Interior Design for Boys

- Your home is the outward expression of your inner life.

When you change your home, you change your life.

Look, fellas, I get it, minimalism, simplicity, not looking for happiness and material things.

These are all very good principles, but beyond being a way to express yourself, how you organize and furnish the spaces that you spend time in has a tangible, scientifically proven effect on your health, mood and general outlook on life.

So the boys and I dove deep into interior design research online.

We read a book and we even talked to an actual interior designer.

She gets paid to do this - For a bedroom.

I feel like that's where like most people get it wrong.

- And the result is this list of six practical, effective and affordable things that you can do right now to step up the vibe, comfort, and overall experience of wherever you call home.

And I'm gonna try to take every single point in the video and apply it to my upstairs.

Let's see if any of this stuff actually makes a difference, starting with the most impactful and important thing of all.

This came up over and over again everywhere we looked.

Lighting, you can have the nicest furniture in the world, perfectly arranged, the really great color palette, but if your lighting is bad, the room will still look like absolute dog shit.

Oh, there are two main things that you can do to get started.

Number one, have multiple light sources.

Some people say four to six, other people say six to nine.

Nice. However many lights that you end up getting, having multiple sources of light will add depth to your room and make it more comfortable. You

- Think a lot of guys don't think about the ambiance of a space.

Your furniture can be pretty terrible, but if you just have ambiance and you have like two chairs at your dining table, that's all you need.

- But what? What do you mean more?

What do I just get a bunch of?

What do I, what kind of lights do I even get?

Lights are broken up into three categories.

General lighting. These are your overhead lights, your recess lights, the light on your ceiling fan.

This is sometimes called cleaning lighting because they should only be turned all the way up when you're cleaning.

Otherwise, keep them dimmed or off.

By the way, installing a dimmer takes like 15 minutes and costs a dollar and not having a dimmer on your overhead lighting is like having a TV that you can't adjust the volume on.

Insane. Then there is task lighting, a reading lamp by an armchair lighting over surfaces in the kitchen, a desk lamp.

The most important thing about these functional lights is that they are actually functional.

In the interior design handbook, Frida Ramstad says, in spite of the fact that past generations spent years researching light fixtures kind to the eye, we still choose to hang naked bulbs on fabric cables because it is trendy.

Damn Frida coming outta my generation with that one girl.

But her point is when it comes to lights, we've kind of figured out what works.

So if the light above your dining table is meant to illuminate the dining table, a chandelier with the light bulbs pointed at the ceiling probably doesn't make a lot of sense.

You'd be surprised at how much of interior design is based on functionality.

A, a house is just a big car and finally there is accent lighting like a little orb light from Ikea or a silly lamp that you've had since you were a kid.

These are the personality hires of lights.

They don't really do anything but the fact that they're there makes the rest of the lights work better.

So general task accent.

Ideally you have a good mix of all three types of lighting - If you like, can avoid using your overhead lights and you can basically create your entire space with just secondary lighting.

That's like the key to know that you've done it right, like you can make it eclectic, just have the right lighting on and you're good.

- And the second thing you need to know about lighting, not all light is the same.

There are different types of light.

Let's start with color temperature, little science here guys.

About 150 years ago, a guy named Lord Kelvin noticed that if you heat up a piece of carbon, it goes from glowing orange to yellow to white to blue.

And he was like, huh, it seems each temperature has its own color and thus was born color temperature hot.

This allows us to measure how warm or cool a light appears using the Kelvin scale using warmer light, which is around 2,700 degrees.

Kelvin can take a room from being sterile and cold to comfortable and inviting straight up vibey for thousands of years to see inside.

At night, all we had was candles and fires, both of which emit very warm light.

So having warm interior light feels more natural and comfortable to us while cooler light mimics sunlight and can actually disturb your sleep cycle.

I think this is a very common mistake that a lot of guys make with their lighting.

They choose lights that are too cool because they think, oh, I can see better with that one.

