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Day 1 Reflection
My first day at my internship was good! I started learning about the different software platforms and companies that Bohéme design collaborates with. We looked at a large interior design project that they are working on right now, and I worked on inventory and mood boards for that project.
End of week 1 reflection:
This week has been good! This week I was working in Durango with Bohéme design house. They are a relatively new company, and pretty small still, so they don’t have an abundance of projects that they are working on right now. To start the week off, I shadowed my mentors, Duna and Elsa, as they reviewed spec sheets. They were looking at dimensions, finishes, and furniture for a number of rooms in their largest project, The Jack Rabbit House.
After I got a good look into what they were focusing on, I went and reviewed an order sheet for tile within the home. I checked the cost and square footage they had recorded and cross referenced that with the final orders that were being placed with The Gallery flooring and design studio. This task posed some challenges to me because there were so many numbers on each sheet that I wasn’t entirely sure which numbers on Bohéme’s sheet matched up with the numbers on The Gallery's sheet. I asked my mentor Elsa to help me clarify, and after some time I spent comparing each sheet, I was able to figure out which numbers correspond with each other.
After this I spent some time on Canva, I was making mood boards for kids bedrooms. I started by using products that the client had picked out and put in a pinterest board, and I uploaded them into a canva presentation, removed backgrounds, and laid them out in a way that resembled a bedroom. I spent a few hours creating different variations on the room using a variety of furniture, art, and textiles to create an aesthetically pleasing room design. These mood boards can be used to help a client visualize how a room will look when finished, and help them recognise what they will like and what they want to change.
Finally I explored a software called Planner5D, this website allows people to place floor plants into the software, and it will create a 3d floor plan that can be edited. I was trying to use it to help create a rendering for a client that needed an outdoor patio, an open kitchen, and a set of built-in bookshelves along one of the walls. This software had a really hard time interpreting the floorplan, so I ended up spending a lot of time tweaking the design and trying to fix the dimensions. After a day of working with this website, and not having much luck creating a helpful rendering, I choose to scrap the idea. Instead we choose to explore a different kind of rendering using chat GPT.
This week was extremely informative. I learned a lot about how different technologies are used to aid in interior design, and I learned a lot about how to utilize my resources to quickly make mood boards and renderings for clients. I look forward to learning more about the different resources that designers use in their work, and I hope to use a lot of this technology to help me create my final project which will be a collection of mood boards and renderings for different rooms that Bohéme is designing as well as a design for a bathroom in my house.
End of Week 2 Reflection
This week was great! I traveled to Austin to shadow an interior designer that works in residential spaces within the Austin area as well as other locations in Texas. Rather that working on projects this week, I mostly shadowed all the work that my mentor Rebekka Glass was completing. On my first day, we visited a mansion on the Austin lake and Rebekka worked with art handlers to hang some large pieces of art as well as a collage wall. After this we worked on some AI renderings for her house, specifically for a tile backsplash she wants in her kitchen. After this, we visited another project site where someone was laying handmade tile onto a fireplace. Most tile comes perfectly spaced on a sheet, and it just has to be laid down, but this tile needed to be individually placed and lined up, and because it was handmade, it has some irregularities, so Rebekka had to correct errors, and the man who was laying the tile had to redo some of the rows of tile he had placed to make it perfect. Something that I became very aware of is that within the design world, clients will tend to have a lot of money, and if they are paying someone to create a beautiful space within their home, they will expect it to be perfect, and the designer has to do whatever it takes to make the project perfect.
