Have you ever found yourself wondering just exactly what do interior designers do on the day to day?
How do they do it? What’s the process? And just how do they come up with the weird and wonderful ideas!? Fancy a peak behind those office doors and beyond…?
Let us delve you deep into the colourful, weekly agenda of the team here at JMDA, filled with so much more than fabulously fluffing up of cushions (There really is style in everything we do). From creative brainstorms to hard hats and high fashion high vis jackets, inspiring mood boards to doggy day care- welcome to a week in our steel toe caps and slip on mules (depending on the day of the week)!
Moodboard Monday
Monday blues are a thing of the past – unless of course you’re inspired by a dark, midnight bar front or frosty crackled leathers.
Communication and a strong team ethic is paramount to us at JMDA. So after a quick Starbucks run *other brands are available* it’s down for a team brief with project updates, personal schedules, and of course some tales from the weekend warriors. Next up we share any findings that have inspired us over the past week- blog posts, websites, latest openings and suppliers- you name it and we can draw inspiration from it! Fuelled on coffee, conversation and creative input we are ready for the week ahead!
Down to the nitty gritty
Moody Mondays mean one thing- Mood Boards.
Mood boards are crucial in interior design with communicating concepts, detailed design elements and pulling together a scheme in which the client can visualize the breath-taking end transformation.
Taking inspiration from recent colour trends to individual building history, they propel the concept into the next stage of design and are crucial to every scheme. A task that is always enjoyed and delivered with style.
Tuesday Trips and Travels
Whether it is a briefing meeting, site visit or handover, visiting a space for yourself allows for great immersing of the workings and understanding how the space functions and how it makes us feel.
Site visits allow for us to capture the transform week by week and are crucial in bringing the ideas to life.
It’s not always the glamorous lifestyle you might imagine, with a hard hat, high vis and steel toe capped boots secured in the boot of company cars we regularly find ourselves overseeing construction work on site. With the colder months approaching it can sometimes seem daunting stepping out on a frosty morning; but don’t be fooled, we love pulling on our jackets and donning the hard hat for a day of problem solving, dimension setting out and discussing the vision with the contractors. Top tip- thick socks, heated gloves and lip balm- it’s a life saver!
Watching beautifully designed wine walls begin to fill dead space, dazzling bar designs lighting up a once dark and tired entrance and dropping rich, inviting furniture into a room is one of the most exciting parts of the job.
Wallpaper Wednesdays
Despite the title, if the specification stage only involved choosing wallpaper our job would be a walk in the park. However, when the time comes to provide specification for all the elements of FF&E – our sample library is our treasure trove. Every floor tile, timber plank, bar front, bar top, wallpaper, light fitting, ceiling render, external structure, window colour and carpet thread is carefully chosen to compliment, and quite often contrast to the other.
The floor becomes our sample wardrobe as we pull together bold colours, textures and fanciful combinations of materials.
But again, it’s not all about the look and feel, there’s a lot to consider here- slip rating for flooring, durability of wallcoverings and suitability of fabrics in different areas. A wonderful ‘floordrobe’ with a multitude of dimensions.
Thursday Technicalities
Whilst creating unique concepts, finding fancy fittings and floors is great for the creative mind. Every design, joinery element and the plan is drawn in precise accuracy. Thought turns to how things will be constructed, shaped, scaled, fit and finished is decided and detailed. Initial sketches are worked up by hand, tweaking curves, planning out elevations and detailing fixings, this is then added to CAD to work up construction drawings for the Contractor. The smallest of details to laying out an entire site plan, nothing is missed. It is this part of the design process that glues a scheme together.
Fur and Fabric Fridays
At the end of a busy but rewarding week, it is time to tie up any loose thread ends and finish off any pending tasks. One exciting thing to any designer is spotting a new product design such as tiles, floor finishes and fabrics. So, we welcome suppliers in through our doors to show us any new and unique products they may have that we can incorporate into our work.
One new member of the team is Belle – Rebecca’s new springer spaniel! Not only does Belle bring oodles of energy to the office, she’s also pretty good at stealing shoes.
This being said, no week is ever really the same, being on the ball and ready for action is something that is needed for a wonder filled week at JMDA x