About Joy to the Home Design Psychology
Joy to the Home, online since 2003, has been guarding Design Psychology trade secrets discovered in 1988 by Jeanette Joy Fisher. After fixing and flipping houses in California, the Brian Fisher family remodeled a Florida 1878 Queen Anne seven-bedroom home using design ideas Jeanette learned in college.
One of the Fisher’s daughters soaked the kitchen floor while doing dishes. The wooden floor gave way, and she fell through. Although it was a four-foot drop, she didn’t get hurt. Brian found painted-over cardboard walls with no insulation, frayed electrical extension cord wiring, leaky pipes, and mildew.
The ensuing reconstruction involved demolition, new joists, beams, sub-flooring, flooring, walls, insulation, new ceiling, windows, doors—a new breakfast nook and a spa greenhouse. Jeanette decorated the new kitchen as she had been taught. After over a month of hard work, you can imagine how Brian felt when she told him the kitchen “felt all wrong.”
Jeanette followed her son to the University of Florida’s Architectural library to research interior design elements. Evan taught his mother how to use the microfiche system. She wanted to learn how to design for happiness and peace, not for prestige and vanity. Abandoning the interior design practices learned in college, she researched interior design elements and how each design factor changes emotions.
Later Evan went to grad school at Harvard. His mother emailed him architectural design questions, and he sent her great answers. She continues to study home design today. Her son Evan not only designs magnificent homes, but he also builds them.
Other designers who use design psychology have different perspectives. For instance, another professor designed her home to remember her childhood, wrote a book about autobiographical design, and called it Design Psychology. Fisher wasn’t so fortunate to have a great childhood home and doesn’t believe your home should remind you of unhappiness. Although Fisher loves Wabi Sabi, Joy to the Home’s Design Psychology is not pure Wabi-Sabi. Fisher also uses some ideas found in Feng Shui, saying, “Feng Shui is fun superstition and tradition, and design psychology is science.”
DESIGN PSYCHOLOGY PRO JEANETTE JOY FISHER
After discovering Design Psychology in 1986, Jeanette Joy Fisher spent years researching and experimenting on her own homes, client homes, and investment properties. She wrote the textbook Introduction to Design Psychology in 1988 and updated it in 2004. Although she taught Design Psychology at several universities, she kept the book out of print to use as Trade Secrets for Joy to the Home. Author of 27 Books & Textbooks, featured on TLC TV’s Flip That House, University Instructor , Tiny House Designer & Builder, Jeanette Joy Fisher Fixed & Flipped over 25 houses using Design Psychology. She’s also a #ClimateRealityLeader, CEO of JoyTinyHomes.com, JOYTVLA, JOYTVnetwork.org on Roku, and JoyPublications.com a Social Media Influencer, and a CEO Space Social Media Trainer.
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