In this day and age, interior design has become a solid investment. Why?! Well not only is building, renovating or furnishing your home a considerable outlay from a financial standpoint, but it’s also an investment in your lifestyle; after all your home is your haven, especially during times like these!  

Most of us have seen the end product of an interior designer’s work at some stage, whether it be in a display home, magazine, Instagram or maybe a friend’s house! But, if you have never engaged a designer before, it’s good to know the different ways in which your designer can potentially communicate the design of your home to you! After all, each of us visualize things differently and, what works for one may not necessarily work for the next.  

By this point, if you have engaged a designer, they should have extensively talked to you about your budget, lifestyle, style, and overall renovation goals. The next step (and one of the most exciting!) is bringing all those elements together… welcome to the concept presentation. This presentation is truly one of the most important aspects of the design process, as it’s the first glimpse of your new space or home! As exciting as that is though, its important that your designer is able to present the new design to you in a format that makes resonates with YOU!

Generally, the two main ways of presenting a design is by using both tactile and / or visual mediums… lets take a deeper dive into these to see what might work for you;

Tactile Mediums

Images are a good way of indicating products but nothing sells a product better than seeing it in person, and speaking from experience images often just don’t do it justice! 

Materials/ selection boards provide you with a great visual and physical indication of materiality as they give you a true sense for how your finishes will look/ feel in person.  Particularly when explaining the quality of the fabric/ products selected, you really need to be able to touch and feel it to understand what exactly you’ll be getting. As designers we understand you are going to be living with these selections, so we want you to not only trust our decisions but know for yourself the reason behind every selection for the new space.  

Mood boards are often used by designers as a way to summarise how a space or home will feel and are often used to support a drawing or design. By using a combination of materials and supporting imagery, the mood board can evoke a sense or feeling that the designer wants to communicate in the design.  

Even in this day and age of3D renders and computer generated models, a physical models (whilst requires time and patience) is a beautiful and practical way of communicating a design. Having a three-dimensional reference of form and application of materials will really help you understand what the space will look like once it’s all complete. They are a great way to get a sense of volume and scale and explore a plan, elevation, and perspective all at the same time. 

Interior designers like to use Tactile mediums to give you a deeper understanding of how your materials and finishing’s work in your design. Materials and physical models also help answer any queries you may have such as gaining extra clarification that cannot always be captured in an image.

By Armadillo & Co

By Buywood Furniture

Visual Mediums

Depending on what you want to achieve and your design budget, in addition to the typical 2D floor plans and elevations, your Interior Designer can present different levels and types of renders from sketchy perspectives through to full photo realistic renders. Being able to visualise the design three-dimensionally is a must in understanding the form and overall design of the space and even as designers we find the ability to see a space three-dimensionally beneficial when designing. Even the finer details that come with every design are better communicated visually, whether it be a custom drawer front profile or unique ceiling detail. 

Photo realistic renders are also capable of placing the proposed materials in place and provide even further context to the design.  Another important element that we as designers can’t stress enough is scale! Combining the application of material and sense of scale to the design will really let the client’s be able to visualise themselves living and using the space

And why stop there?! Why not walk through your room or home before it’s constructed… Virtual Reality (VR) is taking over and allowing clients to appreciate all the aspects of the design – even those you don’t necessarily see! 

2D Floor Plan 

Sketchy Perspective

Realistic Render