The Truth Behind Interior Design Myths and What It Really Takes to Create Thoughtful Spaces

everyone. We are in Lesson 2, Introduction to Interior Design. Hope you're enjoying the course so far.

Today's lesson is a fun one. We're going to get into the elements and principles of design. We're going to talk about some design myths that are out there.

We're going to talk about how the reality of interior design works versus what you see on television. We're going to discuss the design elements. We're going to talk about the design principles, and the two of these are vital in creating everything that you see in the interior environment.

And then we are going to discuss Project 1, which is your first assignment. Design myth number one, the goal is to surprise your client. You know, this is an interesting one because there are reality television shows out there where a client will be surprised, right? They hire a design team.

The client comes home and it's like, surprise, here's your new beautiful house. Well, unfortunately, the reality of this situation is that clients want to know what's going on with their design work. And you as an interior designer have to work one-on-one with your client.

So, surprising your client is obviously a myth. The client should know exactly what's happening and the timeline of things that are happening. It's always good to discuss the project scope in advance, and the client will share inspirations that they may have, right? Inspirational imagery, or, you know, design projects that they like, or images that they like, so they can give you an idea of what they're going for.

Every client has some idea of what they want their project to look like, and a great designer will incorporate those ideas into the design before it's complete. Now, many times the client may have an idea of what the goal is for the project, and the designer may not think that is necessarily the best approach. So, a lot of times we compromise, right? We'll come up with a design scheme.

We'll present it to the client. Sometimes we'll come up with a balance that meets the client's needs and the functional needs of the project. And just so everyone is aware, there are many phases in a project, and each of these phases requires client approval, right? So, the pre-contract phase, the conceptual phase, which we'll dive in a little bit later today, the design development phase, construction documents, and construction administration.

Now, in the pre-contract phase, you're essentially gathering all the information for the project. Conceptual design, you're starting to build out the concept. Design develops the ideas of the floor plans.

Construction documents are literally the documents that are used to build the project, and construction administration is on site while the project is being built. You're essentially managing. Now, we'll dive into each of these in more detail as we go through the lessons, but just so you're aware, surprising your client is not a goal for what we try to do as interior designers.

Design myth number two, speed and quality are synonymous. Now, projects take time, obviously, right? But it's also important to understand that to create a quality project or a quality design, sometimes speed is not necessarily the best approach, right? So, yes, we want to work with our client and work on with our timeline, but not every project can be done in, you know, like the television shows show, not every project can be done in just a week or two weeks, right? The quality of the project is just as important. So, you work with the project timeline, you work with the client, and you have to be honest about that time schedule and how the project is going to move forward.

It's also important to be honest about the timeline, and you communicate along the way. You may be a few weeks into the project and you realize that things are going slightly behind schedule, whether it's something in your control or out of your control. It's important to inform the client about these steps and some of these things that are happening, and you don't want to sacrifice quality over speed, right? This is important to create, you know, the best outcome for the project.

You know, in the end, as interior designers, our goal is to create a very high quality project, and we do want to create a project within the expected deadline, right? But they're not the same. Speed and quality are not the same, and it's important to note that. Design myth number three.

Designers do not need training. Now, I hear individuals say, oh, I can learn this on YouTube. Well, maybe certain aspects are true as far as being able to learn certain skills like maybe SketchUp, but as far as design and interior design, you really need education, and congratulations because you're in this course because you want to become educated.

Interior design is a very complex industry, and there are a lot of layers to interior design, so not anyone can just do interior design, and you do absolutely need training, right? Interior designers do not just fluff pillows. They do not just add the color palette to the project or just add a few pieces of furniture. As we remember from the last lesson, there is a lot of responsibility in what we do as an interior designer, and yes, you need training to be able to get through this process.

Aspects of interior design that require extensive training, just for example, the manipulation of light within space to enhance well-being. Believe it or not, interior design has the ability to improve mood, as we mentioned in the last lesson, and understanding this and understanding the principles of light and color and psychology can become imperative while you're designing a project, and that takes training, right? We don't just learn that by watching a YouTube video. Understanding and incorporating functional needs.

What is most appropriate for which space that you're designing? Number three, incorporating safety and egress requirements. Egress is how do you get out of the building in case of a fire or an emergency, and we think about that as interior designers, and we need to be trained. Utilizing ADA to create accessible spaces.

Accessible spaces are spaces for those with a disability, and to meet these standards, there's a series of training that goes along with that. We have to coordinate with the architects. We have to coordinate with the consultants.

I was on a project a few years ago, and we had as many as 12 consultants on the job. Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, audio, visual, and the list goes on, right, to make a beautiful project. There's a lot of individuals involved, including the architect, the client, certain consultants for different types of materials, and the list goes on.

So being able to manage all of these parties requires training. The ability to draw what the design will look like before it's built. This is a wonderful one, because we as interior designers have the ability to show the client what the project is actually going to look like, and the exciting thing about this course that you're taking is when you get to the final project, you are going to do the same thing.

You're going to show us what your project could conceptually look like before it's actually built. Now, yes, this is a theoretical project, and this is for a course that we're doing, but the same goes for real life. We'll draw, and we'll communicate through drawing, and then the client will take a look and approve, and as we move forward, that's what the contractors use to build the project.

So in reality, the interior designers are professionals who are more innovative, more creative, and more detail-oriented. You know, interior designers also understand people in the design spaces that enhance people's lives. Every person who you design for might have a different need for how they're going to react to the space that you're designing, and I think it's important to note that.

This is one of my favorites. Good design is trendy. Well, what's the problem with the trend? Well, you guessed it.

A trend doesn't last forever, right? It's temporary. If you have a client who's saying, you know, let's just design with the trend, just understand that that trend does not go on forever, right? As a professional interior designer, I really do believe that thoughtful interior design is something that goes beyond a trend, and rather, it meets a number of different things. First, the needs of the client.

Now, some things that you might think about. What are the needs of the client? Where do they come from? What is their background? What's important to them? What spaces and functions are most important for the client? Does the client have any allergies? What design aesthetic does the client prefer? You know, showing a series of inspirational boards may be important. What is the client's budget, right? These are all opportunities for us to learn what the needs of the client are.

The needs of the space, just as important as the client. What are the functions of each space? Which furnishings will meet these functional requirements? And the site, which is the location, does it have anything that we need to consider, like a tree that's blocking a view or blocking light into the building, or a neighboring building that's very close that could affect acoustics? And the needs of the environment are also important. Can daylight be captured on the site, right? Even though we are focusing on the interior designer as an interior designer, we still look at the architectural aspect of how light comes into the building.

And on that note, we even think about material selections and sustainability. Are there prevailing winds that we can use to capture natural air ventilation? We'll dive into that a little bit later in our lessons here. But there are a number of things that we need to think about that go way far beyond just designing for a trend.

And myth number five, designing on a dime is easy, right? We see the, I think there actually is a show out there that is called Designing on a Dime, if I remember correctly. And the whole project, I think, I remember seeing this one set of designers who are like, we have $500 and that's it, right? Well, the reality of that is a little far from true. There are so many aspects that go into a design project.

And sometimes what these reality shows aren't sharing with you is that they already have resources backstage, right? They may have leftover lumber, they may have paint, they may have… So yeah, it's possible they only spent $500, but they're likely not sharing with you the thousands of dollars in materials and furniture or furnishings that they've supplied that they don't share with you, right? So design takes careful thought and consideration. And there's a lot of factors that go into this, right? So I'm not saying that design can't be done affordably, right? But designing and saying that you can always design a project with just a couple hundred dollars is far from real. What size is the project? How big is it, right? A 2,000 square foot space is much bigger than designing a small doctor's office that's only a few hundred square feet, or even smaller than that, maybe the patient room where just the patient and the doctor are, right? What type of interior and exterior materials are needed? Each material costs different amounts, right? So how durable are these materials? If you're going sustainable, I hate to break it to you, but sustainability is not cheap.

There are ways to go sustainable in an affordable fashion. We'll touch on some of those throughout the next few lectures. And is an architect needed, right? That's something else that can affect the cost, right? Architects are not cheap, right? The average architect is somewhere between $200 and $250 an hour.

The good news is later when you're an interior designer, you can potentially charge up to $100 or $150 an hour for your services after you have a certain level of experience. If you're charging $150 an hour and you're saying the project's only going to cost $500, that means you're designing the whole project in three, four hours, right? It's not feasible. What kind of furniture is needed and is the furniture local or is it something that we have to import, right? Are consultants needed? Are there any other players who need to be involved? Are there any requests from the client who are special, right? The client may want a certain aspect of the project designed a certain way and that could potentially affect the cost of the project, right? So these are just a few of many aspects that support the idea that the project has to be carefully planned out, especially with the budget and the needs of the clients.

Great. In our next video, we'll discuss the design elements such as line, shape, form, space, and many others. Looking forward to it.