Transitions Make Magic Happen

Its the moments between the moments, the transitions, where the real magic happens.

Every dance is made up of a series of moves, but how a dancer goes from one move to the next shows what they are made of and creates the flow of the whole performance.

What happens in that space between the moves? I bet you never thought of that. 

Is it like watching a slide show, where you see one picture, and then the next and the next?  Or is it like a film or video where the transition between moves is seamless so you do not notice any break in the action?

And is it truly a work of art, where each transition is just as beautiful as the move that came before and what comes next?

 

The most amazing dancers put their hearts and souls into the transitions! Take a photo during any part of it and it will be a beautiful moment.

The transition leads the audience from one part of the dance to the next, telling the story in such a way that nothing breaks the magic.

Even in moments where there seems to be a pause, the energy continues to flow and move, pointing o what is coming next.

Interior Design Lessons from Dance

How does this relate to Interior Design, you wonder? Well, transitions play a pivotal role in weaving the enchantment, whether on the dance floor or within your living space. Welcome to Part 9 of my insights, drawn from my experiences in dance, on the art of crafting your ideal environment.

As I grow older, I’ve come to realize the profound interconnections that exist within the realm of artistic expression. The very principles that underpin the mesmerizing beauty of dance are equally applicable to the realm of Interior Design, or indeed, any other form of artistic endeavor. All it takes is a discerning eye, an attentive ear, and a receptive heart to uncover these shared truths.

It always seems to come back to the alignment between art (creativity), science (color), and energy (connection) that makes the magic happen. I use this alignment to create both beautiful dance pieces and interiors.

Learn more in some of my other articles:

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing : Surprise Me.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing and Learning to Tell a Great Story.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Bring on the Bling.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- There Can Only Be One Star.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Be Brave.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with Shapes.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with a Focal Point.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing.

How Do Transitions Relate to Interior Design?

Ever walked into a house and instantly felt a sense of tranquility, with each room flowing seamlessly into the next? Conversely, have you ever felt slightly overwhelmed or uneasy, unable to pinpoint why, while navigating another home? This feeling often hinges on the art of transitions.

Transitions are the bridges between distinct spaces. They manifest in entryways, hallways, staircases, and even doorways leading to different rooms. Beyond the indoors, a window offering a view of the outdoors acts as a transition, merging the external and internal environments.

Within rooms, transitions might be found between separate seating arrangements or areas dedicated to diverse functions. Think of them as choreography in the dance of interior design, guiding your movement and experience.

Harmony emerges when there’s a purposeful connection between these spaces. Whether it’s through congruent colors, shapes, textures, or other design elements, these transitions create an interwoven tapestry of design that pleases the senses and soothes the soul.

Creating Beautiful Transitions

Enhancing transitions within your home’s decor is effortlessly achieved through the strategic use of color.

A clever approach involves selecting a consistent color that appears in each room, even if it serves as a subtle accent in some spaces while taking center stage in others. This establishes a unifying thread throughout your home.

Alternatively, you can experiment with varying shades of the same color or opt for a monochromatic color scheme that spans your entire living space.

Another effective method is to designate a primary color as the foundation for your interior palette, with all other rooms harmonizing with this chosen hue. This way, your home’s color schemes work together seamlessly, creating a sense of cohesion, whether you’re employing complementary, triadic, diadic, or other color schemes.

Transitions from Outdoors to Indoors

The entryway of your home carries immense significance, particularly if your home serves as your place of business. It’s the initial point where visitors form impressions about your residence and, by extension, you as the owner. This impression is shaped by various factors, including the exterior aesthetics, colors, landscaping, surroundings, neighborhood, and the design and color of your front door.

For this Bed and Breakfast, the flow between the exterior and interior is not working well.

While the exterior boasts a vibrant dark teal blue complemented by a striking hot pink door, the interior’s existing paint palette hasn’t been updated to match.

 

Then you enter and experience the transition to the interior. Do they go together?  How does it feel?