But guys, you don't want your living room to feel like the inside of your refrigerator.

You can technically see better with cool light, so get a task light, a functional light for your war hammer station, but your primary lights and most of your other functional lighting look for bulbs that are around 2,700 Kelvin, which is just a little bit cooler than candlelight With modern light bulbs.

We heating up carbon or even tungsten anymore because most light bulbs we use now are LEDs.

LEDs used to suck, but now they're pretty good as long as they have a high CRI.

Ideally 90 or more 2,700 KCRI above 90, it'll say that stuff on the box.

You can probably get away with 80 if you're on a budget, but 90 boy, let me tell you, your skin won't look green at all.

I don't know dude, I saved like three bucks on this bulb.

You look like you're in the matrix. Thank you.

Like you're gonna offer me a red or a blue pill.

Is this one red or is this one?

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Number two, work in three dimensions.

It is really easy to accidentally only fill the bottom third of your room.

I mean it's where the floor is, it's what all most of the stuff goes on.

Add some art on the walls, add in a tall bookshelf, put up some higher shelving instead of fricking plant up there or an accent.

Light rooms are three dimensional.

Best ones are a great way to add vertical dimension to your room is to put up some curtains, a lot of guys curtains wrong specifically by going too small To avoid this, keep these three tips in mind.

First, the curtain rod should be at least six inches higher than the frame of whatever they're covering up and it should extend a foot out past either direction.

This provides an optical illusion, so now people think that you have a bigger window or door than you actually do.

Makes the space feel bigger, makes the window feel bigger.

Also, the curtains should just barely kiss the floor, just like little forehead kiss on the floor.

If they're like four inches off the ground, it looks like you're wearing short pants.

Way too short, not in a cool Tyler crater kind of way.

And finally, the curtain itself should be double the width of whatever space it's covering.

That way when they're closed, they still got them ripples.

There's no ripples in your curtains.

It looks like you hung a towel over your window, which is one of the worst things you can do.

Another way to work in three dimensions is to get some art on the wall.

There are a lot of rules out there for hanging artwork in all manner of layouts, but to avoid overwhelming you, here are a couple quick and easy ones that everyone should just know on a blank wall, the focal point of your art, which means like where you look should be 57 inches from the floor.

Well, that's an oddly specific amount of inches, James.

Aren't there all kinds of different sizes of walls?

Yes, there are, but this is based on how tall humans are, not how tall wall is.

If your art is behind a couch or a bed, the art should be no longer than two thirds the width of that piece of furniture.

And three, put that junk in a frame dog.

Frame it man. You can have a poster on your wall.

Just put it in a frame. Go to DuckDuckGo and search some guidelines for framing art.

Be careful when you are framing stuff.

There is ways to do it cheaply.

There are ways to accidentally do it way too expensively.

A cheap frame will look better than no frame at all, so don't get intimidated by it and just get it done.

Little hack, go to garage sales and buy art that you don't even like and just take the frame.

Another hack. I think

that movie posters have gotten an unfair faux pa rating as far as boy decoration goes.

But if you're gonna have a movie poster on your wall, get it in a foreign language American Terminator two poster, Japanese Terminator two poster.

You see the difference and make sure that you put it in a frame before we get to the next topic.

If you have a little piece of interior design wisdom, let us know in the comments.

Let's start it. Just let's start a conversation.

Let's turn this into a Socratic seminar about vibes and interior spaces.

Alright, so we've got good lighting.

We're working in three dimensions.

Next tip number three, focus on materials before colors.

Obviously the color of your furniture is important, but if everything is made of like the same thing, the room is still gonna feel flat and lifeless no matter what colors you choose.

The general rule of thumb is to try and fill your space with as many organic materials first.

Then you can use inorganics and synthetics to like fill it out.

Organics are things like wood, linen, wool, bamboo cork cotton and just like the warm light that we were talking about before, we've been using this stuff forever.

