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It can be important to interior designers to acquire a deep experience with colors, understand their psychological effects, and understand the meaning of each color in different locations and situations in order to create suitable combinations for each place.
Combining colors together could result in creating a state of mind as seen by the observer, and could eventually result in positive or negative effects on them. Colors can make the room feel either more calm, cheerful, comfortable, stressful, or dramatic. Color combinations can make a tiny room seem larger or smaller. So it is for the Interior designer to choose appropriate colors for a place towards achieving how clients would want to look at, and feel in, that space.
In 2024, red-colored home accessories were popularized on social media and in several design magazines for claiming to enhance interior design. This was coined the Unexpected Red Theory.
Specialties
Residential
Residential design is the design of the interior of private residences. As this type of design is specific for individual situations, the needs and wants of the individual are paramount in this area of interior design. The interior designer may work on the project from the initial planning stage or may work on the remodeling of an existing structure. It is often a process that takes months to fine-tune and create a space with the vision of the client.
Commercial
Commercial design encompasses a wide range of subspecialties.
Retail: includes malls and shopping centers, department stores, specialty stores, visual merchandising, and showrooms.
Visual and spatial branding: The use of space as a medium to express a corporate brand.
Corporate: office design for any kind of business such as banks.
Healthcare: the design of hospitals, assisted living facilities, medical offices, dentist offices, psychiatric facilities, laboratories, medical specialist facilities.
Hospitality and recreation: includes hotels, motels, resorts, cruise ships, cafes, bars, casinos, nightclubs, theaters, music and concert halls, opera houses, sports venues, restaurants, gyms, health clubs and spas, etc.
Institutional: government offices, financial institutions (banks and credit unions), schools and universities, religious facilities, etc.
Industrial facilities: manufacturing and training facilities as well as import and export facilities.
Exhibition: includes museums, gallery, exhibition hall, specially the design for showroom and exhibition gallery.
Traffic building: includes bus station, subway station, airports, pier, etc.
Sports: includes gyms, stadiums, swimming rooms, basketball halls, etc.
Teaching in a private institute that offer classes of interior design.
Self-employment.
Employment in private sector firms.
Other
Other areas of specialization include amusement and theme park design, museum and exhibition design, exhibit design, event design (including ceremonies, weddings, baby and bridal showers, parties, conventions, and concerts), interior and prop styling, craft styling, food styling, product styling, tablescape design, theatre and performance design, stage and set design, scenic design, and production design for film and television. Beyond those, interior designers, particularly those with graduate education, can specialize in healthcare design, gerontological design, educational facility design, and other areas that require specialized knowledge. Some university programs offer graduate studies in theses and other areas. For example, both Cornell University and the University of Florida offer interior design graduate programs in environment and behavior studies.
Profession
Education
There are various paths that one can take to become a professional interior designer. All of these paths involve some form of training. Working with a successful professional designer is an informal method of training and has previously been the most common method of education. In many states, however, this path alone cannot lead to licensing as a professional interior designer. Training through an institution such as a college, art or design school or university is a more formal route to professional practice.
In many countries, several university degree courses are now available, including those on interior architecture, taking three or four years to complete.
A formal education program, particularly one accredited by or developed with a professional organization of interior designers, can provide training that meets a minimum standard of excellence and therefore gives a student an education of a high standard. There are also university graduate and Ph.D. programs available for those seeking further training in a specific design specialization (i.e. gerontological or healthcare design) or those wishing to teach interior design at the university level.
Working conditions
There are a wide range of working conditions and employment opportunities within interior design. Large and tiny corporations often hire interior designers as employees on regular working hours. Designers for smaller firms and online renovation platforms usually work on a contract or per-job basis. Self-employed designers, who made up 32% of interior designers in 2020, usually work the most hours. Interior designers often work under stress to meet deadlines, stay on budget, and meet clients' needs and wishes.
In some cases, licensed professionals review the work and sign it before submitting the design for approval by clients or construction permitting. The need for licensed review and signature varies by locality, relevant legislation, and scope of work. Their work can involve significant travel to visit different locations. However, with technology development, the process of contacting clients and communicating design alternatives has become easier and requires less travel.
Styles
Art Deco
The Art Deco style began in Europe in the early years of the 20th century, with the waning of Art Nouveau. The term "Art Deco" was taken from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes, a world's fair held in Paris in 1925. Art Deco rejected many traditional classical influences in favour of more streamlined geometric forms and metallic color. The Art Deco style influenced all areas of design, especially interior design, because it was the first style of interior decoration to spotlight new technologies and materials.
