The tactile room: Designing around the sense of touch

Ida is at that age now where she has started to reach out and touch (and sometimes grab) everything in sight: books, beards, bottles…It got me thinking a lot about texture and the way different items feel to the touch. Because I have so many different textiles, furniture and tchochkes around the jungalow, I have started to pay more attention to the feel of them–the scratchiness of the kilim pillows and rugs, the cool, hard feel of brass and glass, the soft, warm feel of velvet, the fluffiness of sheepskin, the rubbery feel of leather.

It reminds me of childhood field trips to the Tactile Dome at the Exploratorium in San Fransisco. Have you ever been there? It was one of my very favorite places to go as a kid. It’s an excursion in complete darkness where you go through a pitch black course with all different types of textures guided only by your sense of touch. “The idea is to make people aware of what a complex, sensitive and under-used sense touch is, and to train them to use the astonishing range of its perceptions, which include detection of pressure, pain, temperature and kinesthesia, as well as cutaneous, internal body and muscle awareness.”
I am often distracted by color, pattern and form when it comes to design. I love the idea of designing a room based on texture. Do you think about the way things feel to the touch when you add them to your living space? Does the way something looks trumps the way it feels? Or are you tuned in to textures?

Touchy Sources:
Shaggy Rug
Arne Vodder for Ian Schlecter Sofa
lamp
Moroccan Table
wool juju hat
velvet Ikat fabric
Brass Birds
Mongolian Lamb Pillow