I mean, we used to live in trees. It's natural for us.

It makes us feel normal.

These materials create a sense of warmth, familiarity, timelessness.

They encourage you to be comfortable.

They also tend to have more muted colors so they go well with almost anything.

Then things like stone, metal, glass, these are inorganics.

We've been using this stuff for a long time as well, but we haven't really been able to manipulate it until relatively recently.

By relatively recently, I mean like thousands of years, but like we've been on the earth for a lot longer than that and if you don't agree, then unsubscribe from this channel.

So they're a little bit less natural, a little bit less familiar.

Stone and metal can feel grounding and strong, but if you overdo it, your room can feel cold or lifeless.

I don't wanna talk shit about Nolan, but I helped him move one time and all of his furniture was leather and metal.

All of his stuff looked like he got it from a Trent Resner garage sale.

It felt like we were like moving a haunted hospital.

He's married now and and his house now is very nice, but man young Nolan is is like silent.

Hill leather is technically like an organic, but it's in a weird spot because I would treat it as an inorganic because it can feel very sterile.

Then finally we got materials like acrylic, plastic, polyester vinyl.

These are synthetics.

We made these, we invented these mostly during World War ii.

These things are like brand ass new.

They're usually affordable and they can be turned into almost any shape imaginable.

They're kind of awesome.

You shouldn't fill your entire room with synthetics.

That doesn't mean that they aren't great options.

A lot of like mid-century, really classic 20th century furniture is acrylic or plastic.

A plastic chair that is unapologetically plastic can look awesome.

A white laminate bookshelf can look awesome.

I don't think that you should furnish your entire living room with clear furniture, but one clear acrylic chair in the right context can be very, very cool.

But now that I say it out loud, if you can figure out how to fill your whole living room with clear furniture, I take it back.

Go for it. That

that's a vibe you look like magneto in prison.

Yeah, fortress of solitude vibes.

Just like a whole clear house.

Hey, if you can make it happen, I'd say go for it.

Send me pics. Tag me at James Poey on Instagram.

Number four, don't just furnish the room, furnish the actions.

Don't just think about how to make your room look better.

That's really intimidating and kind of wild.

Instead, think about how it can function better.

A lot of times the best functional choice can look better than some crazy fancy design idea.

- Make your space like how you function instead of trying to like make it look decorated 'cause you're never gonna keep up with it, but like make the way you function. Look nice.

- Where should I put this lamp? I don't know.

It looks pretty good over in that corner.

Actually it doesn't because it doesn't make any sense.

A bunch better place for that lamp is next to that chair because you sit in that chair and read.

Thinking about stuff functionally allows you to have like some idea of where everything goes.

You got a bunch of furniture, you're looking at a buried room.

You're like, oh, where do I put all this crap?

It's like, well, you know how to use this stuff.

Don't put your TV by the ceiling. Should be at eye level.

- The biggest thing that I run into is TVs that hang off of the wall with like huge clunky wall mounts that turn tilt and like they'll have it tilted.

Put your TV in eye level position and just mount it to the wall so it's just flat.

- Here are a couple other things to think about when it comes to practical furniture placement.

Where is the command position?

The command position is the place in the room that feels the most secure and grounded.

Imagine you're reading a book in bed or watching TV on the couch.

Where do you want to be in order to be in charge of this room?

If your back is to the entrance of the room, somebody could sneak up on you and hit you on the noggin.

Or if you're directly facing the door, it feels like people have access to you from outside of the room.

You want people to have to enter a room to have access to you even if you like live alone or you aren't realistically worried about those things.

There's still a subconscious uneasiness created by being in those positions.

So in a bedroom like this, the command position for the bed is here, or in a living room like this, the command position for the couch is here.

Now, it's not always possible.

A lot of rooms were designed before TVs, but even just using the principles behind the command position will help you make the best decision.

Another thing to think about when placing furniture is traffic or flow.

How do people move through the room?

Now look at this bedroom.

