The Design Process

Stage 3 - Ideas

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Introduction to the Design Process Series.

Regardless of size, big or small, every home décor or interior transformation project flows through a process, beginning middle and end.  We have designed this core series to lay out the details of the process stage by stage.  We hope this is helpful for everyone embarking on or working through an interior project, the idea being you can dip in and out of the series as needed.  Some people might want to follow every step, from the very beginning to the very end, and others might just need a spot of inspo on how to pull together a moodboard.  The articles created for this series will be published over time and once they are all available on the Millands Home site, you will find them in the Resources section – Blog Recipe article where they are all numbered and easy to find.

We hope this is useful and as ever, get in touch if you have anything to add or want to share what stage of the design process you are at.

Ideas

This article should be useful to anyone not too clear on what they want to achieve design wise, someone who doesn’t know their personal style too well or isn’t sure how they want their finished space to look.  If you have a clear idea of exactly what you want your space to look like when its finished, you may want to skip ahead to step 5.

You have likely already begun collecting ideas as you have worked through previous stages of the Design Process.  You may have thought the Ideas stage would come first, but to be sure you are creating a well thought through renovation or redesign, checking the layout, space available, budget and timescale should be the first things you do, before you get carried away with all sorts of wonderful ideas.  You have decided you want to make changes in your home, regardless of how big or small those changes are, you need a way of recording your ideas, so you can reflect on them and let them sit with you. It's so easy to love something one minute and not the next, which is why giving yourself a little time during this stage is a good idea.  It sounds so simple, but when it comes to your home, you want to get it right and sometimes the fear of not getting it right can be a blocker.  With all that said, we hope this article will help you free your mind and just have fun, taking the time to think about all the things you like, enjoy are drawn to.

Step by Step guide - How to record your Ideas

You may already have access to this visual discovery app, its Pinterest!  Probably no surprises that Pinterest is the go-to first step for most people in getting started with their interior design and décor projects.  It’s the perfect free option to record where you are up to with your design choices and preferences. 

1.      To get you started we recommend simply recording everything on one board.  Later there are options to create multiple boards each with detailed sections, but for now keep it to one board.  Whether or not this is the beginning of an entire home renovation or just a bedroom refresh, start with your one board and name it ‘Ideas’.

2.      Now you have your empty ‘Ideas’ board you can begin to add images that appeal to you in some way, anything goes, think outside the box.  Pinterest itself houses millions of fantastic images and ideas and you can of course add any of them to your ‘Ideas’ board however, try to think about what is around you too.  You can upload any image to Pinterest, so taking photos of things when you are out and about is a brilliant way of capturing what naturally appeals to you.  It could be some flowers at the garden centre, or the fabric on a cushion in a hotel, or holiday snaps from years ago where you loved the furniture in the villa, really anything goes, the boarder the better, upload everything you love.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t see a connection between what you are uploading and your interior design project, just trust the process and upload it anyway.  Ideas of images you might consider pinning in addition to those found on social media apps could be photos of holiday and travels, magazines and books, nature, museums, friend’s homes, hotels, restaurants, shops, department stores and anything else you can think of.  Give yourself space to take your time with this, it’s not an overnight element to the process, add things as you see them, don’t rush it. You can continue to add your ‘Ideas’ board too, as a guide we would suggest pinning 100-200 ideas/ images as a good starting point before beginning to move on to the next phases.

3.      Now you have your ‘Ideas’ board filled with beautiful and inspiring images hand-picked by you, you can begin to analyse what it all means.  At this stage you should be able to see patterns emerging from your chosen pins.  The patterns can be categorised as styles, colours, themes, among many other preferences you have chosen within the board.  These categories are going to help guide you to understand your personal style and tastes, which will then encourage your interior design project inspiration.  If you want further help deciphering your personal style read the next step, if you’re comfortable identifying and understanding your style preferences skip ahead to the next step, number 5.

4.      Here we provide additional support to help you identify and understand your personal preferences.  We have added a personal preferences table for you to look through which should highlight any patterns and categorise them.  Refer to the table below, while looking at your ’Ideas’ Pin board, take a piece of paper or download the table and write down what you see from your board next to the questions.  We have given a few examples so you know what to look for but there are hundreds of possible preferences so just write down what you see from your board.

