When I grow up I want to be an interior designer…

When you are at school you are taught various subjects and then based upon those you are good at, you normally decide what direction you would like your career to go in…

Well, in an ideal world anyway. I always think that you are told about careers that require a uniform when you’re at school and not about all the other jobs that you may be more well suited to.

I really wish I had known what I wanted to be when I was at school however I don’t feel like it’s ever too late to make your dream career in to a reality.

For me, that dream is interior design. I remember saying when I was younger that I wanted to be an interior designer and now my 32 year old self is gutted I never pursued it.

A few weeks ago I was invited to an Interior design workshop hosted by the very talented Lauren Gilberthorpe. Lauren has been an interior designer for over 10 years and has a fountain of knowledge that I had the pleasure of receiving.

The workshop was held at the beautiful Barn at Upcote in Cheltenham. There were around 20 women who attended and as soon as we arrived we were all mingling and sharing our interior related stories and experiences.

Lauren kicked the day off with presenting us with a work book.

Before the workshop, she asked us to have a room we wanted to design in our minds, along with some measurements. As I have pretty much completed all the rooms in our house, I decided to use a room in my parents new house that they will soon be moving in to.

We learnt how to draw to scale using a special ruler with different scale sizes on each side. This part didn’t really get me excited until I started to draw and I realised it was easier than I anticipated. I quite enjoy maths so combining that with drawing a room was quite enjoyable. Next we made scale drawings of furniture on separate peieces of paper that we cut out allowing us to move them around the room. I didn’t realise the importance of this step until now and will be helping my parents to plan every room in their new home using this new skill.

Next we learnt about the colour wheel and how to put colours together. We were told all about shades, tones and hues and picked colours from the wheel to group together using different rules.

We were then served the most delicious lunch while we chatted and reflected on what we had learnt during the morning…

After lunch we touched upon lighting and it’s importance, again, another thing I hadn’t really given much thought in to, but after Lauren’s workshop, it will now be one of the first things I plan when designing a room. We also spoke about paint and how to use it to highlight or conceal areas of the room.

Next we designed our own mood boards. I had my parents new house in mind (which is an old station ticket office (cool huh?!)) but also chose what I was most drawn to. Lauren scattered hundreds of images across a table and asked us to collate a series of these images to create our moodboards. The images could be of anything (not necessarily interior related) but anything we liked. It could represent lifestyle, colour or texture. All of the images together should help guide you to what you want your finished room to look and feel like.

This was my moodboard…

The day was packed full of amazing tips and priceless knowledge from Lauren about designing a home.

If I knew what I know now when I said “when I grow up I want to be an interior designer” then I would have followed that path. However at 32 I’m still young and feel fortunate to have fallen in love with a hobby that will hopefully one day become my career.

If you are interested in attending Lauren’s next workshop in October please click here for more info.

Until next time

Hayley
*this is a sponsored post but all opinions and views are my own.