We experienced some pretty hard-core rain and flooding in our part of the state over the weekend, not significantly impacting our neighborhood but graying the mood enough to make cable channel flipping a preferred choice for two straight days. Even under these monotonous and mind numbing television circumstances I often find something to learn. Now, I’m not claiming that I picked up the skill to rebuild an outboard boat motor or discovered how to make $1,000 a day (legally) from the comfort of my couch, but I now know with absolute certainty that anyone, and I do mean anyone can be a designer.

While we had been adding a few minor improvements to our relatively new residence, it never really needed a lot of remodeling. That’s what comes from moving around over the span of 40 years and building up a well honed list of preferred features and floor plans in your head. When you find a property that fills most of your needs and wants (and your wife does her happy dance right in front of the real estate agent), there isn’t a lot of “design” that needs to happen after the purchase.

I’m not just talking about interior design in this article though, it was just the onslaught of home improvement shows and DIY channels that sparked the idea for this blog.

Years ago we were hooked on a TLC cable series called “Trading Spaces”. If you remember anything from that show, it was the horrific choices some of the featured designers made to change the design of a room. Hildi stapling thousands of fake flowers to the walls and ruining the drywall in the process, or thinking you could “update” the fabric of a couch with latex paint. Um. No. I’m positive that the show’s producers thought all that craziness made for great television and not great design.

Today’s home improvement shows are less combative and controversial, but the design ideas are all the same from episode to episode. Chip and Joanna had a pretty cool show concept going until you realize that every kitchen was finished in white, with subway tile above the sink and open shelves instead of cabinets for oh, I don’t know, something you might need like storage.

“I think it gives the room a fresh, clean look” she would say. Yes. White tends to do that. And let’s not forget ship lap. There’s a ship lap wall in at least one room of each house. OK for a nautical design style you might find common near the ocean shore, just not what I normally think of for a ranch home in the middle of Texas. I pick on them but I do like their show.

Architectural Digest Magazine currently lists 62 binge worthy television shows about home, garden and interior design, though there are hundreds of shows in video form available on the interwebs. Watch a few and come to the realization on your own that anyone, even with a bad idea, can become a designer. “Lets replace these old cabinets with something new!”. Duh. “Let’s update the tile and fixtures in this bathroom!” Seriously? All they needed to do was go to LowNards Depot, walk to the improvement section of the store and point a finger. I contend that these people and their creative existence is based less on coming up with unique design ideas and more about how to create an entertaining show.

Thinking Beyond Home Design

For this article it is important to understand that the concept and definition of being a designer goes way beyond a home’s interior and exterior. If you broaden the definition of design to include anything you create with your head and your hands, then you are right there with me. We are now in sync. We are of one mind. In fact any idea that you might have to create something new whether it be a drawing, painting, quilting, needlepoint, ceramics, jewelry making or any craft, you ARE the designer. Having an idea to make something new and unique is design. Using your noggin to visualize something that doesn’t exist and then think of ways to create that thing is creative and awesome. If you suddenly fall back on an idea to paint your brown leather couch white, then stop that. Stop it now.

I like to tell people that everyone is capable of being a designer and creating something new. We all have that spark of creativity in us though it may be expressed differently in each of us. For you it might be baking or metal sculpture or garden design. For me it’s woodworking.

What started with simple furniture design has morphed into other wood projects less practical like kinetic sculpture. While I still get satisfaction and enjoyment from designing and creating a new piece of sturdy furniture, and of course I have updated kitchens, bathrooms, walls and floors in the past, the next level for me has been sculpture work. I love the three kinetic sculpture designs that have come together in the past couple years, but I’ve always wanted to fall back on a childhood fascination and do something with marbles.

For the last two weeks I’ve been drawing up and building a framework for a wood shop themed marble machine. It’s a pointless, impractical and illogical creation that will take up about four square feet of space somewhere in my office area. For those reasons alone, I’m all in on this project. Not sure where it’s going to sit or what useful purpose it will serve other than to capture a person’s attention for a few moments as the machine does its thing and that for me, is enough.

This has been my most difficult design and engineering project so far, needing to scrap certain ideas and throw away perfectly nice looking pieces of manipulated wood. Some ideas and designs simply don’t work together and you have to know when to give up on an approach and move onto a different solution. Start, stop, rethink, redesign, cut, glue, assemble, test and then find out it doesn’t work? That is part of the design and engineering process. The journey is what gives the final destination it’s sweetness. Or, at least it’s important that I remind myself about that positive outcome from previous projects.

In the end I know this project will be one of my most difficult and one of the most rewarding. Design is sometimes like that. Painful at first, sometimes willing you to quit but offering that promise of success once the design comes to fruition. And so, the design and build process will continue for this project, but I fear there are more weeks of disappointment ahead before I can get it all to finally work. I know in the end, it will be an amazing kinetic machine because I’m going to design the crap out of this thing.

So, be a designer. Make something new. Create. Invest your time and your mind. Try. Fail. Try again. Succeed. Feel great about your results because it was you that did it. Whatever your craft or whatever your skill level, never stop designing. Never stop creating. More updates on my project as I go…

Teaser photo below.