As an educator of sixteen years, learning is beyond important to me. I have a Bachelor's in English Education and a Masters in English and education is something I highly value. Do I think a higher education is for everyone? Absolutely not. Many of the most successful people I know have no formal education or even training. There is much to be said about a self-made man or woman and I respect these people and their great talents beyond measure. But we all have to do what we feel is right for US. I didn't go to design school because someone told me I should or because I felt I wouldn't be taken seriously or even because I felt my clients would require it. I KNEW I didn't NEED to do it to be a successful desinger--in fact, many of my favorite interior designers have no training at all!! But it is something I needed to do for myself. I needed to know the technical things about design that don't come from just being creative and I needed to practice my skills before having paid clients. I needed to do those things to feel legitimate and confident. I have a creative, spontaneous side and a logical, obsessive side and in order to have both my poles at peace with my decision to open an interior design business, I had to feed the latter. And boy am I glad I did! The Interior Design Institute course is organized into twelve modules, all centered around a unique facet of design. First, you study the content in the module. Then, you practice it. The practice was my favorite. The projects pushed my limits and challenged me in ways that sometimes made my question my abilities, but the fact that I conquered each task built my confidence in a way I'm convinced nothing else could. The online nature of the course made it easy to go at my own pace and work from the comforts of my own home.
One of the most challenging of the Modules was Module 4, where I had to redesign a home's floorplan. Here's the finished product:
It was so much fun making the floor plan work for a modern family, complete with some open living spaces, a spacious laundry, and a multi-purpose study. My favorite part of the home, though, is my addition of a huge outdoor living space. I love making the most of a home's exteriors to expand the size of the home and give a family more room to stretch out, but also be together. Learning to draw out floor plans has already been invaluable to my business. I find many clients want that visual representation of how their furniture should be placed and it's an excellent option for distance design!
My favorite Module taught me about product boards. A product board is a visual representation of the accessories, finishes, and furnishings a designer chooses for a room. It also includes information for how to purchase these things. This is something I now offer to clients with several of my design packages and they love that everything is spelled out for them and they just have to click BUY and put it all together! Here are my product boards from this assignment:
It's not easy designing an entire home and making it all cohesive. To do this, you have to pick a color scheme and then change up the textures and patterns. In all four of these rooms, you'll see my color scheme of black, white, cream, gray, and green. It's tied in by using plaids and a few florals and sticking to a modern, masculine design style. I love the way this home looks cohesively and I love helping clients make their ENTIRE home beautiful and feel like one unit that blends together effortlessly.
I learned a LOT about choosing color schemes and the module that focused solely on color was my FAVORITE! I have probably 200 sample paint bottles in my possession because through the process of remodeling our home I was so indecisive about color! Now it's not so difficult for me. This module taught me all about the different color schemes and how to utilize a color wheel and I'm now able to do color consults for clients with ease. Whether you like a lot of contrast or white on white on white, bold colors or neutrals, I promise there's a design scheme for you! For this assignment, I chose an accented achromatic color scheme, tying in all my favorites, which are featured in my product boards above!
These assignments represent only a fraction of what I learned from the Interior Design Institute and I love sharing my knowledge with my clients. The course truly gave me the logic to add to my intuition, which I hope will set me apart in the field. I'm so proud to be an IDI graduate!
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