Patterns emerging from your Ideas	Your personal preferences
Colour preferences Monochromatic, Brights, Muted Tones  Neutrals, Complimentary i.e. opposite sides of the colour wheel, Analogous i.e. colours next to each other on the colour wheel
Textures and finishes Types of timber; Ash, oak, antique etc. Hardware; brass, chrome, nickle etc.  Stone; marble, limestone, concrete etc
Preferred season Spring; light airy, pastels etc. Summer; bright colours, coastal, outdoor living etc. Autumn; warm tones, cosy textiles etc. Winter; cool colours, Hygge elements etc.
Design styles For example; contemporary/ modern, rustic, farmhouse, Engligh country living, industrial, bohemian, Scandinavian, coastal, kitsch etc.
Fabric and material types For example; velvet, linen, cotton etc.
Patterns and motifs For example; geometric, floral, abstract, stripes, checks, cultural etc
Lighting preferences Such as; LEDs, strip lights, spots, chandeliers, wall sconces, lamps, picture lights etc
Layouts and arrangements Open plan, small spaces and snugs, symmetrical balanced and orderly arrangements, symmetrical dynamic and varied placements etc.
Themes Such as; nature, luxury, vintage, minimalist, functional, high end, antique, hygge etc.
Lifestyle adaptions Pets, hosting and entertaining, family and friends, single or couple living.
Sustainable environmental and ethical elements Economical materials; wood, recycled glass, organic fabrics.  Energy efficiency; solar panels.  Breathable, vegan sustainable paint etc
Cultural/ historical influences Victoria, colonial, Georgian, Mediterranean, African, Asian etc.
Architectural features Window and door styles, celling treatments; beams, painted, wallpapered, ceiling roses, coving etc.  Walls, flooring; hardwood, tile, rug, carpet etc.
Technological integrations Smart home, home entertainment, working from home set ups etc.

5.      The next step is to think about creating headings your project spaces, consider your layout from Stage 1 of the Design Process Series. The layout might be the entire home’s floor plans, or just one room either way, you can list out the spaces you want to dedicate your new ideas to.  This is where you can add new sections within your ‘Ideas’ board if you are focussing on one room, or create new boards for each living space category and begin allocating your ideas to specific areas.  If you are just working on one room you might have the following sections: Furniture, lighting, fabrics and walls, flooring, accessories, finishing touches, pictures and art.  You can also change the name of your board now to something else like ‘Master Bedroom, or ‘Kitchen Diner’.  If you are renovating an entire house, you may want to create more boards for each room in your house and have the different sections within that room as described above in the first example (furniture, lighting etc)

6.      You can now begin to add more practical items such as sofas, pendant lights, paint colours etc to you boards, also use some of the items on the ‘Ideas’ board, you can always duplicate if you need that image to appear as inspiration in more than one place.  While building out your boards, continue to refer back to the patterns and categories that emerged from your ‘Ideas’ board as this is what will keep a consistency and cohesion to the design phase….having said that a little confusion or clashing here and there is always a fun way to express your style and personality so don’t be too strict, it’s more a guide  to designing spaces that are cohesive and make sense together and have purpose and intention.

7.      If you are working on your interior design project with other people or want to get thoughts, advice and ideas from your friends and family, you can invite people to join your boards, which is a great feature to collect additional ideas. 

8.      For further support and guidance we have uploaded a number of example boards on our Pinterest Account, for you to look through.  In each example you will see the practical board and section headers and the types of pinning that might take place after the ‘Ideas’ board part of the process.  , give us a follow on Pinterest and other social media platforms, we have lots and lots of interior inspiration for you to copy and pin to your new boards.

The next step in The Interior Design Series which will be stage 2, is putting together your Moodboards.  Moodboards are slightly different to the ‘Ideas’ boards we have talked about in this article.  They are more specific and intentional and will likely reflect your finished space.  Make sure you are subscribed to be notified of this upcoming article and others that might be useful to you as you continue with your interior design projects.

Let us know what you think, was this helpful? How did you get on creating your own boards, did you find them useful in kick starting your interior design projects? Get in touch via our Contact Us page. Also