THE ORIGINAL MAN CAVE: If we're gonna talk about design, let's get real and start at the very beginning. The caves at Lascaux in southwestern France may very well be the best rooms ever created -- ever. 17,000 years later and they still are amazing to look at and to try and wrap our brains around. The organic nature of the art integrating with its environment can still teach us a big lesson about interior design. Nobody taught these paleolithic painters about form, style, technique. They just did it from their gut. And you can too. STYLE TIP: Start first with the big picture -- everything else will come from that. Make the focal point of your room a mural instead of the usual paint or wallpaper with the few obligatory pieces of artwork strewn about. Be bold or don't go home. Don't try to be a "designer" -- be a human with human needs. It's when we get too caught up in what we think is "design" that we lose sight of what it is we're trying to accomplish. Study the images of these caves and see if you can imagine being the original people painting these images in place for the very first time. How exciting that must have been. You can have that kind of excitement too when you create your own living space. FINAL NOTE: Don't cave in to conventionality.
