Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Taking the Plunge: Ever-Evolving Portfolio Additions
I hope all you readers had a lovely Christmas! I certainly did. And now its back to work! I'm still on the job hunt and as you know, still in school. So with my most recent residential design project complete, I've added a few more pages to my ever-evolving portfolio. Using the same format that I showed you before, I dismantled the boards I put together for school and re-created them on these lovely (11x17) pages...
Wednesday, December 25, 2013
Merry Christmas!
Christmas Tree Candles
Up at dad's we take part in a long time tradition of putting real candles on the Christmas tree (with a fire extinguisher near by of course). Unfortunately there weren't a whole lot of places to put candles in the middle of the tree so there's a big gap with no light, but it was lovely none-the-less. Here are some photos...
Friday, December 13, 2013
Final Residential Design Boards
Woo Hoo! The last class of the semester was last Thursday so I'm a free woman now! I absolutely love school, but after obsessing over a project for 12 weeks, I'm exhausted and ready for a break. Hopefully I'll learn to better balance things when I'm actually working in the field. :/ We'll see.
I spent a week or so before finding the final pillow and drapery trims, working on renderings of each spaces, putting together digital boards, and mounting fabric samples. Last Thursday we had to do our final presentation of our projects, which went really well. We had a really talented class and it was so interesting to see everyone's final product.
Here are some photos of my labor of love...
And yippy skippy, my project got chosen for the hall of fame! There should be photos up of my boards along with two other projects from my class up on our school's Facebook page at some point.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Residential Design Process Boards
I've been sharing with you the process of my residential design project for school. With adjacency matrices and bubble diagrams I nailed down the floor plan; then refined the furniture in the space plan and tweaked other architectural details, sketching along the way to get a better idea of how the space would feel.
My fictional clients are music mogul and successful business owner Jack Sanborne (the lead character in the movie Something's Gotta Give), his wife Karen, a food writer (the character in the play "Dinner with Friends," their 16-year old daughter Taylor (Swift), and Malcolm the dog. In order to meet the families needs and desires, I've chosen to go for a classic, refined, and elegant traditional look. Articulated architectural details like wall paneling, archways and parquet floors will set the stage for a collection of french antiques and newer furniture pieces as well as art and accessories from the family's travels.
As you enter, I've created a formal foyer and living room with 20 foot ceilings to add an impressive sense of luxury, since Karen likes to keep up appearances, but an inviting color palette of mostly creams, pale blue, and green will keep the space feeling comfortable and understated. The living room flows nicely into the dining room, where I plan on doing a lovely muted scenic wallpaper with a pop of red on dining room chairs, which will coordinate with art and some pillows in the living room, to liven up the home. This space will also be great for the dinner parties the family will host with direct access from the dining to kitchen for ease of use.
Jack was given an office down stairs because he does work from home often. The space will also serve as his "man-cave" with his own TV and masculine stained wood walls, and color palette of brown and deeper blue, his favorite color. I've also included a murphy-bed in the office to accommodate any overnight guests they might have and provided a shower in the powder bath downstairs for those guests.
As you move to the back of the first floor you enter a more casual space with informal family room adjacent to the open kitchen where the family can relax and watch TV, Karen can cook or do some writing on her laptop in the cozy breakfast nook, and Malcolm can hang out on his dog bed. And that space opens up to a highly functional patio with a lovely fountain, comfortable seating, a bbq and table for dining outdoors on a lovely summer night.
Next you have the second floor...
A few weeks ago we had to pull together our work thus far on two "process boards." Not only did these boards show the, you guessed it, process of how the design has come about, but they also give an idea of where we are headed with the design. It was just fascinating to see all the different designs coming about from modern and mid-century to colorful transitional and art-deco-inspired to traditional (like mine). There are so many talented students in my class! It's really a pleasure learning from them as well as the teachers.
Anyway... here's how mine turned out...
My fictional clients are music mogul and successful business owner Jack Sanborne (the lead character in the movie Something's Gotta Give), his wife Karen, a food writer (the character in the play "Dinner with Friends," their 16-year old daughter Taylor (Swift), and Malcolm the dog. In order to meet the families needs and desires, I've chosen to go for a classic, refined, and elegant traditional look. Articulated architectural details like wall paneling, archways and parquet floors will set the stage for a collection of french antiques and newer furniture pieces as well as art and accessories from the family's travels.
As you enter, I've created a formal foyer and living room with 20 foot ceilings to add an impressive sense of luxury, since Karen likes to keep up appearances, but an inviting color palette of mostly creams, pale blue, and green will keep the space feeling comfortable and understated. The living room flows nicely into the dining room, where I plan on doing a lovely muted scenic wallpaper with a pop of red on dining room chairs, which will coordinate with art and some pillows in the living room, to liven up the home. This space will also be great for the dinner parties the family will host with direct access from the dining to kitchen for ease of use.
Jack was given an office down stairs because he does work from home often. The space will also serve as his "man-cave" with his own TV and masculine stained wood walls, and color palette of brown and deeper blue, his favorite color. I've also included a murphy-bed in the office to accommodate any overnight guests they might have and provided a shower in the powder bath downstairs for those guests.
As you move to the back of the first floor you enter a more casual space with informal family room adjacent to the open kitchen where the family can relax and watch TV, Karen can cook or do some writing on her laptop in the cozy breakfast nook, and Malcolm can hang out on his dog bed. And that space opens up to a highly functional patio with a lovely fountain, comfortable seating, a bbq and table for dining outdoors on a lovely summer night.