On my second day, we worked at my meteor’s house and I explored some more uses for AI in interior design. After this, Rebekka had to drop off some finishing touches on a project she completed in downtown Austin called Austin Propper. These apartments are attached to a hotel designed by a famous interior designer, Kelly Wearstler. I got to see what one of her projects looks like completely finished. Rebekka designed a lot of custom furniture, and had wall texture handmade to create the feel she wanted within the home. After this, we went back to the house with the tile fireplace, and Rebekka checked the progress that had been made. The handyman who was commissioned to complete this project was not an experienced enough tile worker to understand the nuances of the project, so it required a lot of oversight from Rebekka to keep it on track. Finally we went to pick up dried flowers for the Austin Proper residence. Another thing that was interesting to learn is that as an interior designer, Rebekka will recognise something that will tie a space together, and even if she has already spent ample time working on that space, she will do whatever it takes to make the space perfect to her standards. This amount of attention to detail is really intriguing to me because most aspects of our world seem like they rush past everything without looking at each detail, and that is very much not the case with design.
On wednesday we visited a wedding venue called Prospect House. We were evaluating some chandeliers that the client had purchased. Rebekka helped the client confirm that the chandeliers looked good in the space, but that the middle chandelier needed to be two times larger to fit the room best. So now the client and Rebekka will work on having a custom chandelier built through a lighting designer. After this we met with an assistant designer of Rebekkas and they discussed new possible clients and some big presentations they had coming up. After this, we returned to the house on Austin Lake, and met with a builder who will be designing a custom bed and bookshelf for the client. Finally we met with some new tile workers. Rebekka had to pull the original handy man because the fireplace was too complicated for him to successfully complete, and the client needs to have the final product be worth the price. I learned throughout the week that it seems like Rebekka spends a lot of her time managing people, and putting out fires. She acts as the overseer for the entire design project, but she isn’t the one actually installing most of the aspects of the project.
On my final two days, we had a lighting meeting at a clients house. The client is designing a second kitchen, guest bedrooms, a gym, bathrooms, and a game room on the bottom story of their house. Rebekka collected images and prices for each room and presented her ideas to the client, then the client approved or rejected the ideas. Then we went back to Rebekka’s house and worked on creating pinterest boards for a project Rebekka is just starting. We pulled images for each room in the house and found some specific products as well, then on friday rebekka presented these ideas to her client. Finally, I visited a commercial design firm that works on spaces for companies. I was able to see what projects look like from start to finish. From the concepts, the rederings, the drawing, and the mood boards all the way to the final photoshoots when the spaces are fully completed. I discovered from that meeting that if I chose to go into design, I will not want to go into commercial design because it is far less artistic. It isn;t as focused on each small detail being perfect because the spaces are larger and less unique, rather they design offices or cafes and to me this seems less beautiful.
Overall throughout this week, I learned that interior design is a job where one has to jump between a lot of different projects, and be very flexible. It is the designers job to cater to the clients needs even when they disagree, and they have to be able to adjust their plans quickly when things aren’t going to plan. Rebekka works on a variety of projects all in different stages of completion, and she has to be prepared to fix any issue or consult with any client on a moment's notice. I think that if I were to go into design I would have to learn to be very flexible with how my days go and not get too attached to anything because things seem to change so fast.
Last Day Reflection
After three weeks of work in interior design I feel like I have a much better grasp on what goes into designing a home and what types of interior design appeal to me. I have learned many new ways to digitally design spaces, and I have also begun to understand different styles of design and their uses within spaces.
Final Reflection
When I began my LINK internship, I knew I was interested in design, but I didn't really know what a career in Interior Design would entail. While working both in Austin and in Durango, the skills that I used most often were my communication, organizational, and artistic skills. When trying to create renderings and mood boards, it was extremely important for me to be able to communicate with my mentors to clarify questions, to stay organized, and most importantly, I had to be able to use my artistic eye to decide what furniture, colors, and other aspects of spaces I wanted to see in a room. Not only were these skills important for me to have going into my internship, but they were also skills that I worked on a lot over hte three weeks of my internship. I had to advocate for myself a lot to make sure that I was understanding and learning as much as possible with my mentors, and I had to work on honing in my artistic eye so that I could understand what makes a space beautiful. Overall, I learned a lot over link, and I feel like I know so much more about what a career in interior design would look like.
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