We really do need to talk about the importance of taking advantage of a nice view. This can be of something off your property or entirely within it.
A wonderfully expansive view – like this one of the Shenandoah mountains enjoyed by James and Dolley Madison – is a good place to start with a successful design. And James Madison, our nation’s fourth President and “Father of the Constitution”, knew something about successful beginnings.
Great men, like Madison, are often characterized by humility equal to their wisdom. Thus he insisted his role as founding author of the world’s most profound document for government among free human beings was not “the off-spring of a single brain” but rather “the work of many heads and many hands”.
In any case, there is no doubt James and Dolley were inspired and nutured by the surroundings of their home in Orange, Virginia. From James’ second floor office window (just under the portico roof) he enjoyed such a view worthy of the expansive thought and effect of those fertile and devoted minds that helped found our great republic.
But your view need not be so grand to be an inspiring basis
of a design for your home or small addition and respite from the world. A small vignette of a special place on your property that you care for, and satisfies your soul, is a worthy seedling for design that captures and preserves for your continuing enjoyment.
If you do not immediately recognize such a view, look for it. No matter how humble our circumstances, we can find that one element that means all the good things about a home to us. Words are most often not necessary or even adequate in this pursuit, so you don’t need to be James or Dolley Madison to find it. And if you need help capturing it in a new design for living it, remember…”the work of many heads and many hands”. Call me.
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