirty plus years, never once have thought about what it's
Speaker 1: like to walk in the front door, because they actually
Speaker 1: come in through the garage. They park in the garage,
Speaker 1: the groae, they always enter the house into the kitchen anyway,
Speaker 1: because it's their home. Never given any serious thought to
Speaker 1: the experience of a neighbor or a friend or a
Speaker 1: guest coming in through the front door, and how it
Speaker 1: either begins to tell their story or fails to tell
Speaker 1: their story. You get it. You see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: All right, when we come back, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you an example of one of the most brilliantly well
Speaker 1: told stories in our country. It's not a house, But
Speaker 1: like I said at the very beginning of the show,
Speaker 1: I don't think there's a house I can pick that
Speaker 1: everybody will immediately identify with. But everybody can identify with
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, d C. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you how it tells its story and how that theater.
Speaker 1: Not that you're going to have a you a thirty
Speaker 1: foot tall statue of Abraham Lincoln sitting in your home,
Speaker 1: not at all, but how the method of telling that
Speaker 1: story via theater is what we apply to your humble home.
Speaker 1: That makes all the difference. We'll do that.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with the Sharp on Demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We're talking about the basics. We're talking about the fundamentals
Speaker 1: of storytelling, and it can be applied to a condo,
Speaker 1: a cottage, or a castle. It does not matter across
Speaker 1: the board. These things are true, and that's why I'm
Speaker 1: sharing them with you. If they weren't true for your house,
Speaker 1: we would not be spending the time here on this
Speaker 1: program talking about these ideas. Okay. If this was just
Speaker 1: a program for a state level clients, then it would
Speaker 1: be a very, very different thing. But take me seriously
Speaker 1: when I tell you that you can learn some things
Speaker 1: about your home if you apply the concept of theater
Speaker 1: or good cinema to the spaces in your home. Now,
Speaker 1: I promise you. I was going to give you an
Speaker 1: example of this, and it's not a home, okay, Because
Speaker 1: I was racking my brain this week thinking what house
Speaker 1: can I refer everybody too that everybody has seen the
Speaker 1: inside of. And I don't mean stuff like rooms in
Speaker 1: the White House or something. I just mean, really understand
Speaker 1: the flow, and I wanted to keep it simple. I
Speaker 1: wanted to keep it as simple as possible, but tell
Speaker 1: allow you to see what a dramatic storytelling can do.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to give you an example from a
Speaker 1: national monument that we are all familiar with whether or
Speaker 1: not you've ever visited the Lincoln Memorial. You know of
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Memorial, you've seen it. All you have to
Speaker 1: do is pull out a five dollars bill and look
Speaker 1: on the backside and there it is. Or a penny
Speaker 1: and look on the back of a penny and there
Speaker 1: is the Lincoln Memorial. Okay, But what most people don't
Speaker 1: realize is that Lincoln Memorial in the architectural community is
Speaker 1: one of the finest examples of storytelling that there is
Speaker 1: all of the elements of approach to the payoff at
Speaker 1: the end. Okay, So let me just le set that
Speaker 1: scene for you. The Lincoln Memorial is sitting on the
Speaker 1: National Mall in Washington, DC. It is positioned at the
Speaker 1: western end of a one hundred and sixty seven foot
Speaker 1: wide by two thousand foot long reflecting pool on the
Speaker 1: National Mall. You've all seen it. You've seen it. You've
Speaker 1: seen it in Forrest Gump, you've seen it in news clippings,
Speaker 1: You've seen it all the time. The reflecting pool. At
Speaker 1: one end of the reflecting pools the Washington Monument, whose
Speaker 1: gigantic obelisk you can see beautifully in the water. If
Speaker 1: you're standing at the Lincoln Memorial, and if you're standing
Speaker 1: at the end of the Washington Monument, you see the
Speaker 1: Lincoln Memorial in the reflecting pool. Mostly though you heard
Speaker 1: me talking about lead lines when it comes to the
Speaker 1: entryway of your home, the reflecting pool is a massive
Speaker 1: lead line. It draws you out and says, follow me
Speaker 1: down this path and look at what's at the end,
Speaker 1: and what is at the end, arguably what has been
Speaker 1: called America's temple, the Lincoln Memorial. Okay, one, because it's
Speaker 1: a classical Greek temple. It's designed that way. It's covered
Speaker 1: in white marble. It's ninety nine feet tall. It is
Speaker 1: surrounded or the roof is supported by thirty eight doric columns,
Speaker 1: each of these columns forty four feet tall, seven and
Speaker 1: a half feet in diameter at the base, massive, massive columns.
