|
Interior design draws together
many different fields of experience to create a design
that balances utility and decoration. The key is to
first list out the goals and requirements to design a
space. Once you know what you want to accomplish it is
important to draw out a basic layout for the room. You
will need to measure the room and place the doors and
windows on the drawing. It doesn't matter if the drawing
is made to scale, but you must get the measurements
right. Without appropriate measurements it is difficult
to know what furniture will fit in the space. So you
will at least need a tape measurer However, if you use
one of the cost effective room design programs you could
create a very professional looking drawing of a room.
Graph paper can also work well. Depending on the size of
the room you could use a box per foot, or two
boxes per foot. You may consider drawing pieces of
furniture from beds to dressers to couches and cutting
them out on separate sheets of paper. Then arrange them
in your sketch of your room until you have a layout that
you can live with. Finally glue it down to make your
interior design model. The software programs are
extremely nice at this point, often allowing you to do
3D rendering of a final look to the room. They typically
have standard pieces of furniture already available on
the palate for you to choose and insert into your
drawing.
At first it isn't important to select colors or to get
sold on any type of furniture piece when you design a
space. Size and layout are the key. You may not know
what kind of fixture you need, but you should know
roughly how big the piece should be. The next step is to
consider lighting and placement of electrical objects
near outlets. This may affect your initial design.
Remember that a room should not be too empty or too
cluttered with furniture. Also, you should consider a
4-5 foot walkway to get around furniture. Anything less
could make the room feel cramped. If you have children
or pets you may have other considerations, especially
safety.
The next step is to consider a style: modern,
traditional, or transitional. Traditional styles lend to
antiques and complex ornate fabrics and pillows. Modern
styles tend to have solid colors and may be striking
reds against blacks. There may be striking angles and
use of heavy metal and glass. You never want to combine
two different styles in the same room. Sometimes the
architecture of a room will push you towards a type of
style. Lofts for example, tend to ask for a more modern
look in furniture.
Traditional furniture in a loft may look out of place.
The same goes for rooms that have crown moldings on the
edges. It is hard to put modern furniture in those
places without it looking off.
The fun part is taking your sketch out shopping. You
don't need to go far because now with the internet you
never have to leave your home in order to furnish it
like a professional. One of the easiest tricks designers
use is to click on Google's images. Do a search for 4
post bed and you will easily find a list of images or
pictures you can use to furnish your sketch with real
pictures of the kind of pieces you will be looking for.
You can also search for colors and patters. If you do
your sketch on the pc you can take these pictures and
paste them together as an idea board. When you use your
ideaboard and room sketch it makes it much easier to
show a salesperson what you are looking for. You can
even email it to customer service at the websites you
are shopping at so they know exactly what you need. It
is important to keep in mind that interior design has a
lot of give and take. You may have to compromise with
your furniture selections to comply with furniture that
is currently available. Trends change. Although it is
possible to find specific pieces, it could cost a lot
more than you budgeted for, and worse yet, could take
too much time. It is best to go with what is available
and try to get the overall look that you were hoping for
without breaking the bank.
The same goes for color. Trends in color and fabric
patterns change regularly. The idea is to lay your
foundations first. Paint the walls the exact color you
want as your base. Then look for furniture and fabrics
that complement it. Keep the overall design of the
project in mind when selecting furniture and fabrics.
Always ask yourself "Will this fit into my design or
will it detract from it?" No matter how much you like a
piece of furniture, if it detracts from your overall
design, don't get it. The idea is to get the entire room
to look good and function well as a whole.
Professional interior design gets involved with ceiling
plans, lighting design, engineering plans, and
architectural plans. If you are building out a new space
it is important to involve your interior design plans
into the architectural design right from the beginning.
Know that what you have on paper may not be exactly what
you will get in practice, unless you are involved
exhaustively in observing the work being done as the
space is being built. You can catch errors and
misalignments before it becomes too
much of a problem to fix them.
Christopher Car
http://thebedroomspace.com |
