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How is art used in interior design?

Teaching myself interior design

  • I'd like to teach myself interior design (for my own spaces, not to do work for others). I think I have the ability to do it well, but so far I've been disappointed with my results. What resources do you recommend? I know that top tier interior design is very much an art and a talent. I have no illusions that I'll be able to do the kind of work that a really great professional designer can do, and I have no aspirations of becoming a professional. I've hired designers in the past, and will probably continue to do so for bigger projects. But I really want to be able to design a nice room myself; one that my family and I will be happy with. I know several people who seem to just have a knack for this, putting beautiful rooms together without breaking a sweat. But I am not one of those people. I’ll shop for months or years to find the “right” things, and then be disappointed by how it comes together when it’s finally in the room. I do think that I have the aptitude to learn to do this, but for some reason it doesn’t come naturally to me. I'm decent at graphic design and photography. I'm not a professional graphic designer, but I like to think I have a good eye for composition, and I have done some studying of the foundations when I was in college. My photos and designs (both web and print) have been successfully used in high-profile professional contexts, and have received good feedback from designers, instructors (when I was in school), and others. But interior design has may complicating factors that graphic design does not. 3D space, texture, lighting, more elements overall. Additionally, rather than being able to create anything I can think of (as I can in Photoshop and Illustrator), I'm limited to what I can buy or have made. And experimentation is much more costly in both time and money. Sometimes even if I have an idea in mind, then finding the pieces that make that idea a reality seems impossible. I'm willing to dedicate a lot of time to this, creating my own "interior design self study course," but I don't have the schedule flexibility to actually take classes. I’m hoping I can find a series of books, maybe instructional videos, blogs, podcasts, and other media to help me develop this skill. What do you suggest?

  • Answer:

    Long-time lurker/MetaFilter beneficiary! Had to answer: I found http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0982938705/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ very helpful and complete.

primethyme at Ask.Metafilter.Com Visit the source

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What you failed to mention was your personal preferences. Do you like modern, clean minimalism; mid-century modern; shabby chic; avant garde; romantic; gothic; industrial? What style of architecture is your living space? Without this info, it is difficult to point you in any given direction.

zagyzebra

I think what that actually points out is something else I didn't make clear enough in my post: I'm not looking for pictures of example rooms, or a source of specific ideas. It's really easy to find thousands of pictures online of any given style of room, or to buy magazines for inspiration. But I want to learn the foundations, so that I can both create my own ideas, and when I see a room I like, understand WHY I like it (without knowing that, I find it hard to effectively translate inspiration into reality). Just as a professional interior designer doesn't go to school just for "modern" or "traditional" design, I'd like to educate myself broadly, and then once I have a better foundation I can zero in on more specific styles. So, sorry to not answer the question, but I think that getting into that will result in answers here that aren't really what I'm looking for (and besides, I like a number of styles, and might use different ones in different places).

primethyme

Bassariscus

What about looking up community education classes in your area? You don't say where you live, but I have since interior decorating classes offered, even though they are less common than things like drawing or guitar lessons.

AppleTurnover

How about online community education? My local university has an http://www.ce.ucf.edu/Program/3075/Introduction-To-Interior-Design/ for a small cost. Try your local university or community college if you don't mind taking an online personal development course.

Fairchild

It might help to read about https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernacular_architecture. Vernacular architecture seems to be more bottom up than top down. People with formal degrees do a top down approach. This is more organic and comes more from local traditions. It is richly steeped in what works for local climate, local materials and local lifestyles. Maybe that angle will help you.

Michele in California

Christopher Lowell had a book a few years ago that gave a "formula" for decoration, which I thought was very practical (sorry- hard to link from my phone)

sarajane

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