THE DESIGN PROCESS

Let's get straight to the point; building and renovating is expensive. It is stressful. Often times, it is overwhelming. Hiring an interior designer is an added cost to consider, but is widely considered highly worthwhile given the range of deliverables you receive for the designers fee, as well the significantly increased likelihood your project will turn out the way you dreamed it would whilst also being on time AND on budget.

Let’s look at the starting process you will undergo with a designer and some things you should expect from a good Interior Designer working with you.

All About The Mood

A mood board is an arrangement of images, materials, textures, fonts, and colours that evokes the style of a project or concept. For most projects, a mood board is the springboard for design creativity! The mood board you create with your designer should be an organised display of your thoughts and ideas, and as an end result, a board should then be a useful tool you can use to effectively communicate design ideas and the style direction of your project.

Layout Sketches & 3D Drawings

Your designer should sketch layouts for all the rooms in your project. You should then receive detailed drawings to show you how each room will look. Be sure the pictures are detailed, including everything from colours, finishes and materials, through to heights, widths and depth dimensions.

To really help you visualise, find a designer who can also provide 3D rendered drawings. This will enable you to get a very accurate perception of the look, feel and function of each room.

Materials Schedule

Once the drawings are confirmed, you will work with your Designer to start selecting paint, flooring, benchtops, cabinetry, tapware, appliances, carpet and all the wonderful little features that make your house a home.

Your Designer will also be able to point you in the right direction on trusted suppliers and brands, and accompany you on visits to showrooms. The result will inevitably be a perfect presentation of selections and a suggested colour palette for you to approve. Your style, budget and lifestyle should be considered throughout the whole process

THE PANDEMIC & INTERIOR DESIGN - HOW COVID-19 AND HOW LOCKDOWN IMPACTS THE FUTURE OF DESIGN

The lifestyle shift created by COVID-19 and lockdowns has reshaped how Australians are choosing to build and renovate their homes. From an increased focus on hygiene, to rallying against shrinking block sizes, the story of Australian architecture and design is taking a new turn.

With industry data showing that over 40% of home buyers have changed their preferences for their properties, interior design is rapidly adapting with a range of new trends influencing the homes of 2021. Here are 3 of them that are influencing design right now:

More spacious homes

The beginning of 2020 saw increased interest in more sustainable ‘micro homes’ and an acceptance of shrinking block sizes in metro areas. However, in less than a year, our homes took on new roles, including home schooling, work offices and gyms. Homeowners are subsequently looking for a home office or study nook, additional living spaces and separate retreats for privacy.

Rise in renovations

Home isolation is known to inspire renovation, as owners have time to reflect on potential improvements to their properties. Leading industry bodies are now expecting further growth in renovations, such as kitchen and bathroom updates. Additionally, without the ability to travel, bringing the holiday feeling to the home has become increasingly important. The idea of creating a sanctuary at home is not new, but it has certainly become a driving force in 2021.

Refreshing home exteriors

Homeowners want their properties to reflect their style. Many more experienced homeowners are realising that they can cost-effectively redefine their homes’ exteriors by re-cladding or with cladding features. Homes lacking architectural shape can be enhanced by varying lines, textures and colours. This can be achieved by incorporating a larger range of materials, providing literally endless design possibilities. This is perfect for people who have rediscovered their creative sides during lockdowns.

With lockdowns continually threatening our lifestyles, It is clear the home space is deemed increasingly important. Considerations such as fitness solutions for home, home entertainment, working-from-home business spaces and study-at-home education solutions are now paramount.

For more detail around these issues and lessons from lockdown, please read my Lessons From Lockdown blog post (find it at: https://www.melissalunardon.com/designtalktv) or read the July issue of The Design Journal (read it at: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/57d4ee16d2b85782f9b887d8/t/60f0f50ac9cf4d4000095ffb/1626404228521/TheDesignJournal_Edition1_16July2021.pdf)

ITS TIME TO GET COSY - Styling for Winter

We have once again entered the season of warm blankets, mugs of coffee, oversized jumpers and huddling by the fire. Now is the perfect time to bring the outside in with furniture pieces made from timber and a nod to a more earthy colour palette. There are plenty of warm colours to help you achieve the perfect space to snuggle. Think rusts, warm greens, charcoal and browns, and you will be right on trend.

It's only natural we spend more time in our bedrooms in winter, which means bedrooms take centre stage. We therefore need to make sure it's our own personal little sanctuary, a place to escape the chill. In this little personal sanctuary, a good design will enable form and function to co-exist. The goal is a stunning bedroom that feels as good as it looks, and one which will ensure you have a quality night’s sleep.

We love a statement bed with matching bedside tables, finished off with beautiful luxe linen. Quality materials are essential for a high-end aesthetic, but apart from that seek chic, cosy and expressive linen for an iconic winter bedroom look.

When styling your bed, it is important to consider both form and function. Here are our 3 top tips for styling your bed:  

1.       Pillow talk

Use soft, fluffy pillows that fill out the pillowcase for styling purposes. This will make your bed look like something from a magazine, but it is not optimal for sleep quality as they often don’t provide the right neck support. Have another actual sleeping pillow that is ergonomic and supportive. It might not look as nice, so pop the fluffy pillow on top of your sleeping pillow when you make up the bed to achieve both a stylish look and a good night’s sleep.

2.       The right light

Choosing the right lighting for your bedside is important. Soft, nurturing light is ideal, provided it is strong enough to enable reading and other bedroom tasks. To achieve a good balance, look for a style where the actual light globe is covered in some way, either with a fabric or glass shade, to diffuse the point of light.

3.       All covered up

Just as you would dress yourself in different layers of clothing, you should do the same with bedding. Choose sheets and blankets in natural fibres like cotton, wool and bamboo to regulate your body temperature throughout the night. When it comes to colour, muted tones help to create a more relaxed vibe and are generally recommended with some interesting shapes and textures in accent pillows or cushions.

 With these 3 tips, you’ll achieve a magazine-worthy bed where you can sleep well and await the warmer Spring weather in comfort and style.

LESSONS FROM LOCKDOWN

Lessons from Melbournian designer and The Design Journal editor, Melissa Lunardon, while living in the world’s most locked-down city of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"No one fully foresaw the extent of the COVID-19 crisis, but as we emerge from our latest lockdown in Melbourne there are many lessons I have learned which apply to me personally, to design as an industry, and to our society as a whole. Like my fellow Victorians and much of the world, I have been confined to barracks for a while now, and used that time to rethink my business and the ideal interior for my clients. The lesson to me is clear: the pandamic and lockdown is devastating, but it is creating new needs and new trends in design we must be aware of and responsive to. Ultimately, the success of designers and enjoyment of the home for our clients relies on how well we can reinvent activities and designs to adapt to the “new normal” across Australia and worldwide."

Innovate the home office

COVID-19 lockdowns presented the opportunity for innovative solutions. It became apparent that no study nook can cut it as a home office if the acoustics are sub-par. The considerations of sound quality, echo and separation from noises made by pets, children, partners, neighbours and traffic became real and urgent concerns. The inclusion of this important criteria presents an opportunity to really meet form with function.

Home configuraton

Our configuration needs have altered as our homes suddenly became a place for more than just rest. They instantly became schools, corporate offices, gyms and more! Moving forward, I think this means we’ll see a trend towards closable rooms as opposed to open-plan configurations. This includes hallways, which can serve as a valuable vestibule as well as a subtle but effective transition from outside to inside.

Bring the outside in

With some of the strictest lockdown regulations worldwide inflicted upon Melbournians, we quickly learnt the appeal of the outdoors as our ability to leave home was restricted in both frequency and duration. From a design perspective, that means that now more than ever we should seek to configure ways to bring the outside in. Balconies are a great way to achieve this, especially for those in apartment or unit blocks without access to a private rooftop.

Get a garden

For Aussies with a little more space and a ground-hugging home, I suggest designers help clients optimise a sense of egress by landscaping the pockets of garden that sit immediately outside doors and windows. In the past our industry has often tried to maximise internal space by building out to the boundary, but with even a small garden you benefit from light infiltration. In normal times that’s a nice-to-have, but in these days of confinement it’s a blessing and it’s something I’ll be advising clients to incorporate into their homes.

A move towards subtlety

From an aesthetic perspective, I expect the inevitable economic crisis will see the end of many clients desire to make a splash by conspicuously dropping cash. Instead, I predict that quiet, nuanced gestures and subtle surface textures are going to become increasingly important as people move away from “processed” finishes. Light, colour, textures and intelligence of custom joinery will become increasingly important in our work going forward.

Greatest lesson for designers

Given the above, what is my greatest lesson from confinement? Try your hardest to create gym space in every home and have a heightened empathy for four-legged friends! People are needing fitness, work and dedicated pet spaces inside their homes. It’s a challenge but I love the way design can shape itself to the emerging needs of a culture, and as a designers this is a great opportunity to reinvent ourselves and our work to adapt to the disruption of a worldwide pandemic.