The entryway is painted in a shade of blue, which works well since it belongs to the same hue family as the exterior color. However, when you peer through the doorway, you transition from the yellow living room with its assorted accents of rust and blue into the red kitchen

The yellow walls aren’t a major issue because yellow stands opposite to blue on the color wheel, making them complementary. However, the presence of red clashes with the teal.

The most straightforward solution is to repaint the kitchen. It could be refreshed with a neutral white, a similar yellow, or perhaps a shade of blue or green that harmonizes better with the exterior color. Furthermore, a makeover is in order to modernize the entire area and bid farewell to the outdated 1990s faux painting.

Just envision the welcoming atmosphere that would greet you upon entering.

Transitions Between Rooms

Transitions happen in every space where there are entrances and sightlines into adjacent rooms, regardless of whether it’s an open concept or not, as seen in the previous example.

In the illustration below, you’ll notice that the two rooms share a similar color palette. They both feature the same wall color, and there are resemblances in the colors of the bed, rug, and pillow in comparison to the living room pillow.

 

I could change the wall color or the bedroom to an off white or gray, which still ties in to colors in the living room and the transition is still beautiful.

 

Or, I could pick a clashing color that may look nice in the bedroom, but in the context of the transition between rooms does not work as with this green.

Transitions between the Outside and Inside

Another important transition is between the outside and inside. Wherever you have windows with views you want to highlight, the transition is important and can often be the focal point of the room. Find similarity in colors and patterns you see outside and bring them into your interior in your art, decor or wall colors.

For example, in the bedroom below, the whole design is based on the view and the colors of ocean and sky. To create the smooth transition from outdoors to indoors, and make the room feel one with the outdoors, the color of the wall, bed, bedding, furnishings and even my custom designed fractal art all were harmonious with the colors  and patters of the outdoors.

In the design below, the colors of the forest, sky,

and trees were used in the furnishings, pillows and rug.

Get the Look

See some of my energy art in the designs above on Society6 and Fine Art America.

“Icefield” and “Arctic Night” by Mary Ann Benoit of Northern Lights Home Staging and Design.

“Watercolor” fractal art collection by Mary Ann Benoit of Northern Lights Home Staging and Design. 

Are You Ready to Create Beautiful Transitions in Your Home?

Knowing the elements that craft your ideal space, are you prepared to bring that vision to life in your home? If you were certain that the perfect environment would elevate your life, you’d jump at the chance, right?

Let’s tell your unique story and find the alignment of art, science, and energy that makes you happy.  Try my Aligned Design consultation and let’s get started.

Curious about your Interior Design style? Take the quiz and find out.

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Every Part Must Do Its Part

Music is made of parts and every part is critical to making the magic happen. When they work together perfectly, then you have created a masterpiece!

All music has a structure. This usually includes a series of parts in order such as an introduction, a verse that is repeated several times with variations, a chorus or bridge that is different, and often the memorable highlight of the piece, a few more verses, and an ending. Often there are solos in the chorus.

All of these parts help build and tell the story and create something “delicious to the ears” as my drum teacher Amir likes to say.

Within the structure, there are more parts. These are the instruments, which layered together create a rich, delicious song for your ears. Eash has an important role to play in the final result.

The drums keep the rhythm for all the instruments. The bass is the bridge between the drums and the melodic instruments, playing both rhythm and melody. And there are several melodic instruments.

The melodic instruments usually take turns supporting each other with one or two playing the main role while the others back them up playing supporting roles or harmonies.

In the video below I created a 13 beat piece of music and played all the parts myself. Even as a one-woman band, I needed to make sure all the parts would work perfectly in harmony with the others and each supported the whole.

Mary Ann Benoit performing all the parts of her composition, For the Love of 13’s.

In many pieces, every instrument has a chance to be the star for a short time during a solo or by playing a more prominent part, while the others back them up. But, there should only be one star (at least at a time).

The magic happens because of the layers, which work in harmony for the greater good of the musical composition.  The collaboration creates something much more beautiful than any particular part or instrument on its own.

Even if all the instruments are the same, the layers of all working together to create one piece is magical.

Khoda, performed on Dafs and Frame Drums by students at Amir’s School of Music.

Yet, every part has a chance to shine. The piece needs just the right number of parts, no more or less.

