Bocca Felice – Italian Tapas & Wine Bar

The last major project of my Interior Design program was to design an upscale restaurant. We were taken on a field trip to Point Ruston, WA (Tacoma) where a new community was being built. The Copperline at Point Ruston had an empty retail space available on the corner of the condominium building. This was the space we used as our shell to then come up with a style of restaurant and then design the interior space.

The exterior of the empty corner space at the Copperline at Point Ruston.

Here are a few shots of the interior empty shell.

I love Italian food, but there is nothing worse than walking into a drab, cliche Italian restaurant with painted murals on the walls, fake plants collecting dust, and deteriorating upholstery. Atmosphere plays a huge role in how we rate a restaurant’s overall qualities.

Having working in the food service industry for 6 years, I have a strong sense of what works and what doesn’t work, not only for the customers but for the employees as well.

This is the inspiration page I came up with before and of the design work started. As you can see there is a lot of warm color tones, rich woods, natural stone, and rustic fixtures.

I love this project so much! I got to showcase all my skills learned throughout the program. I’m so proud of myself for all the hardwork I put into this project.

Township – Youth Organization

On to the residential side of the program, we were given the option of designing a space within a given shell; accounting firm, dental office, or youth organization.

I chose the youth organization because growing up I attended after-school programs where we were able to be a part of some really cool clubs and try different activities. This was kind of near and dear to my heart, plus… IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN! 🙂

Anyways, there of course was some specific requirements for the space, such as:

• reception desk that can be moved or have the option to fold up/down
• area for lockers
• kitchen/food prep
• boy/girls bathrooms
• multipurpose room with seating and table space
• storage space/storage units
• directors office w/ a coat closet (must have visibility of multipurpose room)
• & private bathroom for the directors office w/ a shower

Here is the shell we were given for the Youth Organization. It is an old firehouse that is being converted into an assembly space. The section cut is of the front of the building from the inside. As you can see there are two doors and two garage doors.

This is the space plan I came up with to meet all the client’s needs and requirements. I also removed one of the old garage doors but left one for the kitchen to be able to open up in the summer months.

This was our first commercial design project where we also chose all flooring, wall covering, trim, bathroom partitions, counter top materials, fabric and lighting.

Residential Condo Project

To finish the residential portion of my Interior Design program, the two bedroom condo shell needed space planning and an exterior rendering. We also needed to create portfolio pages with our client bio and inspirations for our design, using InDesign.

Here is the finished space plan of the two bedroom condo.

We also had to furnish one room using SketchUp. I chose to furnish the living room. Since my condo was located on Maui, I wanted the colors to be calming, comfortable and tropical. I chose to use a lot of wood, bamboo, wicker, natural stone, with the addition of green, blue, and turquoise accents.

I’m really happy with how the living room turned out and wish we would have had more time to furnish the rest of the condo, but it does take a good amount of time to fully furnish one room in the program.

The exterior I wanted to have a shingled roof, stone masonry for the chimney, board and batten siding, accents with a lattice design, and of course a chandelier on the porch!

I hand drew the house itself, scanned it to my computer and rendered it completely using Photoshop! I’m very happy with how the exterior turned out! …Complete with palm trees and blue sky!

Final Course – Drafting III/Space Planning

So I’m almost done with my first year of the Interior Design program! It’s crazy to think I’m half way there!… almost.

To finish off the residential portion of my education, we have a combined course of Drafting III and Space Planning. The scope of our project is to take the given “shell” of a condo and:

• Come up with a client profile of who, what, and where
• Incorporate the following:
  • Master bedroom with a walk-in closet and master bath, spare bedroom, office, second bathroom, entryway with closet space,   living room, dining area, kitchen with pantry, laundry area and general storage.
• Hand draft the floor plan
• Cabinet layout of the kitchen
• Elevation of the kitchen
• Use Google SketchUp to:
  • Draw floor plan & capture different perspectives/elevations
  • Furnish one room
• Draw and render the exterior of what the condo would look like
• Create an InDesign portfolio piece of the finished Google SketchUp plan and inspirations for the design

I’m actually really excited about this project, even though there is SO much to it. I finally feel like I’m headed in the right direction with this education though. This is what I have been waiting to learn! But of course… I am concerned about how much there is to do. So, it’s time to buckle on down and keep working hard! I’ll try and post pictures of “progress” photos.

Here is a screen shot of the exterior walls with the addition of some windows and doors added to the “shell” of the condo, done in Google SketchUp.