Art Deco style is mainly based on geometric shapes, streamlining, and clean lines. The style offered a sharp, cool look of mechanized living utterly at odds with anything that came before.
Art Deco rejected traditional materials of decoration and interior design, opting instead to use more unusual materials such as chrome, glass, stainless steel, shiny fabrics, mirrors, aluminium, lacquer, inlaid wood, sharkskin, and zebra skin. The use of harder, metallic materials was chosen to celebrate the machine age. These materials reflected the dawning modern age that was ushered in after the end of the First World War. The innovative combinations of these materials created contrasts that were very popular at the time – for example the mixing together of highly polished wood and black lacquer with satin and furs. The barber shop in the Austin Reed store in London was designed by P. J. Westwood. It was soon regarded as the trendiest barber shop in Britain due to its use of metallic materials.
The color themes of Art Deco consisted of metallic color, neutral color, bright color, and black and white. In interior design, cool metallic colors including silver, gold, metallic blue, charcoal grey, and platinum tended to predominate. Serge Chermayeff, a Russian-born British designer made extensive use of cool metallic colors and luxurious surfaces in his room schemes. His 1930 showroom design for a British dressmaking firm had a silver-grey background and black mirrored-glass wall panels.
Black and white was also a very popular color scheme during the 1920s and 1930s. Black and white checkerboard tiles, floors and wallpapers were very trendy at the time. As the style developed, bright vibrant colors became popular as well.
Art Deco furnishings and lighting fixtures had a glossy, luxurious appearance with the use of inlaid wood and reflective finishes. The furniture pieces often had curved edges, geometric shapes, and clean lines. Art Deco lighting fixtures tended to make use of stacked geometric patterns.
Modern art
Modern design grew out of the decorative arts, mostly from the Art Deco, in the early 20th century. One of the first to introduce this modernist style was Frank Lloyd Wright, who had not become hugely popularized until completing the house called Fallingwater in the 1930s. Modern art reached its peak during the 1950s and '60s, which is why designers and decorators today may refer to modern design as being "mid-century". Modern art does not refer to the era or age of design and is not the same as contemporary design, a term used by interior designers for a shifting group of recent styles and trends.
Arab materials
"Majlis painting", also called nagash painting, is the decoration of the majlis, or front parlor of traditional Arabic homes, in the Asir province of Saudi Arabia and adjoining parts of Yemen. These wall paintings, an arabesque form of mural or fresco, show various geometric designs in bright colors: "Called 'nagash' in Arabic, the wall paintings were a mark of pride for a woman in her house."
The geometric designs and heavy lines seem to be adapted from the area's textile and weaving patterns. "In contrast with the sobriety of architecture and decoration in the rest of Arabia, exuberant color and ornamentation characterize those of Asir. The painting extends into the house over the walls and doors, up the staircases, and onto the furniture itself. When a house is being painted, women from the community help each other finish the job. The building then displays their shared taste and knowledge. Mothers pass these on to their daughters. This artwork is based on a geometry of straight lines and suggests the patterns common to textile weaving, with solid bands of different colors. Certain motifs reappear, such as the triangular mihrab or 'niche' and the palmette. In the past, paint was produced from mineral and vegetable pigments. Cloves and alfalfa yielded green. Blue came from the indigo plant. Red came from pomegranates and a certain mud. Paintbrushes were created from the tough hair found in a goat's tail. Today, however, women use modern manufactured paint to create new looks, which have become an indicator of social and economic change."
Women in the Asir province often complete the decoration and painting of the house interior. "You could tell a family's wealth by the paintings," Um Abdullah says: "If they didn't have much money, the wife could only paint the motholath, the basic straight, simple lines, in patterns of three to six repetitions in red, green, yellow and brown." When women did not want to paint the walls themselves, they could barter with other women who would do the work. Several Saudi women have become famous as majlis painters, such as Fatima Abou Gahas.
The interior walls of the home are brightly painted by the women, who work in defined patterns with lines, triangles, squares, diagonals and tree-like patterns. "Some of the large triangles represent mountains. Zigzag lines stand for water and also for lightning. Small triangles, especially when the widest area is at the top, are found in pre-Islamic representations of female figures. That the small triangles found in the wall paintings in 'Asir are called banat may be a cultural remnant of a long-forgotten past."
