Playing With Height

In art classes, design classes, anywhere that teaches you art, you learn a lot about perspective, and, you also learn a lot about how big or how small it’s important objects are. You might learn how to make sketches of your own face, alive with realism. I was always terrible at art class. For some reason, perspective and realism were the direct opposites of ‘talents’ for me — two parts of creating a full picture that I could never grasp.

What I did learn how to do, however, is cartoon. 

It began as a struggle, but over the years, I’d created my own style of odd art with the technique of layering different colors of fineliner pen. It also culminated into abstract photography, abstract painting, and poster art. All of which can be found in the gallery. 

In high school, my boyfriend at the time, was an amazing artist. He drew realism, yes, but from his mind, and he had a special way with pencils, pens. Once he even create a self-portrait of himself out of playing cards. But, as the amazing artist that he was, he was also an even better boyfriend.

He taught me that just because I wasn’t one of those people who could copy whatever they saw, realistically, in their mind… that that didn’t mean I wasn’t an artist. In his eyes, even with the arts coming so easy to him, I was an excellent artist, and he’d push me to get better.

Over a decade later, I still have his voice in my head, pushing me along.

My mind has learned to love more and more and more genres and mediums of arts, and, his lessons have grown to mean the same thing for all media.

This is where I say that, my first apartment, a place I lived by myself for almost seven years, was my first real place where I experimented with decorating. There were two roommates who didn’t last very long, in the very beginning, and then the place was all mine. It was where I began my journey with home decor, and learned to love the act of creating where I existed.

It’s what also began my love for doing something that I call, ‘Experimenting with height.’ 

We learn, at an early age, that there is a specific height for everything, and that throwing off that balance of how tall or short something is will throw off the balance of whatever you’re working on, whether it’s a cartoon, a piece of clothing, or, like we’ll be talking about here, the height of two or more objects in a room.

This means, a side table doesn’t necessarily have to meet the direct level of an arm of a chair or the arm of a sofa. 

This also means you can experiment with how long you want your window curtains. Some people like draperies that hang from the top of the ceiling, down to the floor because they believe it heightens the room. Other people want curtains to stop just below the windowsill, and start just above the window pane, because they believe it makes the room look bigger. Either of these work. Both are accepted ideas of the norm.

But, what happens when you experiment with other types of height? Such as, making all of the frames on a gallery wall all shapes and all sizes, and seeing how they look pieced together and splayed across plaster. 

What happens when you make your furniture different heights instead of trying to make everything look symmetrical?

All of this sounds like a puzzle, but when you attempt to turn decorating into a formulaic equation, you lose that essence of what it’s supposed to be and feel like: you. 

Nothing is right, and nothing is wrong. 

Everyone has different opinions of how things work, and why. 

Only the rules you choose will apply to what you are doing, and, based on the room and what you have on hand, those rules can change whenever you begin decorating.

One of my favorite things to play with are plant stands. Whenever you feel something needs a boost, add a plant stand! Or, a stool! You can put stacks of books, funky garbage cans, or whatever you believe needs extra height with one of these. 

Also, cake stands. Imagine creating a table centerpiece with candles, a cake stand, and maybe a circular placemat for decoration. Your candles get to be raised in the center of a table, and it looks a little bit more maximalist.

Maximalism does not need to equal clutter, and, if it needs to for you, maximalism can equal clutter in an enticing way.

Once you begin ignoring rules, or researching the ones you want in your arsenal, you can begin decorating your way instead of everyone else’s way. Playing with height starts with your furniture, moves to decor and accessories, and ends with a cohesive room that doesn’t look like it was created with a measuring tape and a formula. 

Everything works together because you wanted it to.

Sometimes, the creation of art happens because you feel it with your soul, whether it’s done ‘the right way’ or not.