Interior Design

Working with a Designer: Part Three – Interview with Topology

April 21, 2020 by barxonomy Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, the first time you thought about coming up with ideas for your home or working with a designer, you were a little overwhelmed with where to start, what you should know or ask, or what anything even meant. To help de-mystify the design process a little bit, we’ve gone through Knowing What You Want and Finding Inspiration, and now we’re going to hear from an actual designer about the process of working with a designer. I chatted with Athina Bluff from Topology (over Zoom, as everything has to be these days!) and here are some helpful nuggets from her experience.

What do you love about being a designer?

It has to be that moment where you walk into a space and see your ideas come to life, and see the client is really happy, and it’s such an adrenaline rush. I also love the moment of having a space photographed and seeing how far you’ve come – especially if it’s been a long project.

What do your favourite projects have in common?

It really helps when we have a nice client that is relaxed and willing to sign off and go with my ideas. When I’m not able to present designs as strongly because the client is less receptive to ideas, or they don’t want listen to my suggestions, often those are the projects you look back on and they don’t look anything like you’d hoped. Also when there’s a blank canvas it’s a lot easier – often when people already have furniture it can be hard for clients to change or part with what they have and it can make it trickier.

What is the biggest benefit an interior designer can provide?

Better wellbeing! If you can make your space brighter, feel bigger, work better for you and your family – naturally it will help you be in a better mood. There is so much scientific research showing that you are happier with yourself if you live in a beautiful space. Especially now when we’re spending so much time indoors, if that space is cramped and dingy it is going to give you a lacklustre mood. Our home has a huge impact on our mental health. Even something like a lack of light – you may not be aware that your window treatment is allowing less light in the room, but it’s going to have a subconscious effect and make you feel low and depressed. An interior designer knows how to adjust the room, the light, the furniture, the overall design to help with those subconscious things.

What should a client do before meeting with a designer?

The best thing you can do is take the time to write a short brief of what you want to achieve, and how you want to feel in the space – and also take note of how the space is used. Maybe you have kids or pets or existing furniture or other constraints, it’s important to monitor how the space is used and what’s going to be practical for you and your family. Be realistic with how you live and what space is available and create a thoughtful brief to talk through with your designer.

What is your ideal client like?

My ideal client has a reasonable budget, is generally a lovely person and receptive to ideas, and also someone whose style is maybe different to mine, and will test my creative flair. I am personally drawn to beige and neutral tones for my own home so I love it when I’m working with a client that likes colours because it unlocks my creativity!

Topology is an award winning interiors blog & online interior design service, based around affordability. You can find them on Instagram and Twitter, and they’re currently offering online interior design services if you’re itching to get started on your home re-design while in lockdown!

Topology Interiors
photo by Toby Mitchell

You can’t scale creativity…can you?

April 9, 2020 by barxonomy Leave a Comment

Just a few months ago, money was flying everywhere in the interior design space. Technology was promising to give everyone a perfectly instagrammable home – you can design it, see it, and buy it in just a few clicks. Livspace in India gives a menu of room styles that they make happen in reality for you, and has investment from IKEA. Modsy designers in the US quickly mock up a room that links to every product in striking VR so you can plug in the items to your space without needing any imagination, but they seem to be reaching the limits of their streamlined model. Houzz seems to always be seeking that perfect link of visualisation to product purchase, the latest iteration being producing their own line of furniture, which has now been abandoned.

My background is in music, and I feel like interior design is going through a similar experimentation to composition when synthesisers and composition software arrived on the scene. Computers can write music! Just as well as humans!

And yes – computers can write music. AI can create a room based on a set of rules that looks roughly like a professionally designed room. But in neither case will you end up with something that resonates with the truly human part of us, something memorable and special. And isn’t the whole point of spending time and money re-designing your home so that you have something that is special? Something uniquely for you, your family, your life?

Technology is supposed to make life easier, to make things more accessible to more people – and it absolutely should do the same for home improvement. Make it easier for people to create a space that they love. But the line, for me, is somewhere before the technology is doing the actual design.

That’s the motivation behind Barxonomy – provide the tools and the education to help people along the journey to creating their ideal home. Make it easier, faster, less stressful, more empowering. But still let a human come up with the creative magic to make it truly personal and worth celebrating.

How to Work with a Designer: Part Two – Finding Inspiration

April 8, 2020 by barxonomy Leave a Comment

Even when you’re hiring a designer, the best ideas need inspiration, and it can be helpful to get things off to a good start by bringing to the design colours, pictures, trinkets, or even items of furniture that you love. Whether it comes from incredible architecture or even a small souvenir, new ideas often come from what we already have. But coming up with your ‘interior design muse’ can be difficult.

I found myself in this situation while trying to settle on a new look for my lounge. I had no idea where to start – I needed inspiration! My designer suggested that I look at art collections and take “tours” on Houzz, but neither of these stimulated or inspired me. Finally, out of desperation, I wandered up into the attic and an old needlepoint rocker lured me closer. I had inherited this antique from my great aunt many years before, but it never quite felt at home in my traditional setting. I was captivated by its design and colours like never before and I knew I had found my inspiration.
Carol
Raleigh, NC

For me, inspiration came from an old piece of art that was a sculpture made of metal with a heavy patina, which has striking streaks of purple through it. I made the bold call to paint the living room in purple and use brass/gold throughout the decor, all based on this initial germination of an idea.

Perhaps a surprise is waiting for you in an art store or museum, a friend’s home or even hidden in another room of your own place. It might be sitting on the kitchen counter or hanging from your ceiling, but finding that inspiration will motivate the project or design into being!

Working with a Designer: Part Three – Interview with Topology

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You can’t scale creativity…can you?

How to Work with a Designer: Part Two – Finding Inspiration

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