A 1930's Loft Apartment Project - Part Two

It's been almost a month since I last posted on this topic which is firstly shocking then a bit disappointing because I hoped I'd be further ahead on the project after four weeks.  My Impatience and Pontification are always doing battle, I think the latter may have won this months joust.  Aren't we all our own worst critic?!  On a plus point, I have completed the design for the kitchen, living, dining area and the balcony in this time frame. Phew!

Glamour, Relaxation and Luxe are the words lending themselves to the feel of the capacious master bedroom of my pseudo client - the city dwelling, professional couple. These are the concept images I've chosen to illustrate.

The main elements of the brief are to have a contemporary and luxurious, haven like room that is warm and comfortable.  It cannot be frilly but can have feminine elements without putting off the man of the property.  In terms of practicalities, there must be lots of storage, with at least 2.5 linear metres of wardrobe space and an area for make up application and jewellery storage, plus seating for the couple.  And overall, the design must cohere with the rest of the apartment.

Here's my initial pencil sketch of the scheme:

I had a bit of fun with this design, capturing the couple's love of boutique hotel design and thus having to select top quality furniture, fabrics and fittings with a limitless budget.  An interior design dream.  The shape of the room is fairly limited in terms of the placement of the double bed and wardrobes, the latter falling into a regular run along the main wall for an efficient and streamlined look, leaving the bed to become the focal point with its room height eccentuating, floor to ceiling head board.  A variety of flexible lighting for soft pools of cosy intimate light as well as practical light for routine activities will help enhance and complete this scheme.

Inspired by award winning interior designer and rule breaker, Kit Kemp (I attended her fascinating lecture recently and of course bought her latest book "A Living Space"), I'm doing something fairly unusual for me and adding some big pattern. That bottom right fabric with the leaf design is going to feature on the seating.

This now leaves me to nail the designs for the master entrance hall, master bathroom and study.  Once complete, I can start to build my sample presentation boards for every room and move on to the monumental challenge of drawing and inking by hand, then rendering the plans and sections of the entire flat.

Creating a Home Cinema scheme and a reward

Last Tuesday, I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I'd been dreading working on the KLC Home Cinema project since first reading through the curriculum way back in October 2008 and consequently I left this part of Module 5 'til last. I hold my hands up now and admit that space planning, scheme creation and styling are my favourite elements of interior design and NOT understanding the nuances of technology. I never research these things for myself, I normally purchase technology on the recommendation of others (well Mr. L).  So it was with a very deep intake of breath and the promise of a reward for myself, that I finally completed the lengthy task.  I trekked up to Chelsea Design Centre with my coursework folder, handed it over and thankfully freed myself from this penultimate module.  Due to tutor holidays, I won't get my results back for 6 weeks. Booooo.

So, first up I sketched some ideas for furniture, layouts and the design for the bespoke cabinetry.

And then researched Home Cinema systems.  I based this on Mr. L's not-so-affordable wishlist and sourced products as recommended by a local AV firm - Rayleigh Hi-Fi. 

Plus, choosing suitable fabrics, furniture and accessories to fit the space in line with the client's brief, a streamlined contemporary look for the space that doubles as a living area plus cinema for social occasions for up to 12 people.  This had to be fastidiously presented on a furniture board.

Planning the space - a design won't work if the furniture is the wrong size for the space or the scheme looks cluttered.

And the designed and rendered sketch of the bespoke cabinet that houses all the AV equipment.

So after all this time consuming, frustration inducing effort, I duly rewarded myself with a little present.  This is how it came.

Surprise! I've not taken it off since it arrived...

 So I've got just Module 6 to go before I finish the course.  I look forward to the day!

Making time for doing

Hello everybody... I'm back from my few day's break-from-the-norm and it's been a pretty busy, eventful and contemplative week. 

For those of you with children, I'm sure you'll completely relate to what I'm about to say.  When you've got a couple of little ankle biters, you find yourself asking "What did I do with all my time before I had these kids?  Then they grow up, start nursery and school and slowly but surely, life gets back to normal and you start to remember who you are, what you enjoy and start to prioritise the stuff that's put to one side in your life since the day you found out you were pregnant.

But, last week I asked myself "What ever do I do with my time when the kids are not around?".  I achieved all my usual business tasks, I took care of young children, I spent some time with my boys and we spent one of the day's out clothes and IKEA shopping, I took them to the hairdressers, I used up half a day driving Den to and from Heathrow airport and I even got a decent portion of coursework completed. Okay, the blogging went down the pan, but I'd made a conscious decision that was going to happen anyway.

So, today's Monday and we are all back to normal routines and the house is peaceful, it's just me and the cats.  I suppose what I'm highlighting is that I spend too much of my time pondering and even planning what I'm going to do and spend very little time actually implementing it.  My last week was full of doing, doing many different activities and they all got done successfully.  Nobody gave me an extra few hours here and there, it all fitted nicely into 7 days.

My cautious, reticent streak needs to be kicked into line, it comes as a result of being a terrible self promoter, being plagued with lack of self belief and just being a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable.  So with renewed vigour, I am going to cram my hours and days with as much interior design as I possibly can - whether that's in the form of writing my blog, studying with KLC to completion or getting out to events and networking.  And I'll also decide on which area I'm going to develop my design business in, then implement it. I'm going to do them all, this year.  There... said it now.

I'd also like to thank Tracey from procrastinationmama for coming over this weekend and sharing her new project.  She doesn't know this but the very act of her coming over and kind of putting me on the spot, discussing all things design and business and personal objectives and style, has enabled me to gain some much needed confidence and reignite some of the passion that subsides from being afraid and when thinking too much about the negatives in life.

Below is a photograph I took a couple of years back when Den, I and the boys were on an RV trip in the US. We stayed for one night at the luxurious and blingworthy Trump Hotel in Las Vegas and, feeling carefree and inspired, I can remember vividly my thoughts at the moment I stood at the foot of this building and gazed into the sky above. That anything is possible if you put your mind and passion into it.

 I hope you've all had a lovely weekend and have learned some new stuff since we last spoke?

Study Wednesday's

Wednesday's in my world are officially study days.  This arrangement works the majority of the time but occassionally the day itself is interrupted with welcome distractions such as tweeting, web surfing, tea and toast making and blogging.  Today's current distraction is the intense desire to jump in the car and visit my local fabric supplier to source some fabric for roman blinds I intend to make for my newly painted living room.  More about that subject will follow in a later post, as for now I must focus on getting through a rather laborious interior construction booklet for KLC's module 5.

I hate, repeat hate freehand drawing. It's my biggest frustration as I'm absolutely rubbish at it.  I draw, rub out, draw, rub out so many times that there's a competition running between the pencil and rubber as to who can be used the most.  The rubber wins hands down.  I've bought books and studied the subject, so to be fair, my drawing has improved, although my heart just isn't in it.

But as they say, practice makes perfect and in the world of interior design, getting across ones creative visions to others on paper is a pretty essential skill.

Enough of this pontification, I just need to crack on and get it done.  I'll leave you with my most recent efforts.