Next you have the second floor...
The colors upstairs will be an edited version of the palette downstairs with only the soothing light blues and greens and warm wood furniture and floors for a very relaxing environment.
The stairs come up to a landing with a peek-a-boo opening to the living room below and an ample storage closet. To the left there is a laundry room and to the right, Taylor's room with canopy bed, chaise lounge and a desk for her to do her school work. She has her own bath and walk-in closet and a lovely view out the floor-to-ceiling windows. Straight ahead, through the grand double doors is the luxurious master bedroom with TV above a fireplace and a cozy seating area with ottoman. The chairs will be on casters so that Karen can flip around and use the tucked-away desk to do her writing. I've also given them a large his and hers closet, and lovely master bath with floating mirrors above the sinks, a freestanding tub, bidet and toilet in a private room, and a vanity area for Karen.
Now I'm well on my way to picking materials, furnishings and accessories. We have to fully design three rooms in the home for our presentation boards so I'm doing the living room, dining room, and master bedroom. But of course, I cant help wanting to do it all and have already picked out fabric for the other rooms as well. But I'll share that with you next time.
Friday, November 1, 2013
Design Sketches
Hope everyone had a happy and fun Halloween! I spent mine in class in my yellow crayon costume. Fun times! Anyway... I had to present my process boards for my Residential Project and thought I'd share with you guys some of the sketches I've done for my project.
Sketching is an amazing tool to be able to communicate your design ideas to a client. I also find it really helpful in the design process to get a better idea of what a space plan will look like in 3-D... especially when I want some interesting architectural details goin' on like I do in this project. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you've probably already seen these, but I thought I'd share in blogland as well. Hope you enjoy!
Foyer
Formal Living Room
Master Bedroom
Master Bathroom
And if you haven't already, check out the inspiration photos in my last post or on Pinterest board.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Residential Design Project Inspiration
So I've been pinning away and getting inspired for my residential project for school. I'm going for a traditional look that incorporates articulated architectural detailing, classic finishes
We're supposed to have one inspiration photo for our process board which will be due in the next couple weeks. I'm not sure how I'll narrow it down, but I though I'd share with you guys my inspiration. And feel free to check out more on my Pinterest board.
Enjoy!
We're supposed to have one inspiration photo for our process board which will be due in the next couple weeks. I'm not sure how I'll narrow it down, but I though I'd share with you guys my inspiration. And feel free to check out more on my Pinterest board.
Enjoy!
source
Monday, October 14, 2013
Taking the Plunge: Putting Together Portfolio
I told you I'd get back to the "Taking the Plunge" series I started, so here I am! Today I'll tell you/show you how I put together what I call my "Draft" Portfolio. If you're looking for a job in the interior design industry, a portfolio is something you will absolutely need. But what do you do if you haven't finished school and don't have any "real" projects to include? At my school we have a class as part of the Bachelor's program where they teach how to put a portfolio together and help you refine yours. But that class is at the end of the program, so what about us folks who aren't that far along in school and want design jobs? What do we do? Here's what I did...
As always, Google is your friend. I did some internet research on "interior design portfolio" and also thumbed through a book on the same subject in my school's library. From what I could tell, it looked as though students basically "deconstructed" their digital design board and reformatted each project to a more manageable size, like 11"x17" (or a spread of 2 11"x17" sheets), to be added to a portfolio book. Another common thing I noticed was a consistent graphic design across all pages to pull the projects into a cohesive book... basically like a letterhead with some type of header/footer.
So I followed their lead and deconstructed my own digital design boards and reassembled them in 11x17 format. I made sure to include sketches, floor plans, fabirc and major furnishing choices to give the overall idea of each project. While I did this for all of my digital boards, I didn't have the time to do this for my first board which wasn't digital since it would have required finding all the images angain. Instead, I just included photographs of the boards. I also made a point of including some sketches, CAD drawings, etc. to show a variety of skills as well as the process of my designs. I did also utilize the idea of a consistent header/footer graphic and created a simple stripe at the bottom and top of each page along with the double arrow (from the blog) next to each heading.
I created the whole thing in Adobe InDesign had it printed on 11x17 paper. I used brads to hold it together so that I could switch around the order or add/remove pages depending on which employer I was showing it to.
It still could use a lot of editing and refining, and will eventually have quite a few more projects in it... heck, I may even change it all together when I'm in the Senior Show class! But for now, it works.
So I followed their lead and deconstructed my own digital design boards and reassembled them in 11x17 format. I made sure to include sketches, floor plans, fabirc and major furnishing choices to give the overall idea of each project. While I did this for all of my digital boards, I didn't have the time to do this for my first board which wasn't digital since it would have required finding all the images angain. Instead, I just included photographs of the boards. I also made a point of including some sketches, CAD drawings, etc. to show a variety of skills as well as the process of my designs. I did also utilize the idea of a consistent header/footer graphic and created a simple stripe at the bottom and top of each page along with the double arrow (from the blog) next to each heading.
I created the whole thing in Adobe InDesign had it printed on 11x17 paper. I used brads to hold it together so that I could switch around the order or add/remove pages depending on which employer I was showing it to.
It still could use a lot of editing and refining, and will eventually have quite a few more projects in it... heck, I may even change it all together when I'm in the Senior Show class! But for now, it works.