Speaker 1: That massiveness is made to make you feel something. Quite honestly,
Speaker 1: it's made to make you feel small. It's made to
Speaker 1: make you feel small. So are the eighty seven steps
Speaker 1: that you have to walk up to reach the level
Speaker 1: of what we call the shrine. Okay, So you walk
Speaker 1: down this long pathway and you arrive at this Greek
Speaker 1: temple that looms up above you, and as you walk
Speaker 1: up eighty seven steps, you have to pass between these
Speaker 1: massive marble columns, and what is sitting just inside these
Speaker 1: massive marble columns a statue of a sitting Abraham Lincoln
Speaker 1: rising twenty nine feet above your head. Okay, that is
Speaker 1: amazing storytelling. By the time you arrive at that moment
Speaker 1: where you're standing there in front of Abraham Lincoln's likeness,
Speaker 1: you have gone through a journey that has affected you emotionally,
Speaker 1: whether you have considered it or not. There's just simply
Speaker 1: no way to walk up a series of steps and
Speaker 1: in between those massive fillers and not feel subject to
Speaker 1: that which is sitting there on the throne. And it's
Speaker 1: not because we're deifying Abraham Lincoln. You know this intrinsically,
Speaker 1: he is the focal point there. And you know it
Speaker 1: intrinsically that it's not about Abe Lincoln that we've blown
Speaker 1: up out of proportion, but it is about some visceral
Speaker 1: experience of the spirit or the story that transcends the
Speaker 1: image that is sitting on that throne. Whether it's equal rights,
Speaker 1: whether it is freedom, whether it is unity of the Republic.
Speaker 1: I mean whatever the case may be, there's something so
Speaker 1: human about that experience. So, okay, why did I bring
Speaker 1: that up? I brought it up as an example of
Speaker 1: storytelling in architecture. The fact that this long lead line
Speaker 1: that leads you to a very specific focal point, the
Speaker 1: fact that there's a journey to take that you literally
Speaker 1: have to walk up these steps, and that you're being
Speaker 1: affected by it. The fact that you walk in between
Speaker 1: these two massive or these these in between these massive
Speaker 1: columns to arrive at your destination, and when you get
Speaker 1: there it has the impact on you that it has.
Speaker 1: We're not talking about you having the Lincoln Memorial at
Speaker 1: your house or you turning your house into the Lincoln Memorial,
Speaker 1: but if you can appreciate the storytelling elements there focal point,
Speaker 1: every step is taken into consideration, every vista is taken
Speaker 1: into consideration, Every experience that you have as you transition
Speaker 1: from outside to inside is taken into consideration. All of
Speaker 1: this is theater, and it's the same rules of theater
Speaker 1: that can apply to your home. And there you go.
Speaker 1: All right, when we come back, I will tell you
Speaker 1: not a Lincoln Memorial story. I'm going to tell you
Speaker 1: a story of a project that I'm working on right now,
Speaker 1: and what I want to achieve out of one particular
Speaker 1: element of that project. Just to underscore this whole conversation
Speaker 1: yet again, we'll do that right after.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: Here we are. We have arrived, yet again, the end
Speaker 1: of another three hours together. I still have a few
Speaker 1: items to share with you, so don't go anywhere. Just
Speaker 1: remember follow us on social media at Home with Dean
Speaker 1: or on all the usual suspects. You can find us
Speaker 1: there across the board. Don't forget that this broadcast is
Speaker 1: the House Whisper podcast. If you're just tuning in and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my gosh, I missed the show. No
Speaker 1: you didn't. Just go and listen to it anytime you
Speaker 1: wish wherever, however many times you wish on demand the
Speaker 1: House Whisper podcast. Just search for Home with Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: or the House Whisper on the free iHeartRadio app or
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever your favorite podcasts are found. I
Speaker 1: am there waiting for you. And again, if your home
Speaker 1: is in need of some personal House Whisper attention. If
Speaker 1: you're like yeah, I get it, Dean, I get what
Speaker 1: you're talking about today. Still need some creative input on
Speaker 1: how to solve the problem. Well, you can book an
Speaker 1: in home design console with us. Just go to house
Speaker 1: Whisperer dot design. All right, I told you we talked
Speaker 1: about all sorts of art today because the theme of
Speaker 1: today's show has been that great design, great architecture is theater.
