Chapter 3: Define your aesthetic track

CURATING THE AESTHETICS

Before you can even create a Moodboard or Concept board, you will need to do some research. I am sure you are all good at that, researching inspiring interiors has never been easier or more fun than it is nowadays!! I think the hardest part is to actually curate the overwhelming amount of information that we have access to.

Here are some practical tips that I use in my design projects to keep track of useful images or other resources:

• Start off with a Pinterest board dedicated to the room

• Create a complementary ‘collection’ in Instagram dedicated to the room. This way when you see beautiful products that you love, you can store them somehow. I hate it when I see something I love in Insta, then I forget whose account it was, and lots of times I can't find it again!

• Bookmarking: if you are a Mac user, all it takes is press ‘command + D’ to create a bookmark. This will be useful at a later stage, when you are closer to start purchasing all the furniture/accessories. Once I am nearly certain that a product is going to be purchased from a particular shop, I bookmark that page. This will save you from the pain of having to browse trough the shops again and again to find the specific products.

MOODBOARD

Everyone here has heard of a moodboard, I am sure. There’s as many ways of doing mood boards as good designers out there, so I am not going to tell you that there’s one way of doing it. It’s about finding a way that works for you. The main function of a mood board is to visually represent a summary your concept, so that you can look at it every time you are lost, and keep yourself on track.

Out of all of the Interior Inspo images that you collect, pick 3. For me, it works better with only 3. I love those mood boards full of stuff -they look pretty- but speaking practically, when I look at my concept board I want a straight forward & clear direction. In this project I used three images in order to represent the overall mood of the room, and kept going back to them every time I felt lost.

The images might be useful for different reasons, and that’s ok because you are not trying to copy what is in them. Example of reasons why you pick a particular image:

• Use of colour: subtle colours, or bright contrast, used throughout or in ‘blocks’

• General style: furniture in the image resembles what you have got in mind

• Look and feel: moody & cozy or light & airy

Here's an example of my moodboard for Dylans room make over:

COLOUR PALETTE

I highly recommend you set your colour palette before starting to plan the interior as this will save you so much time when selecting furniture & accessories. You can set it up inspired by a specific image, another interior, or by thinking of your concept. For example, I went back to my concept of ‘nurture’ to make the final decisions on my colour palette. At some stage I was very indecisive about my colour direction, but thanks to my concept I decided to stick to a palette of colours found in nature. I also use the colour wheel as a tool to assess the relationship between the colours I am considering and to see if I can relate it to my concept.

PREVISUALISATION IS KEY

Avoid regretful decisions: shopping on the spur of the moment leads to wrong decisions. for eg just because you love a purple cushion you have just seen, this does not mean that it’s going to work in your space. Refer back to your overall colour scheme to check if it fits within your overall concept.

Of course this is where an Interior Designer will be very helpful, because they have the ability to visualise things before they come together! Whether it's by using a software or also helping you choose elements during the journey and making you stay on track.

Let me know if you have any questions as I would love to hear what your thoughts are on all this.

Cheers and until next time! 

Georgina xx