Welcome to 2023! A full year of opportunities, new connections, new students and new clients. What are your goals for this year? Mine are to spread the word of what it means to be a 'real' interior designer. What skills you need and why these skills are important to a good project outcome and happy clients.
We all see loads of blogs and amazing interior design pictures and the theory is these are all interior designers but many, on closer inspection, are selling products and not interior design services. Offering interior design services can mean a multitude of things...
As an interior designer, I firstly take a brief off a client - they tell me all their hopes and dreams for a space and what they like and dislike. Then I take measurements of the space to be transformed. I draw this up (in CAD) and then looking at the brief and how many people I am designing it for, come up with a few space arrangements until I am happy with one that is the best use for the space and ticks off many items on the brief. While I am designing and planning the space (this can be a whole home, kitchens, bathrooms, living areas, multi-use rooms, offices, coffee shops, restaurants etc etc - the skills needed are the same whatever you are designing) I am forming a picture of what style, colour and how it will look before I go onto communicate my design plan with moodboards, product boards and 3d visualisations. These items help the clients see how I have interpreted their brief.
Here is a bedroom in the 'before' stage. To show the client what I have planned, I then need to draw up plans and elevations to show how it will look and how it will all fit. This is interior design. I am changing the space so I need to show how, so it can be agreed, costed, ordered and built.
Here is the plan and mood board....
Here is the finished product...
As I use CAD, Photoshop and a few other computer packages, this means I can design for anyone, anywhere in the world. I can have zoom meeting and I can share and explain the design over zoom (great when you can use CAD and Photoshop) meaning you can also work from anywhere. If you are working remotely, you may need your client to measure the space or you may be lucky enough to already have some plans you can adapt.
Once you are designing anything built in, you need to draw up elevations to show the design and how it will work. Whoever is going to build it will need this information otherwise you are leaving everything to chance and if you get it wrong, it will cost you money and time. So you work out your design with measurements and drawings. This takes the risk out of interior design. As does good communication and this is a two-way thing.
Designing spaces is my thing, I thoroughly enjoy the process but I could not design without the interior design knowledge, drawings skills, CAD skills and Photoshop skills. There was a time when I knew nothing and each time I work on a project, I learn more and more. It's a career where you never stop learning.
So whether you want to learn these skills for yourself (being a designer who needs to learn CAD or drawing skills etc or someone who wants to be an interior designer with no knowledge) or have me design your space, let's start the journey in 2023. Come and be inspired.
The project diary is filling up and courses are being booked. Let's make 2023 a year of opportunities and connections! get in touch