In perfect harmony

“Art is harmony parallel with nature.” - Paul Cezanne

Take a moment to truly take in the space you are sitting in right now. What do you notice? What stands out to you the most? And most importantly— how does it make you feel? My Feelosophy is that the environment in which we find ourselves has a direct impact on our emotions, our thoughts, and our senses, even if we don’t notice it. In the same way, moving from one space to another can drastically impact us, particularly if there is no sense of harmony between them.

It’s normal to come across this issue when it comes to melding old and new designs together. If you were to remodel your open-concept kitchen in a completely different style than your existing dining room, you would notice the lack of harmony. The key to replicating the feeling of one space in another is to rely on visual cues.

I recently had the opportunity to redesign the Old House Restaurant at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa here in Santa Fe. The very successful bar and lounge had been redesigned less than 10 years ago, and customers loved relaxing in the space. But the connected restaurant, which hadn’t been part of the redesign, failed to capture that same feeling. It was old, dated, and kitschy— a huge disconnect from the lovely bar area.

To bring out that harmony between the two spaces, I carried over the most striking visual cues from the lounge space into the restaurant. This process is a form of visual alchemy: from flooring to lighting to fabrics, every choice was deliberate.

When achieving harmony, it is particularly important to pay attention to how the spaces flow into one another. For this project, we changed the bar configuration to better connect the spaces and provide an inviting welcome for guests moving from the lounge to the restaurant.

Even inside each space, flow is important. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box to solve any issues with flow and harmony. In this space, I designed a large steel screen that I call “Desert Seaweed” and had it made by a local artisan. We positioned it in several places in the restaurant to divide the large room into three separate areas, sculpting a more intimate setting for guests.

While a lounge and restaurant may seem like an obvious area where design harmony is needed, any space, including your home or office, can benefit from the melding of styles and visual cues. That’s why my Feelosophy involves achieving harmony for all of my clients, because how you feel in a space is the most important thing.

Lisa Samuel ASID, IIDA, is a Santa Fe native and principal of Samuel Design Group, located in the heart of downtown Santa Fe. She is an award-winning interior designer known for creating unique interiors imbued with warmth and elegance. Lisa (info@samueldesigngroup.com) is passionate about good design that supports well-being.

COURTESY CHAD CHENIER PHOTOGRAPHY My of making everyone feel comfortable within a space led to the design of the “Desert Seaweed” sculpture, which acts as a divider, and creates a more intimate atmosphere, in the Old House Restaurant