Interior Design Lessons from Dance

What does this have to do with Interior Design?

Your perfect space has a structure, tells a story, and is layered with pieces that all have their supporting roles and time to shine. When done in perfect harmony, that is when the magic happens.

This is Part 2 in my revelations from lessons learned from playing music on how to create your perfect space.

The older I get, the more I realize the connections between all things artistic. The same principles apply to making the magic happen in Interior Design or any other art form. You just need to open your eyes, listen, and feel it to notice.

It always seems to come back to the alignment between art (creativity), science (color), and energy (connection) that makes the magic happen. I use this alignment to create both beautiful dance pieces and interiors.

To learn more, see Part 1, I Learned to All my Interior Design Problems by Playing Music.

You might also enjoy my series on lessons I learned about Interior Design from dancing:

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing: The Magic of Transitions.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing : Surprise Me.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing and Learning to Tell a Great Story.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Bring on the Bling.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- There Can Only Be One Star.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Be Brave.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with Shapes.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with a Focal Point.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing.

Intro, Verses, Chorus and Finale

Like a piece of music, your design also has a structure. You can think of it as an introduction, verses that lead to the dramatic chorus, more verses, and an ending.

As you enter the room, the flow to your focal point is like your introduction. All the supporting pieces that create the meat of the room and the story are like your verses. The focal point or main attraction is like your chorus or bridge and then you have an exit or end. All working together, tell the story of the room.

Play Your Part

Like instruments that each add a different sound and unique character to the music, your design parts include your flooring, furnishings, accessories, art, and lighting. They all need to coordinate and work together to create something more beautiful together than any individual part. The parts all have roles to play. If they are not contributing to a better “whole piece” than it may be “clutter” and should be removed.

Take a Solo

Musical compositions often allow the instruments to take a solo and have their time to shine while being supported by the other players.

Your art is often the focal point or soloist. Why not take a cue from music and change out your art to change the look and feel of your room from time to time. It creates a more interesting composition.

Here is an example of this same room (an Edesign by Northern Lights Home Staging and Design), with different art or “soloists”. See how the energy of the room changes by changing the art?

https://northernlightsstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/FB_change_art.mp4

Playing with One Instrument or Many

One playing with a group of similar instruments, each piece still needs to add to the overall texture of the compositions in the Daf arrangement for Khoda above.

This neutral living room is an example of a musical piece with all the same instruments, due to the similar neutral colors. Each part stands out with its different patterns or textures to add to the final design.

This monochromatic and neutral design as the same feeling in that all the parts are very similar, but the subtle but interesting differences of the individual elements creates a beautiful layered final design.

In the Edesign below, all the parts are very different, as when you have a musical piece with many instruments. When the parts are so different, extra care must be taken to make sure all the parts work in harmony (such as with your color palette).

Are You Ready to Create Your Masterpiece?

Now that you know some of the elements that work together to create your perfect space, are you ready to take action to make it happen in your home? If you knew absolutely for certain that creating a perfect space would create a better life for you, you would do it, wouldn’t you?

Let’s tell your unique story and find the alignment of art, science, and energy that makes you happy.  Let me help you take that trip to your perfect space in a Ferrari instead of a stagecoach. Try my Aligned Design consultation and let’s get started.

Curious about your Interior Design style? Take the quiz and find out.

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Prices subject to change without notice.

This page contains affiliate links.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

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Contrast is the Key to Striking Beauty

While in my doumbek class last week, my drum teacher Amir Etemadzadeh, who is a native of Iran was talking about the importance of being able to distinguish clearly all the notes we can make on our drums. The more notes, the better.  The more clearly they are different from each other, the better and more beautiful it sounds to the listener.

Amir describes it as creating a beautiful and delicious meal and all the notes are like the spices and layers that make it delicious to the ears. 

As he waxes poetic about the beauty of contrast and how critical it is to distinguish the doum from the slap, and how the Teks and Kas should be as bright and high as possible, my mind wanders to Interior Design and the importance of contrast there as well. 

In music, if the notes are not easily distinguishable, they can all start to sound the same, and some notes will make others sound muddy or dull because each is not living up to its full potential. Your playing becomes boring for the audience.

