LIFESTYLE - We All Have One, So What Is "LifeStyle"?

Lifestyle was originally coined by Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler in 1929. The current broader sense of the word dates from 1961.

In sociology, a lifestyle is the way a person lives. A lifestyle is a characteristic bundle of behaviors that makes sense to both others and oneself in a given time and place, including social relations, consumption, entertainment, and dress. The behaviors and practices within lifestyles are a mixture of habits, conventional ways of doing things, and reasoned actions. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview.

Therefore, a lifestyle is a means of forging a sense of self and to create cultural symbols that resonate with personal identity. Not all aspects of a lifestyle are entirely voluntaristic. Surrounding social and technical systems can constrain the lifestyle choices available to the individual and the symbols she/he is able to project to others and the self. -Wikipedia

Our spaces, lives and the items in it therefore, SHOULD be extensions of our personalities. We are not one and our space or lifestyle something else. Too many times, our spaces are disconnected from us. We are just residing in them. Wow-factor happens when all is just right PLUS the space resonates "US".

I remember.. I was maybe about 12 and I saw Shirley McLaine in "My Geisha". I still remember the room in the opening scene..her living room. It was all white, with the exception of one colour painting above the fireplace and Shirley McLaine in this bright pink outfit.

It was amazing...the room was purposefully lifeless; every design element was stunning but missing one thing ...SHE WAS THE ROOM and it was nothing without her and people in it. That was the WOW!!

I found a picture of it so you could see for yourself.

The room exuded "Lifestyle" in every sense!

You don't need a white room to do this. All you need is to take a bit of your personality, and represent it in a well designed space.

People can "connect" to it-it has that "je ne sais quoi" about it. A vase of mauve lilacs or pink hydrangeas resonates peace and gentility; a wine collection-cultivation, art-sophistication. The list is endless.


I have included a chart with personality traits. See what you want to say and how you can do that. Then, see what your lifestyle aspirations are and translate that into the things you surround yourself with.

It will put the most important element a design could ever have, into your space. Even more, it makes a statement that says, "I am unique and this is who I am!".

Get the design RIGHT-that's the science of it.

The SCIENCE of design + the perfect expression of YOU.....

Now, THAT is "WOW-FACTOR"!

Personality Chart

Un Petit Peu de France Dans Votre Vie- A Bit of France In Your Life

 

Isn't it wonderful that we can include different cultures into our life! It makes ours so much richer, when we do.

This isn't necessarily decorating your home in a French Country style, although that can be part of it.

Here, we look at taking some of the culture & lifestyle of France and incorporate it into our life; making it fun and interesting. There is nothing worse than the hum-drum of daily life and nothing more exciting than doing something new, something different...putting a zest, a "je ne sais quoi" into our lifestyle.

This is so much fun, whether that is a sitting with friends in a lovely outdoor bistro as the city goes on around you, or a glass of rich Merlot and aged Camembert cheese before sitting down to a cassoulet or ratatouille.

Or, perhaps it is a large silver vase of white roses, or a soft, provencale furnishings against a rough stone wall.

No matter which you choose, adding a bit of French culture into your lifestyle can be an exhilerating experience and by incorporating that into your current lifestyle, give a full meaning to "Joie de Vivre ". After all, a "Lifestyle" is a realization of your dreams and aspirations...settle for nothing less.

Below, we have 2 inspirational videos. The first is the culture of Paris, the second, an epitomization of the French style, in a Normandie chateau. The trick is to incorporate some of the basic elements of this, and bring "un petit peu de France dans votre vie"-"a bit of France" into your life.