Current Event: Sustainability

Interior Design: Sustainability
Green Interior Design


Of course, everyone knows that Sustainability is playing a very important role in the design world. Everybody and everything is green-oriented.
So what exactly is Sustainability? According to dictionary.com, it is: "the quality of not being harmful to the environment or depleting natural resources, and thereby supporting long-term ecological balance."
This article from Interior Design magazine discusses sustainability in the design world with some very practical statistics:

• The Rising Giants now employ 701 LEED-certified designers, the most ever, up from 561 last year. That’s 29 percent of all current design staff.
• Seven out of 10 firms practice sustainability analysis.
• As a percentage of total fees, green hovers around 30 percent ($87.5 million last year).
• Each firm specified approximately $56 million in sustainable products last year, up from $40 million in 2011.
• Green square footage jumped to 52.5 million from 40 million two years ago.

I don't know about you, but this makes me want to obtain my LEED certification. If that's what designers are looking for in the industry, then this would be an important description to have on my resume. I know that for Kristin, since she focuses more on the decorating side of things, sustainability isn't as much of a concern for her. A lot of these statistics have to do with architecture firms. But still, anything you have to give your resume some more eye candy is welcome.

                                                      Some common Green trends:

Using Solar Panels

 

 

 

 

Low-wattage light bulbs

 

 

 

Energy efficient toilets:conserve water

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 8: Client presentation

 
    

Week 8

This week, Kristin journeyed to Texas to work on designs for the church there. While she was gone, Lia and I put the final touches on the presentations for the church in Athens, which we were going to present to pastor once she returned (unfortunately I didn't get to be there for the presentation). Kristin wanted to present the church staff with two different design styles: rustic or modern. While both types of designs would work equally as well in the offices, it is really up to the staff to choose what they want. Lia found furniture and objects for the rustic office, consisting mostly of products from Restoration Hardware. I had the modern office, composed mostly of Ikea furniture. It is important that the staff could see what sorts of things could be offered from both types of designs, and for the best price.

These are a few of the offices that I came up with that would create the modern Ikea look. Kristin of course did some correcting :) The "Before" is mine. "After" is hers.

                                                    Before

                                                      After

 

 Before

                                                     After

 

Before

 

After

 

Current Event: Using brass

Trends from Elle Décor

There are so many trends in the interior design world. It's hard to know which ones will actually stick and which ones fade out faster. One trend that Elle Décor has picked up on is the use of Brass in spaces. Most of the time, the brass isn't used in a specific area, but all over the place. Not only on furniture, but built into the spaces. This is a trend arising from the 1970's and is making a resurgence into the design world.
A lot of the design I've been around doesn't necessarily use this trend in its spaces. I know that Elle Décor can sometime lean towards a more traditional approach to design, so I definitely think that in that case it's appropriate. For the more modern design world however, the use of brass isn't exactly a new trend. There's still a lot of steel and iron in the modern world. I know that working with Kristin, the rooms that are designed are less traditionally focused, unless it's a law office or something of the sort!
 
 

Brass Staircase

 

 

Gold and Brass Accents

 

Another Brass Staircase

 

 

Week 7: google sketchups

   This week was filled with a lot more preparation for the chirch meeting. In addition to finding furniture for the foyer and the offices, Kristin gave me the assignment of creating a Google Sketchup for the office spaces, to give a little visual perspective for the staff. Since we weren’t really sure what type of furniture the staff wanted for the offices, we just created a space that would be flexible for whatever furniture we ended up putting in. On Friday, we had a meeting with the lady who is in charge of the children’s ministry at the church, to discuss what sort of design needs she would have for her space. We discussed everything from the mural designs for the walls to the number of cribs they would need for the nursery. It takes a lot of time to figure out what exactly a client needs for a space, but especially if the client is in charge of numerous children!
   Another important thing Kristin had to do was have a meeting with The Sign Brothers. For most of her projects, she gets pretty much all of the signs, logos, and vinyl displays from the guys at the Sign Brothers. We had a meeting that lasted couple of hours going over all of the signs for Cornerstone.

                  Perspective I created of the conference room with some furniture

     A view of the offices in the church. A work in progress!!

 The Sign Bros. Are located in Athens (they're very talented!)

Current Event: Drum Shades

Trends 2013

I found an article about some trends seen at the Architectural Digest home design show, discussing what's new for the 2013 year. One of the things that was mentioned was the use of Drum shades. I've definitely noticed a lot of this from working with Kristin! Drum shades can make a space look really awesome. They can make a space comfortable, or give it a more modern feel, or provide an appealing focus point. I like the way it was described in the article: "classic with a contemporary twist."
People are accepting drum shades to the max. One cool product I found from Home Depot was a light that looked like a drum shade, but there was actually a fan installed on the inside. It was a rather large drum shade, but the whole point was to cover up the fan inside. Such a neat idea!

 

 

Week 6: ATL excursion and more!

      This week proved to be a lot more jam-packed then last week, since we worked over 30 hours. On Monday, we met at Kristin's house to discuss what we were going to do for the entire week. Kristin had bought a bunch of planters for the church in Texas which she was going to use for the childrens hallway and she had Lia and I work on arranging the flowers in the planters. Arranging flowers turns out to be a lot more difficult then I thought it would be, and Lia and I sharpened our skills with matching, spreading out, and placing the flowers appropriately in their new homes.  On Tuesday, we met with the pastor at the church in Athens, to talk about plans. The pastor showed his complete generosity by treating Kristin, Lia, and I to lunch at El Azteca, along with his family and some of the staff. After lunch, we journeyed suburban-style back to the church to meet and discuss plans for the new building. This planning included selecting church chair styles for the auditorium, figuring out who needed what types of desks in their offices, choosing a furniture arrangement for the foyer of the church, selecting materials for the surface of the welcome desk, and many, many more things. The meeting lasted nearly 6 hours, so we were all pretty tired by the end of it. On our way home, we discussed in what ways the meeting went well and in what ways it didn't.
On Wednesday, Kristin had planned a trip to Atlanta, specifically for Lia's and my enjoyment. It was such a fun experience! We first went to Ivan Allen to meet up with Kristin's friend who had us sit down in multiple sessions with different product salesmen, to hear their presentations about what commercial furniture is hot in the market these days. Kristin found a couple things in the brochures that she liked, but one of the main reasons we went there was to find a curvy couch for the lobby of Cornerstone. The day continued with a lunch break at Empire State South, a visit to the exhibit about Eero Saarinen at MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta) and an expedition to one of my now, new favorite stores: Paris on Ponce. This store was filled with every sort of antique, trinket, unique object, you could ever find, all tucked into a mini warehouse in Midtown. Thanks goes to Lia's suggestion to visit. On Thursday, Kristin and I journeyed to Peachtree City to see what work the construction crew had been doing for the church. The new Upstreet was looking very "worked on" so it was a good thing that Kristin came so that she could discuss with one of her contract workers,about what to do for certain sections of the walls. On Friday, Lia and I tagged along with Kristin as she gave a tour of Athens church to the a church staff. The objective here was to present some ideas to the staff, so that they could implement some ideas and inspiration into their own church.

 The Flowers that Lia and I arranged in Kristin's living room

                                                          Where we ate

                                                               All of us!
                                               (left to right, Kristin, me, Lia)