Speaker 1: I've talked about stage plays, I've talked about how movies
Speaker 1: get made and how directors control the scene. Not to
Speaker 1: get all fanciful, but actually to bring it home to
Speaker 1: you so you can understand home design in a new light,
Speaker 1: right and maybe get your arms around it. Everybody knows
Speaker 1: when they watch a film that there are lead actors,
Speaker 1: and then there are supporting actors behind them, and then
Speaker 1: there are extras back there, and then there's the scene itself.
Speaker 1: And everybody intrinsically in the twenty first century understands how
Speaker 1: those things happen. It's just that when it comes to
Speaker 1: their home, you don't think of your home in those sense,
Speaker 1: and so you're staring around your living room and you're like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with this thing. I
Speaker 1: don't know anything about home design, you know more than
Speaker 1: you think if you think in terms of theater, because
Speaker 1: the impact of telling that story and the process is very,
Speaker 1: very similar. And that's why I've brought those metaphors to you.
Speaker 1: I'll give you a real life example of a project
Speaker 1: that we're currently working on, an aspirational element to this project.
Speaker 1: It's a home. I'm not going to tell you where
Speaker 1: it's at or what it's got to just know this.
Speaker 1: It's a lovely home. But the most significant thing about
Speaker 1: this home is that it's got a big old backyard
Speaker 1: that rolls out and out and out and out, and
Speaker 1: then it just drops off the end of a hillside.
Speaker 1: And as a result, what you see from the rear
Speaker 1: yard is a panoramic just big beautiful view of mountains
Speaker 1: and canyons. I mean, you just see it is a view.
Speaker 1: It's a view lot. Okay. Now why do I mention that,
Speaker 1: Because everybody needs to evaluate the property they're sitting on
Speaker 1: in terms of storytelling, and in terms of focal point,
Speaker 1: and in terms of hierarchy. What's the most important thing?
Speaker 1: And this is the big backyard. And we could go
Speaker 1: crazy with all kinds of things in this backyard, and
Speaker 1: we probably will have all sorts of elements in this backyard.
Speaker 1: But what needs to control where we put these elements,
Speaker 1: how we place them, and where they're pointing the view
Speaker 1: in this yard. It's the view. The view is the
Speaker 1: reason this piece of property is what it is. It
Speaker 1: is as they say, the money shot. It is the thing.
Speaker 1: It is the focal point. And so everything that I
Speaker 1: intend to design into this home, on the backside of
Speaker 1: the home, looking out and in the yard itself, is
Speaker 1: all going to answer to the view, because that's the
Speaker 1: story that we're telling, and that's the main line. You understand,
Speaker 1: there has to be that focal point of importance and
Speaker 1: other things, you know, significant but less important in this case,
Speaker 1: just so you know, give you a little view of
Speaker 1: how the sausage is made. I can't see this view
Speaker 1: from the front door. I wish you could, and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to change the house so radically in this
Speaker 1: case because there's multiple layers in between the front entry
Speaker 1: door and that view. But the front entry leads you
Speaker 1: into this lovely part of the back of the house.
Speaker 1: And once you get there, and there are other places
Speaker 1: to stop along the way, but once you arrive, and
Speaker 1: what is going to be this family room. The family
Speaker 1: room right now takes virtually zero advantage of that view.
Speaker 1: Is it is the room in the house that is
Speaker 1: poised to take the best advantage, and it's not. And
Speaker 1: so we're changing that for sure. Okay, we're changing the
Speaker 1: backside of that family room so that it can embrace
Speaker 1: when you're sitting in the family embrace the view. But
Speaker 1: what do I want out there? I want to get
Speaker 1: you out there, okay, and the view is not enough.