Moving right along! Just figured out my plan for the interior layout… here we gooo!

Jacobean – English Renaissance

We just finished our History of Interiors course and our final project was to draw and render a formal wall from any time period we wanted. We also had to do a research project and each were given the opportunity to choose which era we liked. I chose to do my project on the English Renaissance, which also inspired me to draw a 17th Century Jacobean style formal paneled wall.

Below is the wall I drew before rendering with color.

And here is the final rendering! (I wasn’t able to scan it to my computer before turning it in)

Rendering In Photoshop

Spring quarter began at the beginning of the month and every Tuesday we have been dabbing into two different computer programs by Adobe… InDesign & Photoshop. I have never used these programs before, but I find them both very helpful when applying to my Interior Design projects.

InDesign is great for creating presentations quickly and professionally. It is perfect for portfolio use.

Photoshop has been amazing, I’ve always been very intimidated by it, but having the tools broken down and applied to what I’m going to be doing in my career, I’m having a blast! We have taken line drawings done by hand from previous courses and scanned them into the computer to then render in Photoshop.

Our assignment was to take the line drawing and apply a few different techniques from Photoshop to get as close as we can to a portfolio quality product. (Mind you we’ve only had a few classes dedicated to the program, so this is definitely something we will still be perfecting over time with more practice.)

Below is the Original Line Drawing

And below is the completed Photoshop rendering

 

Our goal was to apply:

• at least one digital image to be used as a finish or material (flooring, wallpaper…)
• one human figure at proper scale
• brush tool
• color fill tool

I chose to use my line drawing from our Textile unit, where we had to draw a chair and drapery. For my first Photoshop attempt, I’m pretty pleased! I can’t wait to continue learning the program and furthering my skills in rendering.

Fantasy Bedroom Decor Inspiration

Fantasy inspired rooms or rooms with elements of enchantment, are becoming increasingly more popular! I personally LOVE anything whimsical and fairytale like.
When I am out exploring garage sales or thrift shops, I look for the magical finds… the items that are interesting in shape and design, colors, and even the items I can make my own and do a little DIY refresher.
There is nothing like taking a space and creating your own escape from the rest of the world… where everything is left to your imagination and the sky’s the limit.

M&J Blog

With movies like Malificent coming out and epic shows like Game of Thrones becoming all the rage, it easy to see that we’ve fallen for the fantasy genre. In the digital age we love the idea of dragons and magic because they provide the most wonderful escape from every day! Why not bring some of that magic into your own home, specifically the room that’s all your own? Here are some fantastic bedrooms that are destined to provide the stuff of amazing dreams.

Imagine waking up in this bed and looking out onto a tropical paradise. It might make you give up technology altogether! Maybe.

Simple and sophisticated, this bed is the least elaborate on the list, but the crown at the top of the bed makes it worthy of a castle.

This regal room is fit for royalty! The gorgeous chandelier and sky high ceiling give it an expansive…

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Textile Project

This is the concept board I put together for my textile project!
I chose a deep wine color suede for the tufted winged-back chair paired with a caramel colored pillow with black velvet floral accents. As for my drapery, I chose a lighter wine hued material with a caramel sheer over top that has beautiful black velvet leafy designs, all tied back with some black tassels.

Space planning tips for a successful residential design

Space planning! Rhiannon’s explanation and breakdown of steps make this daunting task, easy! I love doing this sort of thing… I grew up rearranging my room all the time and drawing it out before hand. Now, newly a part of the Interior Design world, breakdowns like this really help me understand what needs to be done in specific order, so time & money are not wasted!

rhiannon's INTERIORS

Space planning is by far the most valuable part of any successful design of your home. No matter what room your trying to work with, the space planning must be done in order to get the room to meet your needs. I have some tips that will guide you through doing your own room in the most basic of ways. There are things that a designer knows, such as furniture size, and typical space requirements that make this go much more smoothly for them, but you can certainly do it on your own as well.

Starting Out

You want to decide what the primary function will be for your room. You must be able to accommodate your needs accordingly.

What number of people do you wish to hold in here. This will tell you how much you need in terms of seating.

Identify focal points. Know where your television must…

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Making a Fashion Statement | By Cara McBroom

Inspiration can come from nearly anywhere… fashion, nature, music, writing…

Cara McBroom laid out different styles seamlessly on her latest blog post. To see fashion side by side with interior design is very beautiful and inspiring! I enjoyed reading and gawking at every bit of this!

HAPPY READING!