Interior Design Workshop

I thoroughly enjoyed the design process of our build project, from the initial architectural design stages through to the interior details of lighting concepts, floor materials, woodwork and colour. I had no previous experience of working on a project like this so it was a very steep learning curve for me. However, I came away from it wanting more!

In August last year I toyed with the notion of doing a year’s course at KLC School of Design to gain a credible qualification in this field should I wish to pursue it as a career in the future. I even went for an interview which led to me being accepted on the September 2017 course. But, after much consideration, I decided to postpone doing the course. Scarlett is still very young and I have so many other things going on in my life right now.

So, when Lauren from Lauren Gilberthorpe Interiors approached me to ask if I would be interested in taking part in a 1-day interiors workshop and sharing my experience with you all, I was absolutely thrilled! It gave me a glimpse of the professional world of interiors, finding out how I should look at room design, floor space and colour, rather than me working it out for myself.

The workshop was held at the Barn at Upcote in the Cotswolds on a very snowy Sunday in January. There were roughly 20 people who attended the day, all with a similar desire to learn more about interior design. Prior to attending the workshop, we were all asked to choose a room to design or re-design, I chose our sitting room at Leat House. This room is particularly tricky to design as it is the centre of the house with a staircase and 3 door entry points. It also has dual aspect windows and a fireplace with alcoves. I thought, if I’m going to meet a professional interior designer, I might as well bring a challenging room! With my room measurements in tow, I was eager to get stuck into the day.

Spacial planning is so important and often overlooked by people designing their own homes. During our build project, I found the best way to plan was to take lots of pictures of each of the rooms and on my mac, play with the design layout with furniture images. The main problem with this is that nothing was to scale and made it so difficult to get it right!

At the workshop, we learnt how to use a scale ruler and draw a floor plan to scale. It was probably one of the most valuable skills to have learnt as it makes planning a space so much easier. By drawing furniture to scale on a piece of paper and then cutting it out, we could then play with the layout for our rooms.

Colour was the second aspect that we focussed on. Understanding the science behind colour and talking through how you can easily narrow down which colours are going to suit your space best and how to mix colours to create a beautiful, effortless flow throughout your home.

We then broke for lunch and were treated to a delicious spread of salads made by Kindness and Co.

After lunch, we learnt why designers don’t design a room without a mood board and how we would go about creating one for ourselves. Mood boards are different to ‘sample’ boards – they are used to inspire colours, textures and atmosphere. They should be used as the foundation for all design work. In this session we got creative and crafted our own mood boards!

We closed the day talking about how to bring a scheme together with furniture and lighting, covering how you can combine furniture styles, where to shop and also why lighting is so important.

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed the day and genuinely learnt so many new things. For anyone thinking about doing one of these courses, do it – you’ll gain a lot! I am now thinking about my next move, do I look for another, more advanced interior design workshop, do I do an online CAD course or do I just take the plunge and get on that KCL School of Design course…?!

Lauren, thank you so much for having me for the day, if you ever decide to do a follow-on course, please let me know!

Thanks for reading x