"Courtyards and upper pillared porticoes are principal features of the best Nadjdi architecture, in addition to the fine incised plaster wood (jiss) and painted window shutters, which decorate the reception rooms. Good examples of plasterwork can often be seen in the gaping ruins of torn-down buildings- the effect is light, delicate and airy. It is usually around the majlis, around the coffee hearth and along the walls above where guests sat on rugs, against cushions. Doughty wondered if this "parquetting of jis", this "gypsum fretwork... all adorning and unenclosed" originated from India. However, the Najd fretwork seems very different from that seen in the Eastern Province and Oman, which are linked to Indian traditions, and rather resembles the motifs and patterns found in ancient Mesopotamia. The rosette, the star, the triangle and the stepped pinnacle pattern of dadoes are all ancient patterns, and can be found all over the Middle East of antiquity. Al-Qassim Province seems to be the home of this art, and there it is normally worked in hard white plaster (though what you see is usually begrimed by the smoke of the coffee hearth). In Riyadh, examples can be seen in unadorned clay.
Media popularization
Interior design has become the subject of television shows. In the United Kingdom, popular interior design and decorating programs include 60 Minute Makeover (ITV), Changing Rooms (BBC), and Selling Houses (Channel 4). Famous interior designers whose work is featured in these programs include Linda Barker and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. In the United States, the TLC Network aired a popular program called Trading Spaces, a show based on the UK program Changing Rooms. In addition, both HGTV and the DIY Network also televise many programs about interior design and decorating, featuring the works of a variety of interior designers, decorators, and home improvement experts in a myriad of projects.
Fictional interior decorators include the Sugarbaker sisters on Designing Women and Grace Adler on Will & Grace. There is also another show called Home MADE. There are two teams and two houses and whoever has the designed and made the worst room, according to the judges, is eliminated. Another show on the Style Network, hosted by Niecy Nash, is Clean House where they re-do messy homes into themed rooms that the clients would like. Other shows include Design on a Dime, Designed to Sell, and The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price. The show called Design Star has become more popular through the five seasons that have already aired. The winners of this show end up getting their own TV shows, of which are Color Splash hosted by David Bromstad, Myles of Style hosted by Kim Myles, Paint-Over! hosted by Jennifer Bertrand, The Antonio Treatment hosted by Antonio Ballatore, and finally Secrets from a Stylist hosted by Emily Henderson. Bravo also has a variety of shows that explore the lives of interior designers. These include Flipping Out, which explores the life of Jeff Lewis and his team of designers; Million Dollar Decorators explores the lives of interior designers Nathan Turner, Jeffrey Alan Marks, Mary McDonald, Kathryn Ireland, and Martyn Lawrence Bullard.
Interior design has also become the subject of radio shows. In the U.S., popular interior design & lifestyle shows include Martha Stewart Living and Living Large featuring Karen Mills. Famous interior designers whose work is featured on these programs include Bunny Williams, Barbara Barry, and Kathy Ireland, among others.
Many interior design magazines exist to offer advice regarding color palette, furniture, art, and other elements that fall under the umbrella of interior design. These magazine often focus on related subjects to draw a more specific audience. For instance, architecture as a primary aspect of Dwell, while Veranda is well known as a luxury living magazine. Lonny Magazine and the newly relaunched, Domino Magazine, cater to a young, hip, metropolitan audience, and emphasize accessibility and a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach to interior design.
Gallery
Notable interior decorators
Other early interior decorators:
Sibyl Colefax
Dorothy Draper
Pierre François Léonard Fontaine
Syrie Maugham
Margery Hoffman Smith
Elsie de Wolfe
Arthur Stannard Vernay
Frank Lloyd Wright
Many of the most famous designers and decorators during the 20th century had no formal training. Some examples include Sister Parish, Robert Denning and Vincent Fourcade, Kerry Joyce, Kelly Wearstler, Stéphane Boudin, Georges Geffroy, Emilio Terry, Carlos de Beistegui, Nina Petronzio, Lorenzo Mongiardino, Mary Jean Thompson and David Nightingale Hicks.
Notable interior designers in the world today include Scott Salvator, Troy Adams, Jonathan Adler, Michael S. Smith, Martin Brudnizki, Mary Douglas Drysdale, Kelly Hoppen, Kelly Wearstler, Nina Campbell, David Collins, Nate Berkus, Sandra Espinet, Jo Hamilton and Nicky Haslam.
See also
1960s decor
American Society of Interior Designers
Blueprint
British Institute of Interior Design
Chartered Society of Designers
Environmental psychology
Experiential interior design
Fuzzy architectural spatial analysis
Interior architecture
Interior design psychology
Interior design regulation in the United States
Japanese interior design
Primitive decorating
Wall decals
Window treatment
References
External links
Candace Wheeler: The Art and Enterprise of American Design, 1875–1900, a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which includes a great deal of content about early interior design
Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works, landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. Sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions, and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects.