It's been forever!

Hi there! I cannot believe it has been over a year since I blogged! I am determined to get better at this! I have been so busy with school the past year.....believe it or not it's almost time for graduation! I finally will get that degree in 2 weeks. I have learned so much about design. I love it and it certainly is a passion of mine. I have been interning for the past 4 months for two different companies. I have been working with a residential designer in Greensboro and have learned alot about new construction and model home design (which I am very interested in). My other internship has been at a showroom in High Point, I have seen the transformation of the showrooms come to life just in time for Furniture Market. I also love showroom design and the way it really makes me feel a sense of accomplishment seeing the finish product come to life and getting compliments on it during market :) I am working on a website so you will have to check it out once I'm finished. Talk to you soon!

How Can You Use Design?

Design can be used in many different ways. You don't have to be a designer to utilize design in everyday life. For example, I am planning my wedding for this summer. If any of you have ever planned a wedding or big party you know that a lot of planning and organization go into making the day come together. I have used color schemes, pattern, texture and even space planning during my wedding planning process. I have had to assess the space where my ceremony and reception will take place and figure out an appropriate arrangement for seating and food prep areas, ect. Color is a huge one. I have had to incorporate my color scheme from the linens to the invitations. Design is alive in wedding planning.

If you ever have a home improvement project to do at your house you will be creating some kind of design. You will probably go to lowes or home depot and stand in front of all the pain samples and pick something you like. Then you will take that paint sample and match it to bedding, towels, curtains, pillows anything else that you want to incorporate in the space.

You don't have to be an interior designer to use design. People do it everyday and may not even notice. 

Spring Break Inspiration

Last week was spring break and it was so nice to be able to relax and unwind from the craziness of the semester. Although being away from school was nice, design seems to follow me everywhere I go. Throughout the week I went several different place just running errands, ect. I found myself looking at the furnishings in waiting rooms, art work in the hair salon and fabric samples during an appointment for my wedding. I now relate everything I see to design and how I would have done something differently or something that caught my eye and gave me a new idea. Also the excitement of spring in the air and flowers starting to bloom always is an inspiration for fresh designs and colors. I am addicted to all things HGTV and spent a lot of my break watching home improvement, design shows. I always get fun new ideas from that channel. Love it!! Look all around and you yourself may feel inspired. Happy Spring!

The Proximity Hotel

Last week our Intro to Interior Design class took a field trip to the Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, NC. This is the first "green" or eco-friendly  hotel in the country and has a LEED Platinum rating. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This hotel is modern and every detail has been thought of down to the conservation of water in every faucet in the building. If you were a person who is not familiar with being eco friendly or how to be eco friendly and you walked into the Proximity you would never know that they were being so environmentally conscious. This is hotel is gorgeous and you would never feel as though they were conserving energy all around you.
Some facts about this hotel are:

•  they have 100 solar panels on the roof which heats about 60% of the hotel and restaurants water
• They have large amounts of natural light in each room allowing for more use of natural light and less artificial light. 
• Each guest room as an operable window which allows guest to have fresh air. 

The Printworks Bistro is the restaurant on site and they utilize fresh local foods and wines. We had lunch there and it was a wonderful experience. The food was excellent and the atmosphere unlike any other. The style and details of this hotel are like any other 4 star hotel around the world, the Proximity is just utilizing all the tools and resources to make this a healthier and more eco friendly building for our enviornment. I highly recommend you take a visit!

Gazebo drawing done in AutoCad

I created this Gazebo drawing in my AutoCad class. In this class we are learning how to draft on the computer. In my opinion it is easier than drafting by hand and quicker! I enjoy this class a lot. The above drawing is one we did in class a few weeks ago. It looks tricky but believe me it was so much easier on the computer than when we did it by hand last semester. AutoCad has all the tools necessary to create drawings like this. There is an arc command that allows you to create arcs in which the roof is created in this drawing. It also allows you to put measurements in for lines and shapes such as squares and rectangles. You can also put in the radius of circles. To me this is so much easier than doing all those things by hand. I know computers aren't perfect but it makes life a lot easier!

Where does my inspiration come from??

Sometimes inspiration is hard to find and I feel as though I'm stuck and don't know where to start. I find myself looking in magazines for those little things that spark my interest. I look for specific colors or pieces that I want to use in my design, and feel that sometimes looking for just 1 specific item can open a whole world of inspiration. One color, piece of furniture or style can be the one thing that inspires me to begin a design or help me to come up with more ideas for a design that has already been started but I may be stuck on. I also find inspiration through my friends, I can bounce ideas off of them and listen to the feedback they may have. Everyone may have different ways of finding inspiration and mine is certainly not always the same. Every day I feel like I am inspired in new ways just by learning and growing in my knowledge of design!

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