Dear friends, can you define the term "space". By space I don't mean the universe or the astronomical point of view. A space is the area which is enclosed between walls, floor and ceiling and which can be used as a habitual room.

Any empty bedroom space has certain parameters attached to it the moment it gets created.

What are these parameters?

First of all the length, width, and height , the physical dimensions of the bedroom. These three have a unique relation to each other. Rooms with less length and width and too much height or too broad length and width and less height are not proportionate and tend to create discomfort.

But there are special cases where too much of height is a necessity. Some examples are church buildings, cinema halls. Here it is necessary to accommodate large group of people and project a kind if grandness through design.

That's why the space gets altered depending upon the use or "function" of the space. Hence in a bedroom the space takes a form of its own depending upon inners activities of the space.

Let's see how.

Any bedroom space has certain leakage points attached to it. By "leakage" I don't mean rain water or any other kind of stuff coming in. The bedroom space is likely to have exit point attached to it, like following,

1)Exit to backyard.
2)Exit to attached toile block.
3)Exit to attached walk-in closet.
4)Exit to balcony or terrace.
5)Openings of windows.

Depending upon the location of these, an imaginary travel path gets fixed starting from the entrance door of the bedroom. This imaginary travel path forces the user to arrange the furniture, in a way which will not create obstruction in the path.

After the furniture has been arranged, what remains is the space used for circulation inside the bedroom. If the bedroom has a small area and too many exit points (as mentioned above), then the room is left with a fixed furniture layout.

At such times the success of the bedroom decorating project lies in detailing. By detailing I mean small things such as upholstery materials, color schemes, furniture textures and finishes.

But with bedrooms which have large areas, the moment you change the furniture layout, the circulation space takes a new form and the entire room looks a new one. This is what I mean by "dynamic space" which takes a new shape.

It's like that example of the glass half filled with water. The moment you change the quantity of water space alters and the glass looks different.

Here we have come to an interesting conclusion of this article. From the above discussion one thing is very clear. The "personality" of a space can be easily altered by allowing the empty circulation space to take a new form.

In interior design everyone talks about furniture, colors, textures, paints, wallpapers, etc... but no one talks about "Empty Space" which is equally powerful. Finally it is the empty space which remains and is a measure of the comfort level for the user. If there is very less empty space remaining in a room after the furniture is placed, it is considered uncomfortable.

I hope this article was informative to everyone.

Copyright 2005 Shrinivas Vaidya