Back to the Past

As you all know, I kind of fell off the face of Blogger last semester. Well, I'm back, and I have a lot to share with you. During the fall, I had ARH253 (Survey of Art 2), DR355 (Intermediate Auto Cad for Interior Designers), CTD221 (Materials and Sources for Interior Design), and CTD226 (Residential Design and Graphic Communication).

Let me go ahead and thank you all for the compliments on my high quality photography. Joke!! I know the pictures aren't very clear...just thank the iPhone.

First of all, let me show you a few things from my Auto Cad class. There, I learned the basic functions and commands in the drafting program. Post graduation, I plan to work in commercial design structure and construction; therefore, I absolutely loved the course and know that I will use the things I learned in my career.

In the first few weeks of the course, I learned the basics: offsetting to create walls, how to insert different door types, dimensioning, and so on and so on.

For this foundation detail, several of the components were saved as blocks so I simply had to insert them into the drawing. Many people don't know that interior designers are not only responsible for understanding the interior spaces of a building, but we are also familiar with the structure of buildings from the bottom to top and outside, in.

In this exercise, I learned how to fill areas with pattern to represent finishes and textures. These elevations were created from dimensioned floor plans; therefore, the exterior feature locations match the interior locations on the plan.

The detail plans were quite simple. The big pictures were given, I just had to replicate them in different scales so the contractor can see closer images of the important details and their dimensions.

The gatehouse was one of the final projects of the course. Not only is there a floor plan, there is a detail, and a site plan. The site plan shows the location of the building on the entire section of land. 

Now, on to CTD225, my sequence design class for the semester. This class was focused on residential design and graphic communication. On the first day of class, we were presented with a Queen Anne style bed and breakfast that had to be fully renovated and taken back to the Victorian era. Every assignment from the course was done by hand, no computer programs were used to create any part of the design. As designers, we are required to know how to do almost everything the computer can do for us as hand work. 

HOME HISTORY, OWNERS, and LOCATION RESEARCH

At the very beginning of the course, we were each given a different house in a different location with a different story. My bed and breakfast was located in Mobile, AL. After receiving a house, research began. I created the Reed family and a story for them along with the amenities for the home. 

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

The basic structure of the plan was given, but I was responsible for space planning the entire first floor. After choosing all of the furniture and fixtures from different websites, I added each piece to the plan to scale. 

Then, it had to be color rendered by hand. 

HOME OFFICE

The home office is not located on the first floor, but it was our very first assignment for the class. For this assignment, a floor plan, 2 wall elevations, and 2 ergonomic diagrams were required.

The concept I chose for the home office was "a wave." Since the bed and breakfast is located in Mobile close to they bay, I decided to create a relaxed, beach feel for the space. The main desk was a custom design shaped like a wave, as was the window seat. The color scheme consists of tans (sand) and blues (water, sky).

KITCHEN

The kitchen concept is "sunset on the bay." I decided to use natural colors in the kitchen, but in a fun, eye catching way. The arches consistent throughout the kitchen are inspired by the shape of a wave and the sun.

Immediately after seeing the kitchen shape and size, I began working on a bubble diagram and working floor plan for the space. I had to rearrange the island several times in order to get my work triangle to the correct dimensions.

Next, I researched standard cabinet dimensions and chose my appliances. Each item had to have a dimension so that I could assure that my design would work in the given area. 

After many, many hours of measuring and drawing, I had a finished floor plan. It then had to be grayscale rendered to show depth, light, and texture using only shades of gray.

This is a wall elevation of the back wall of the kitchen with the cooktop and hood.

The other wall I chose to elevate is the mini bar wall.

As you can see, each of these had to be grayscale rendered, as well.

After the wall elevations, the perspective drawing began. This assignment was, without a doubt, the most challenging yet most rewarding assignment of the course. Above are a few pictures are the process work for the perspective. 

After about 15 layers of trash paper and several hours of rendering, I had this little jewel as a final project. 

Grayscaled perspective=my pride and joy. I think I may frame it!!

Of course I had each appliance and material used in the kitchen saved on my computer and printed, but these are the only ones I chose to put on my materials board. I feel that they accurately give a sense of the kitchen's atmosphere.

If you look very closely on the wall elevations and perspective drawing, you will see each small detail of the items above represented.

ADA ACCESSIBLE SUITE

The first step of the ADA suite project was researching codes and highlighting the ones in my design.

 Next, I applied each of the above codes to my design and showed them all in plan. It is very important that all codes are met in accessible spaces. If a designer fails to meet code in a design, he/she can lose his/her job.

The floor plan also had to be presented in grayscale.

If there is an accessible suite, there must be a ramp. Along the back side of the bedroom, there is a ramp that I designed. Codes also had to be researched and met for this part of the design.

Here are a few of the fixtures I chose for the bathroom. All of the accessible products  are Kohler and are accurately dimensioned in my plans.

PERIOD SUITE

Researching the Victorian era taught me about the colors used, styles of furniture, and interior traditions of the time. Upon reading several articles on period design, I chose the furniture pieces, fabrics, and colors for the suite.

 The final floor plan was required to be color rendered. I was quite pleased with the outcome of this plan, unlike my first color rendered assignment.

This wall elevation is of the back wall of the room. Only one elevation had to be color rendered for this assignment. I chose this one because it has more color and pattern than the other wall I elevated.

This is the left wall of the suite elevated.

Well, there you have it. My 3rd semester at the University of Alabama as an interior design student all summed up in one post.

I only showed pictures of finished products in most cases because I doubt you all wanted to see my pages upon pages of process work and research, but that is what the majority of design is. 

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I would love for you to leave comments about my designs. If you see something you think would be better a different way, I beg you to let me know. I love constructive criticism.