My Design Inspiration

My design inspiration lies just beyond my front door!  God's creation is what inspires me the most when it comes to designing a space.  I love the beauty and the feelings that come when I take a hike through the woods, or stand on the beach and gaze at an amazing sunset.  I especially love being near water.  From a very young age, I have loved swimming and any activity that involved water.  The influence of water can be seen in the design spaces that I like the most.  I like a room that has an open and airy feel with clean lines and a soft "watery" color palette such as pale blues and grays.

In addition to my enjoyment of water, I love to garden.  I have several flower beds and I like to plant a small vegetable garden in the spring.  There is nothing like the satisfaction of watching something beautiful come from a tiny seed that you've planted. I love the textures and shapes that make up the beauty of the flowers. That may be why I like to layer a room with rich textures and interesting shapes that mimic what you see in nature!

My love for the outdoors and nature has raised my awareness of my design choices when I am selecting the furniture and finishes for a space.  I realize that choosing sustainable products and reusing existing pieces whenever possible, can make a difference in protecting the environment, and I want to do my part to preserve the beauty that surrounds us whenever I can!

The "Less-is-More" Design Trend

One big design trend for 2011 is the small-space trend.  Newell Turner, the new editor of House Beautiful says, “I do believe in small spaces, and I don’t think you have to sacrifice to live in a small space”.  He said of his Hudson Valley house, “I wanted a small space because I wanted a house that served me, not one that I had to maintain”.

Personally, I am happy that Americans seem to be moving away from the idea that “bigger is better”.  I have lived in big homes that were very pretty, but I often felt overwhelmed by the amount of time and energy it took to keep those homes looking pretty.  The larger homes never had the warm and cozy feeling that my smaller home has.  I much prefer the cozy, smaller home where the focus can be on the architectural detailing.  When it comes to choosing a home, less really is more because less means more time to spend doing the things you enjoy with the ones you love!

Welcome to my Blog!

Hi! Welcome to my blog!  This is the very first entry on my design blog.  I am a first-year student at Randolph Community College majoring in Interior Design.  Each week, I will be posting updates on the exciting new things I am learning in my design classes. I will also be sharing design inspirations and beautiful images that you might enjoy, too. 

This week, I just completed a color wheel for my Color Theory class.  We were asked to mix twelve pure hues of color and cut those into circles to be placed on our color wheel.  The assignment helped us to see what a pure hue actually looks like as opposed to what we had always perceived it to be.  I was surprised to find that what I had always perceived the color red to be, for example, was actually red-orange.  In the Intro to Principles of Interior Design class, we are working on a Master Bedroom design for a "client".  We were asked to pick out the furnishings, fabrics, paint colors, and finishes for the room.  This week we are completing the space planning for the room and actually drafting the room layout onto vellum.  My favorite class is Graphic Presentation where we are currently learning  how to color render our design drawings.  We have been designing a living room in our own design style, and we will draw the design from a one-point or two-point perspective for our final project, and then color render the drawing.  Even though my classes involve a lot of time and effort, I am enjoying them very much!

Thanks for following me as I venture on this design journey!  Join me again next week when I will be sharing with you a design trend alert!