Often people go to shops and showrooms or consult magazines for inspiration before setting off to purchase their furniture and accessories. Certain criteria may be overlooked, like the size of the rooms, height of walls, fenestration and orientation (sun, wind and light) and so on.
Quite commonly after making a huge effort and spending a lot of money for an interior scheme, the end result is still not fulfilling. It does not necessarily have to cost one a fortune to live in a well designed, comfortable and beautiful space. All one has to do is to take a closer look at one’s own needs, likes and dislikes and to learn some of the tools used by trained interior designers.
How the Mind of the Interior Designer Works
The mind of the interior designer is trained to observe, to automatically collect relevant data and use information to effect. Professional training, experience and knowledge of history of art, styles, function of spaces, human proportions, technical data and so on, give the interior designer the unique ability to process information. The ability to observe, listen and ask the right questions are just some of the qualities of a good designer. Thus the role of the interior designer is quite complicated.
Three Basic Stages in the Preparation of the Interior Design Brief
- Collection of information – this is when the designer interacts with his or her clients, listens and chats to them, observes and finds out about their personalities, life styles, ambitions and aspirations.
- Analysis is the next step; when all information is studied closely and filtered.
- Synthesis comes last and at this stage all the information needed to determine the project requirements is prepared. The design brief is now ready.
The Design Brief
This describes the project in full; it summarizes and sums up all information collected. It describes the spaces, their function, the furniture/furnishings and fittings to be installed, the colour scheme, the style and so on. The brief defines the scope of work.
Mood Boards
One exercise that would really help is to make a mood board. This is a visual representation of the project used by interior designers. It depicts bits and pieces of colour patches, photos, materials, textures and so on that one has collected to be in the scheme. When all these are put together, one is able to appreciate which items to keep and which to exclude. Thus one goes through the processes of collection, analysis and synthes to produce the final mood board.
With this tool on hand, one can go shopping knowing what to look for instead of going without direction and depending on external inspiration, which may not be synchronized well enough to produce a balanced and designed scheme.
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