What Is Interior Designing?

Interior design is a term that is thrown around often when building a new space or just filling up a pre-existing one. But, what is interior designing? Interior designing incorporates a little bit from a lot of disciplines, including building codes, floor plans and color matching. So, to begin, let’s define interior designing.

Interior design is the field of arranging and designing both the interiors and/or exteriors of an area. This can include something as obvious as a kitchen or even something less obvious as closets, doors, walls and home lighting. Adding furniture that both enhance the space and provide comfort is also a part of interior designing. Even exterior areas like a deck or patio can incorporate interior design techniques to make them both aesthetically pleasing and functional. The design also has to follow building codes and regulatory requirements.

Interior designing means that a professional not only designs for the space and the visual appeal, but also for the people who will be using it. It needs to incorporate both form and function. The design should improve the quality of life and health of the people working there, and the design should also be safe. For example, you wouldn’t want to design a museum that has a lot of sharp corners since it would increase the chance of someone running into a wall.

 

Interior designing usually incorporates many things that you would find in standard project management plans, including the following:

· Research and analysis

· Budget

· Schedules

· Plans (floor plans, design plans, CAD planning, etc)

· Color, materials (lighting, fixtures, flooring, etc) and furniture selection

· Client meetings

· Laying out of the space

· Construction documents (building codes, fire codes, safety codes, occupancy requirements, etc.)

· Construction needs (load-bearing walls, non-seismic walls, etc.)

· Contracts with client and other contractors

· Evaluation before, during and after the process

Usually, the work of interior design is performed by an interior design professional. Many specialize in a certain field since they have to be extremely familiar for what they are designing. An example of this would be someone who strictly designs restaurants. They would know about kitchen layout, restaurant flow, comfort zones and many other aspects of restaurants.

Most interior designers are contractors and will work on a project basis. This is especially true if a client is a small business. Larger firms may keep interior designers on staff, especially if they open locations frequently. For example, a grocery chain needs to keep a consistent look and feel so that they’re customers will recognize the brand no matter what city or state that they are in. It would be more feasible, and most likely cheaper, for the company to keep their designers on hand and ready for the next store opening.

 

An area where interior designers can focus is sustainable building design. This means that the building follows all the tenants of interior design, but is also sustainably made by reducing waste and environmental impact. This can be done in new buildings, but also older buildings can be revamped to incorporate new environmental design standards.

To learn more about interior design terms, read Interior Design Glossary of Terms.