Fri 24th April,
Manchester, U.K.
I’ve officially completed my first week of KLC Interior Design school! While I was planning on only studying 4 days per week, I’ve been enjoying it so much that I easily did a 5th day today. In fact, I think I’ll have to consciously try to stop myself from doing more study over the weekend. I’ve never been happier to study something, nor have I ever enjoyed studying so much!
The middle of the week was quite hard work in the end. I was so caught up in my studies that by the end of each day I was rushed from my ‘desk’ straight to the dinner table. Although considering my temporary desk is the dining table – that’s not so far. You can read about Day 0, Day 1 and Day 2 in my earlier journal posts. Let’s start with…
KLC Interior Design Day 3 – Technical Drawing
On Day 3 I started learning about Technical Drawing. Now, something to know about me is that one of my favourite ways to kill time is looking at houses for sale. I study their floor plans and completely remodel the house based on what would suit me best. (Am I the only one who does that for a hobby?!)
So when the unit started with an introduction to reading plans, I thought ‘easy! I’ve got this’. But I needed to learn so much more. There are tens – if not hundreds – of icons that are universally used by architects that I’ve never seen on a real estate plan. Then there are different types of plans – sketch plans, scaled plans and elevations. So learning the different nuances of these took up most of day 3. Then I got to start a rough sketch plan of my own.
KLC Interior Design Day 4 – Sketch Plans
On Day 4 of my first week at KLC Interior Design school I worked on a sketch plan for the entire day. Literally from morning to night. The instructions asked me to choose an easy, rectangular room. So I chose the formal dining room where I’ve been studying from. It has 4x walls, 1x window and 1x set of entry doors. Easy, right?
Well… two days of measuring, sketching, measuring, drawing, re-measuring, complaining and measuring once again, I finally managed to finish the sketch plans and elevations! Turns out the formal dining room has really ‘settled’ over the years. The walls are different lengths, measurements from the floor are different to measurements from the ceiling, and I haven’t done maths this intense since Year 12, 2004.
I also found windows and doors weirdly impossible to get my head around from a plan perspective. It took a lot of standing at the open window and staring down to work out what it looks like from a top-down angle. (I’m talking hours here, not minutes) All the neighbours walking past must have thought COVID isolation had officially broken me.
KLC Interior Design Day 5 – Colour Theory
Finally, on Day 5 – which I’m just finishing now – I studied Colour Theory. The science behind colour has completely blown my mind. Who knew that each colour has its own light wavelength which our eyes interpret in different ways?! (OK don’t answer that, I’m sure lots of you already knew) Learning about the history of colour and Newton’s theory brings an entirely new scientific element to a subject that I always bucketed under a ‘creative’ heading.
A look back at my first week
As Friday comes to a close, I’m sitting outside on the terrace with a well-earned rosé in hand, reflecting on what I’ve learnt so far. My husband has very rightly pointed out that in just a few days I’ve been sharing the history of design over the centuries, doing a crazy amount of maths, learning technical drawing and scaling, and now, explaining the science of colour.
While Interior Design might sound like quite a linear specialisation, it actually involves so many different skills.
It’s no wonder interior design can be interpreted in such a variety of ways. Every Interior Designer has different skills and strengths, which means they all bring something distinct to the table. Quite literally. After all, if we all thought and acted in the same way, how boring would life be?!
Next week I’m starting to learn CAD programs which I’m weirdly really excited about.
Or maybe it’s not so weird, given how excited I am about everything right now, ha. Actually, I should have started it today. But since it’s such a beautiful, sunny and hot day, I chose to do work that I could finish outside. Next week’s weather is a little more typical Manchester grey, so I’ll have less FOMO learning CAD from inside the house.
Until then, happy weekend!
Kamila