Speaker 1: I actually want to draw your attention to it. So
Speaker 1: currently my plan is to get out there right on
Speaker 1: the edge of the hillside, right out as far as
Speaker 1: we can go with the with the yard, and I'm
Speaker 1: probably going to put a destination, well I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to put a destination out there. It'll probably be
Speaker 1: a deck or a platform or some kind of area
Speaker 1: to sit and to experience something way out there on
Speaker 1: the precipice, on the edge of the view. And I'm
Speaker 1: going to make that destination very visible from the family
Speaker 1: or in fact, I'm probably going to do a pathway
Speaker 1: right up the center of the yard leading straight out
Speaker 1: to that destination, a lead line that carries you out,
Speaker 1: a lead line so that you see that there's a
Speaker 1: pathway to get to this place, and I'm probably going
Speaker 1: to emphasize the view by putting some kind of a
Speaker 1: framed structure out there, a couple of posts or columns,
Speaker 1: and a big beam across some kind of rectangular frame. Literally,
Speaker 1: like you see directors sometimes they hold up their fingers
Speaker 1: and they're like they're trying to frame the shot. I'm
Speaker 1: not going to frame the entire view, but I'm going
Speaker 1: to frame the most significant part, central of that view,
Speaker 1: so that there's something there that draws you out. And
Speaker 1: so in my mind, you wander into this part of
Speaker 1: the house and you're going to see this lovely family room,
Speaker 1: and you're going to be enchanted by what's going on.
Speaker 1: That's where the trees are going that I mentioned in
Speaker 1: the Aldic Home spot the trees are going. It's going
Speaker 1: to be a lovely family room. But wait, right as
Speaker 1: you get start to get settled in this family room,
Speaker 1: like a captivating woman who steps into view, just moments
Speaker 1: after you begin to feel settled, she's going to walk
Speaker 1: out onto the lawn and you're going to want to
Speaker 1: follow her. You're going to see that simple outline out there,
Speaker 1: arresting your attention. Without blocking the view and the pathway
Speaker 1: that leads you to it, and you want to follow
Speaker 1: that path, you must follow that path out to that experience.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of theater that I'm talking about. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, what did I just describe? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to build a thing out there and a
Speaker 1: deck and a pathway to it, and maybe a window
Speaker 1: looking out on it. You, so you can reduce it
Speaker 1: to those elements. Those elements are very very simple. But
Speaker 1: if you put them all together and you imagine the
Speaker 1: sequence of experiencing it, boom, it's theater. Do you see
Speaker 1: that in your mind? Walking out along that pathway, just
Speaker 1: getting closer and closer and closer to that panorama, knowing
Speaker 1: that you're being drawn out there because there's a destination
Speaker 1: for you to visit. What if I put a fire
Speaker 1: pit out there at night so that there's a flame
Speaker 1: right on the edge of the what you know, on
Speaker 1: and on week ago, good architecture and good design is theater.
Speaker 1: And you know what, here's the thing. And I'm just
Speaker 1: going to leave you with this simple thought today because
Speaker 1: it applies now not only to just architecture, but all things.
Speaker 1: If any of this seems groundbreaking to you, and I
Speaker 1: hope it does feel that way to you. It's not
Speaker 1: because these ideas are new. There's nothing here that isn't
Speaker 1: a well established design fundamental. Okay, What gets taken is
Speaker 1: groundbreaking is simply my unwavering commitment to consistently sift the
Speaker 1: projects that I take on and my own design solutions
Speaker 1: for those projects through the filter of these storytelling fundamental
Speaker 1: and maybe also for the sake of our show. Here
Speaker 1: what may be groundbreaking is that I have the audacity
Speaker 1: of insisting that you do the same, whether you live
Speaker 1: in a condo or a cottage or a castle. It's
Speaker 1: all about the fundamentals, it really is. Isn't life about
Speaker 1: the fundamentals as well? I think it is. It's always
Speaker 1: been the case for me that at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, our lives are just built brick by brick,
Speaker 1: east by piece out of the bed. The best lives
Speaker 1: are built out of the best fundamentals, bit by bit
Speaker 1: by bit, with all that intentionality. And so here we are,
Speaker 1: and uh, there's a beautiful weekend, uh Sunday afternoon ahead
Speaker 1: of you. The question is what are you going to
Speaker 1: do with it? I hope that you decide to get
Speaker 1: out there and get busy building yourself a beautiful life,
Speaker 1: and we will see you right back here next weekend.
Speaker 1: This has been Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper.
Speaker 1: Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty
Speaker 1: every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time and
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or
Speaker 1: anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio app