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The First 30 Seconds Inside Your Home Matter More Than You Think — Transcript

by The Masculine Home · 2,725 words · 416 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00There is a moment in every home that we
0:01don't spend nearly enough time thinking
0:03about. It happens before someone has
0:05seen the furniture, noticed the artwork,
0:08or had enough time to decide whether
0:10they like the kitchen, the living room,
0:12or anything else that you've spent years
0:14putting together. It begins before
0:17they're inside. Someone approaches the
0:19house, reaches the door, and a few
0:20seconds later is standing in the
0:22entrance with a coat over one arm and
0:24something else occupying the other.
0:26They're taking in the room while also
0:29trying to figure out what happens next.
0:31Where does the coat go? If they're
0:33holding on to something, where do they
0:34put it? And are they meant to keep
0:36moving or wait for you to lead them in?
0:39These are small questions and most
0:41barely rise to the level of conscious
0:42thought, but somewhere in those first
0:45few seconds, while the door is still
0:46closing behind them, the experience of
0:49your home has already begun. Most of us
0:51don't design homes with this in mind. We
0:53tend to think of the foyer as one room
0:56and the living room as another with the
0:57hallway somewhere between them. But
0:59nobody entering your house experiences
1:01those things as separate design
1:03decisions. They experience one
1:05continuous sequence, and when that
1:07sequence works, it goes unnoticed but
1:10carries a large amount of importance.
1:12You come through the door and understand
1:14almost instinctively where to go. Maybe
1:16you can see part of another room ahead
1:18of you, or maybe there's a suggestion of
1:20light somewhere down the hallway that
1:22makes you want to continue. Either way,
1:25you're being drawn further inside. The
1:27outside world is falling away behind
1:29you. A good entrance really has four
1:32jobs. It has to receive you, orient you,
1:35introduce the home, and then give you a
1:37reason to keep moving. My name is
1:39Chaudhry, and today we're going to look
1:40at those first 30 seconds differently.
1:43Not so much as an opportunity to impress
1:45someone, but as one of the most
1:47important transitions your home has to
1:50manage. If you're a returning
1:52subscriber, hit the thumbs up. If you're
1:54new here, hopefully by the end of this
1:55video, you'll be a subscriber. Remember
1:58that if you would like our help in
1:59designing your room, you can have that
2:02help by clicking the link in the
2:03description below.
2:05The first job of an entrance is pretty
2:07basic. It has to let someone arrive.
2:10That sounds obvious until you think
2:12about what arriving actually involves.
2:14You may come through the door with a
2:16phone in one hand and keys in the other,
2:18carrying a bag or holding an umbrella,
2:20or some inconvenient combination of all
2:23four. Now, imagine an entry cabinet near
2:25the front door. It's a wonderful piece
2:27of furniture and somebody has clearly
2:29taken care arranging it. There's a
2:31painting above it and a nice lamp at one
2:34end. They filled in the rest with a few
2:36books and decorative objects. Everything
2:38looks finished. Unfortunately, there
2:40isn't 6 in of table top left on which to
2:43put your keys. The table top has become
2:46a display surface when, at least
2:48occasionally, it also needs to be a
2:51receiving surface. An entrance needs
2:53some spare capacity for the sometimes
2:56disorderly business of arriving home.
2:59You need to be able to put something
3:00down without rearranging the decor
3:02first. A wet umbrella needs somewhere
3:05sensible to go, and there needs to be
3:07enough room around the door that two
3:09people can actually enter and close the
3:12door behind them without performing some
3:14awkward dance around the furniture.
3:16Nobody notices these things when they're
3:18working properly. A guest won't
3:20compliment you on the conveniently empty
3:22corner of your console table. He'll
3:24simply put the bottle of wine there
3:26while taking his hat off. And that, in a
3:28sense, is the point. A surprising amount
3:31of hospitality consists of removing tiny
3:34decisions from another person's evening.
3:36The opposite creates what we might call
3:38arrival friction. The front door's lock
3:41sticks. A package is beside the door
3:43that doesn't allow it to open fully. The
3:45console table projects just a little too
3:48far into the walkway. The rug catches
3:50your shoe, and there isn't an obvious
3:52place for your possessions. Eventually,
3:55the host is pointing toward another room
3:57and just saying, "Oh, just put that over
3:58there." None of these things matter too
4:00much on their own, but put enough of
4:02them together and the house begins to
4:04feel as if the arrival of another person
4:07was something that hadn't quite planned
4:09for.
4:10Once someone is inside, the house has to
4:12become understandable. You don't
4:14necessarily need to know the floor plan,
4:16but you should have some sense of where
4:18to pause and where you're likely to go
4:20next. Ideally, very little of this
4:22requires explanation. But, we don't find
4:25our way through a house only with our
4:27feet. We also use our eyes. We tend to
4:29think about rooms from the inside,
4:31moving furniture around and deciding
4:33what belongs on the walls once we're
4:35already standing in the environment.
4:38It's just as useful to step outside that
4:40room and ask, "What do I see through the
4:43doorway?" A living room can be
4:44beautifully arranged and still present
4:46itself terribly from the entrance. The
4:49first thing you see might be the
4:50upholstered back of a sectional, the
4:52thin side of a television with cables
4:54hanging beneath it, or in an open-plan
4:57house, the refrigerator. The view is
4:59vacant. Your eyes are searching and
5:02cannot find a reason to continue. So,
5:05stop thinking of a doorway merely as an
5:07opening and begin thinking of it as a
5:09frame. Stand at your entrance without
5:11walking any further. The architecture
5:14has already selected a composition for
5:16you, much like a photographer decides
5:18what belongs inside a photograph.
5:21Looking at the house through this
5:22figurative lens, you'll begin to view
5:25ordinary furniture decisions more
5:26critically. Turning a chair slightly may
5:29open the room toward you. A console
5:31table behind a sofa can make an
5:33upholstered back feel planned rather
5:35than obstructive. And there are times
5:38when nothing needs to move at all. A
5:39painting visible from the entrance can
5:41give the eye a destination. So can a
5:43lamp glowing farther down a hallway.
5:46This becomes especially noticeable at
5:48night. You can illuminate the floor, the
5:51console, and every wall around you.
5:53Functionally, the lighting has done its
5:55job, but illumination and atmosphere
5:58aren't quite the same thing. Allow the
6:00entrance to become slightly quieter
6:01while another pool of light glows
6:03somewhere deeper in the house, and your
6:05attention naturally goes there. At that
6:08point, the lighting isn't merely helping
6:10you see the house, it's helping you move
6:12through it. So, the question isn't
6:14always does my entrance have enough
6:16light? At times, the better question is
6:18going to be where does the light send my
6:20attention? The entrance also begins to
6:23tell you what kind of place you've
6:24entered, and this is where foyers can go
6:26wrong in a different way. They get
6:28decorated as foyers. You know the
6:30formula, there's usually a console
6:32against the wall with a round mirror
6:34hanging above it. Put a lamp on one
6:36side, something decorative on the other,
6:38and maybe slide a pair of stools
6:40underneath. You've seen some version of
6:43it a thousand times. There's nothing
6:45insulting or obnoxious about this setup.
6:47It's not something that's going to make
6:49a visitor go, "My god, what did they
6:51do?" The problem is that the same
6:53arrangement could belong to almost any
6:55house. An entrance doesn't really need
6:57an entryway style. It needs to introduce
7:01this particular house. Think of it as a
7:04small concentration of the design
7:06language you're about to encounter. If
7:08oak appears prominently elsewhere,
7:10perhaps some trace of it can begin here.
7:13The finish on the door hardware might
7:15turn up again on a lamp or a cabinet
7:17pull in the house. A color introduced
7:19through art in the entry might resurface
7:21in another room. None of this means
7:23everything should match. What matters is
7:25continuity, the subtle sense that these
7:28spaces were conceived as parts of the
7:30same place. So, don't buy a piece simply
7:33because a retailer has classified it as
7:35entryway furniture. Look for something
7:37that belongs to the house you're
7:39introducing. And while you're doing
7:41that, don't remove every trace of the
7:43people who live there. Interior
7:44photography has trained us to regard
7:46almost any evidence of human existence
7:49as clutter. Everything gets cleared away
7:51until the console holds a lamp, three
7:53carefully positioned books, and some
7:55decorative object that nobody in the
7:57house has ever had a reason to touch.
7:59But a home doesn't need to look
8:01unoccupied in order to look considered.
8:04There should be room for some evidence
8:06of the people who actually live there.
8:07That could possibly be a good pair of
8:10boots beside the door. If you walk the
8:11dog every morning, the lead might have a
8:14proper hook rather than being hidden
8:16somewhere simply because it doesn't
8:18photograph well. The same is true of the
8:20keys and whatever else comes out of your
8:22pockets when you get home. The question
8:24is whether the room has made a place for
8:26these things. Of course, it still needs
8:28to be orderly. Six pairs of shoes
8:30spreading across the floor because
8:32nobody knows where else to put them is
8:34disorder. A pair of boots kept
8:36deliberately beside the door is life. A
8:39stack of unopened mail colonizing the
8:41console is accumulation. A tray
8:43receiving your keys every evening is
8:45part of how the house works. The idea is
8:47to give traces of life somewhere to
8:50belong. Once someone has arrived,
8:52understood the space, and gotten some
8:54sense of the home they've entered,
8:55there's still something left for the
8:57entrance to do. Give them a reason to
8:59keep going. Many modern houses reveal
9:02themselves almost immediately. You open
9:04the front door, and from one position,
9:06you can almost understand the entire
9:07main level. The foyer spills into the
9:10living area, the kitchen and dining
9:11space sit just beyond it, and through
9:14all of that, you may even be able to see
9:16the glass doors across the back of the
9:18house. That openness can be spectacular,
9:22but it comes with a trade-off. Within 4
9:24or 5 seconds, you may have understood
9:26most of the house. Older homes often
9:28behave differently. You enter through a
9:30vestibule and find yourself in a hall.
9:32There's a staircase ahead, an arch gives
9:34you part of another room while a doorway
9:37reveals something else. Maybe you catch
9:39a glimpse of a painting or light coming
9:41from a room that you can't quite see
9:43yet. The house is unfolding as you move
9:46through it. I'm not suggesting we start
9:48putting walls back into open plan
9:49houses, but there is a useful lesson
9:52that revelation can be designed.
9:54Furniture can interrupt a long sightline
9:56without closing a room. A plant or
9:58screen can partially obscure something
10:01beyond it. Lighting can pull your
10:03attention toward one area while allowing
10:05another to recede. It's the act of
10:08leaving something undiscovered rather
10:09than concealed. And this runs against
10:12the familiar advice that an entrance
10:13should provide a great wow moment. It
10:16certainly can make an impression, but
10:18I'd be careful about asking the foyer to
10:20be the most impressive moment in the
10:22house. If the entrance is the brightest,
10:25richest, and most dramatic space anyone
10:28encounters, what happens next? The house
10:31has nowhere to build. A more interesting
10:33home has some hierarchy to it. The
10:35entrance might establish the character
10:37of the home without exhausting it. As
10:39you move through the hallway, a little
10:41more is revealed. Then the rooms farther
10:43inside are free to become more
10:45comfortable and personal as the house
10:47gradually opens itself up to you.
10:49There's no reason to tap the entire
10:52dopamine effect of the house in the
10:54first 30 seconds. Think of the entrance
10:56more like an opening sentence. A good
10:58opening sentence doesn't tell you
11:00everything the writer intends to say. It
11:03gives you just enough to want to keep
11:05reading. And this is also why I wouldn't
11:07automatically try to make every small
11:09foyer look bigger. Architecture has long
11:12used the contrast between compressed and
11:14expansive spaces. Frank Lloyd Wright was
11:17particularly good at this, bringing you
11:19through a lower, tighter, more
11:21restrained space before allowing you to
11:23emerge into one of the principal rooms.
11:25That compression was part of the
11:27experience. So, if a modest entrance
11:30leads you into a living room with taller
11:32ceilings, larger windows, and
11:33considerably more natural light. The
11:36foyer doesn't necessarily need to
11:37compete with that. It's intimacy is
11:40precisely what makes the next room feel
11:42generous. Ultimately, the best decision
11:45may be to let a small room be small.
11:47There's one other thing worth
11:49remembering about those first 30
11:50seconds. You're not experiencing the
11:52entrance from a photograph. You're
11:54entering it with your whole body and all
11:56of your senses. You hear the door close
11:59behind you. And if something rattles or
12:01a hinge squeaks, you'll notice it. Walk
12:03across a hard, mostly empty hallway and
12:06you'll probably hear your footsteps as
12:07well. Then there are things you
12:09experience without really looking at
12:10anything. You notice whether a room
12:12feels cold, and of course you notice how
12:14it smells, which is one area where
12:16decorating advice often begins at the
12:18wrong end of the problem. We're told to
12:20make the entrance smell good, to buy a
12:22candle, to get a diffuser, find some
12:24expensive fragrance with cedar, leather,
12:27and sandalwood in the name. Fine, but
12:29fragrance should probably be the last
12:32step. If there is a dampness in the rug,
12:34pet odor, shoes sitting beside the door,
12:36or cooking smells drifting in from
12:38another room, adding sandalwood doesn't
12:41solve anything. It's essentially the
12:42domestic equivalent of spraying cologne
12:45on someone who hasn't showered in a
12:46month. The cologne isn't really the
12:48problem, the shower is.
12:50Deal with the source and establish some
12:52freshness. Then, if you want fragrance,
12:55add it. These practical things matter
12:57because an entrance isn't something we
12:58experience from a fixed point with our
13:00eyes alone. We walk through it. And
13:03finally, there may be another entrance
13:04in the house that deserves even more
13:06attention than the front door, the one
13:08you actually use. Plenty of people come
13:10home through the garage, a side door, or
13:12a mudroom, which means the house has two
13:14arrival sequences. The one designed for
13:17guests and the one experienced every day
13:19by the people who live there. Strangely,
13:21the guest entrance is often the one that
13:23gets all of the attention. The front
13:25foyer has the handsome console, artwork,
13:27and good lighting. Meanwhile, you come
13:29home every evening through shoes
13:31scattered like landmines, packages and
13:33bags spread across the floor like a
13:35neglected road with potholes. There's
13:38something slightly backwards about that.
13:40You've designed a better arrival for
13:42someone who visits once a month than for
13:44yourself. The everyday entrance has a
13:46different job. Keys need somewhere to
13:48land, hats and dog leashes need
13:50somewhere to hang, shoes need somewhere
13:53to rest, packages and bags need drop
13:56areas that make sense. The larger
13:58objective is to stop the outside world
14:00from gradually spreading through the
14:02rest of the house. When that entrance
14:04works, it absorbs the disorder of the
14:06day rather than asking you to carry it
14:08farther inside. That's the entrance we
14:11should have been designing for all
14:13along. The first 30 seconds engaging
14:15with a home matter because entering a
14:17home is a transition. You're moving from
14:19outside to inside, from public life into
14:22private life. Remember our three main
14:24goals when trying to make an entry area
14:27better. The first, pay attention to the
14:29moment of arrival. Does it feel pleasant
14:31and comfortable? And then two, is there
14:34somewhere orderly and obvious to put
14:35things down that we've brought with us?
14:38And finally, have we set up indications
14:40of where to go? Is there something
14:42drawing us forward further into the
14:44home? If you like the video, hit the
14:46thumbs up. If you feel like sticking
14:48around a while, feel free to subscribe.
14:50See you in the next one.
15:03>> [music]

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