Perfect Pitch in Design

Harmony inspired by my Chinese Art & Meditation Teacher

My beloved Hungarian Choir, they hardly even mind that I don’t read music or Hungarian.

You are probably wondering what my singing in a Hungarian Choir has to do with design, though it’s less of a stretch when you think about community… A choir is all about community, even a Hungarian one. (We’re known for our hot blood.) This afternoon I met my lovely client who is now also my lovely friend, whose house my company has gutted and added onto. We were looking at the elements in context, floors, walls, space, color, texture… very much like how my brave and brilliant choral director tries to make something of all the different voices, tenor, alto, base, and soprano, (c’est moi). 

I’m supposed to be able to read all these strange symbols on skinny lines that go up and down and curve mostly in Italian, and the lyrics are all in Hungarian and anyone who tells you it’s phonetic, well, they haven’t tried to relearn their first language that they haven’t actually spoken since they were six… still there are clues and nuances that suggest how it is meant to be, even without reading music or Hungarian I can feel what it wants to be. There is an intrinsic desire for harmony, like a magnetic attraction. A longing to be arranged in such a way as to create something truly lovely. Mostly it’s about getting out of the way and letting the elements show or tell in the case of the choir and I come to appreciate more and more in design also.

I believe there is such a thing as perfect pitch in design, it’s like hearing what wants to be but more like feeling it. The paralam beam that we came upon for our stair stringers and treads are like a baritone, solid and substantial, 3 1/2 inch treads will be so cool. They knocked the white washed oak out of the arena but reminded us of the gorgeous milky bamboo sustainable and formaldehyde free pre finished flooring that they can actually create just a little milkier customized for our very own unique symphony and then suddenly the walls made sense. The lonely grays floating out of context, just moments ago judged on something as arbitrary as how gray they were when we didn’t actually know how gray is best. till the the tenor and soprano voices emerged, now it’s clear that the vanilla milkshake the creamy gray is what this home wants to be. How could we know until we “heard, the counter top, though it’s voice only begins to emerge and may be bumped off the stage by the carera marble, still the silestone has a movement and unexpected worn in blue jean feel (but in gray)that is rather disarming… like my Hungarian choir, nothing worn in or bluejeany but the harmonies are so enchanting as this lovely home is emerging to be too. There is magic in these notes, when we listen as intently as a mother to a new born child, our home is built of love, just like our choir, and I am sure not just the Hungarian ones.