The entrance is here, the closet is here.

Not only is the bed not in the command position, but if you need to grab something outta your closet, you'd have to walk all the way around to get to it.

That's bad flow.

Look at this living room with this layout, you'd have to walk through the middle of where everyone is sitting to get to the other engines.

Now, a comfortable conversation zone is an awkward hallway, but if we slide everything over here, maybe add a little bookshelf with a lamp, it's now very natural to walk around and not disturb anyone.

Plus it puts all the furniture onto the rug.

At the very least, the front two legs of all your furniture should be on the rug.

Quick side note, the conversation area of a living room or even like a porch or something shouldn't be bigger than a 10 foot radius.

Diameter shouldn't be bigger than a 10 foot diameter, or you could say five foot radius, but or a five foot radius shouldn't be bigger than a 10 foot diameter or a five foot radius.

I'm not saying go full functional robot, but for a home to be comfortable, it should make sense.

Number five, practical, beautiful or personal.

Everything on display should be one of these three things.

I'm talking about art, I'm talking about plants, I'm talking about books.

I'm talking about little trinkets and souvenirs, stone bowls and hot wheels.

If you don't have any art right now and you're inspired by this video, don't just go on Amazon and buy some generic print of like a tree or an elephant.

Your room should reflect who you are.

The books on your shelf should be books that you've read or at least plan to read.

One day you have a chessboard in your living room and you play chess a lot.

That's functional, that's personal, that's cool.

If you don't even know the rules to chess, it's generic bullshit and get it outta your freaking house poser, or better yet, learn how to play chess.

When we were putting this video together and figuring out what I was gonna say, I had a fear.

I really don't want this to lead you guys to overthinking every single thing and like shutting down and not decorating your house because realistically, just like starting is the best way to do this, and honestly, most things fit into one of these three categories.

It really just acts as a filter to make sure that you're being thoughtful about what you fill your house with.

Your art doesn't have to have some amazing story about meeting some artist in Peru.

If you think that it's truly beautiful, then hang it up.

If it represents something that represents you, hang it up.

- If it speaks to you, put it up.

It'll tell a lot about you and I think your space will feel unique to you.

Also, like from a, like if you have a girl over and like they ask you like if it is something weird, like chances are it's gonna be a conversation starter and it's gonna like make someone get to know you more and like it's gonna start a conversation that goes down a D like I think it's cool.

- It's just like when you have a room full of just generic crap like route 66 signs or a vase with like fluffy wheat coming out of it.

Things that you bought just to fill the space, your home can end up looking like an Airbnb basically just put a little thought into it.

Let's make our homes an extension of who we are, so get a little doormat.

Doormats are obviously functional, but they're also welcoming and they look cool.

A great opportunity to show off your personal taste.

The first non shirt on Garn product, a little at speed.

Do co and finally, I'd say this is the second most important one right after lighting.

Eh, it might actually be number one.

Yes, it is number one 'cause it can cancel out good lighting.

Number six, clean your shit.

None of this advice is gonna do any good if your home is a mess.

And beyond just general cleaning and making it not gross.

Try to cut down on clutter.

In the interior design handbook, it recommends that 80% of your items be stored out of sight with 20% left visible.

Give things a home.

Do you just throw your keys and wallet down on the table next to the door, put up some key hooks, even just a little bowl that you throw everything in.

I do that. It feels really good.

When I come home, it's like I'm here.

As same goes for shoes. Get a little cubby or a mat.

Organize all your cords, hide your cords, fix things, fix that broken window, blind, tighten that jiggly doorknob.

Make your bed sweep in. Vacuum. Get a doormat.

Put away your dishes, fluff up your pillows and light a freaking candle.

Your homeboys. It's a nice place to be.

I hope this video is helpful for some of you guys.

If you have like a little brother or something that lives like an animal, send this to him If you think it could be helpful, subscribe if you like this type of stuff.

Comment if there's another random topic that you want us to go out and research.

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