Interior Design Lessons from Dance

What does it have to do with Interior Design?

Just as a drummer wants their music to sound delicious to the ears, we want our rooms to look delicious to our eyes. Contrast is one of the keys to creating great beauty.

This is Part 1 in my revelations from playing music on how to create your perfect space. 

The older I get, the more I realize the connections between all things artistic. The same principles apply to making the magic happen in Interior Design or any other art form. You just need to open your eyes, listen, and feel it to notice.

It always seems to come back to the alignment between art (creativity), science (color), and energy (connection) that makes the magic happen. I use this alignment to create both beautiful dance pieces and interiors.

You might also enjoy my series on lessons I learned about Interior Design from dancing:

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing : The Magic of Transitions.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing : Surprise Me.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing and Learning to Tell a Great Story.

I Learned To Solve All My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Bring on the Bling.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- There Can Only Be One Star.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Be Brave.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with Shapes.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing- Create Drama with a Focal Point.

I Learned to Solve all My Interior Design Problems by Dancing.

How Does Contrast Relate to Interior Design?

Contrast is important in creating interest and making you feel something in the room. You can create contrast with color, texture, shapes, lighting, levels, patterns, sizes and more.

The more contrast between things, the more they each stand out and shine with their own inherent beauty, complimenting each other, rather than one stealing the spotlight and making the other look dull.

There is a lot of complexity to this subject. Today, I will focus on color.

 

Creating Contrast with Whites and Neutrals

As my teacher spoke about the sounds of the drum, the first thing that came to mind was how important contrast is when using the color white.

White. How seemingly simple but how complex. Many, when confused about color will say, lets just paint it white and be done with it. Haha, well, that just opened a big can of worms.

There are so many whites out there, it is amazing. Why? Because white is a color, just like any other, and is ultimately, the least saturated or a low saturation of a hue. Example, take a blue and reduce its chroma until it looks white, It is still that same blue, but with very little chroma. That is why all whites look so different.

P. S., it has nothing to do with so called “undertones”, which is just a word people use that do not understand color science to subjectively describe what they see.

No big deal, until you decide to mix whites in your space. One white can make another look muddy, or dirty, or just “off”.

Why? You need to make sure there is enough difference in chroma to easily distinguish the two whites. And there should still be some color harmony between the hues the whites come from. Whites that are opposites on the color wheel look better together than ones that are so close to each other that they look off.

Neutrals are the same as whites. They just have a little more chroma.

Finding the beauty of a neutral palette using various shades of whites, off whites and neutrals with enough contrast to see all the variations can be gorgeous. Throw in a variety of shapes and textures to add even more interest and variety.

Get the Look

 Here is an example of a beautiful and relaxing Edesign I created using whites and neutrals with contrasting colors and textures.  

Creating Contrast with Opposite Colors

Of course, you can get maximum contrast with saturated hues. The highest degree of contrast comes from either using black and white, or opposite colors on the color wheel, which creates a complimentary color scheme.

Maximum Contrast with Black and White

Maximum Contrast with a Complimentary Color Scheme

Blue and yellow are opposites or compliments on the color wheel. Each makes the other look even more vibrant.

In the Edesign below, the green in my Spring Fractal Art is the complement of the purple walls. It has the effect of making the art really pop!

Are You Ready to Create Beauty Through Contrast in Your Home?

Now that you know some of the elements that work together to create your perfect space, are you ready to take action to make it happen in your home? If you knew absolutely for certain that creating a perfect space would create a better life for you, you would do it, wouldn’t you?

Let’s tell your unique story and find the alignment of art, science, and energy that makes you happy.  Let me help you take that trip to your perfect space in a Ferrari instead of a stagecoach. Try my Aligned Design consultation and let’s get started.

Curious about your Interior Design style? Take the quiz and find out.

Terms of Service  |  Privacy Policy  |  Disclaimer

Prices subject to change without notice.

This page contains affiliate links.

Call 907-362-0065 today

 info@northernlightsstaging.com

Get Your Free Issue of Seasonal Living Magazine!