Personal Statement

A yellow poppy stands for success and happiness, that is what I intend to have.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Gregory Residence Remodel

This residence design was created for a three person family that needed wheelchair access to all parts of the house, as well as attention to sustainable materials in their remodel. Created for the Tempe Arizona environment, natural light was taken into account and used to the advantage to reduce energy costs as well as make the home more open and visually connected to the outside. I found this design to be harder than expected because of the ADA requirements, a wheelchair is not an easy thing to accommodate into a house with limited square footage. Speaking of limited square footage, the family also required an Accessory Dwelling Unit for their elderly parents to live in, which had to be 20% of the main residence’s square footage and made from sustainable material, I chose rammed earth. Dwell magazine and spaces that had multiple uses came in very handy in creating this space. Overall I am very happy with how this turned out, I used the incident that put the mother of the family in a wheelchair as inspiration, titling my design “Intersections” because her accident definitely intersected their intended path in life, yet they continued to move forward and grow stronger as a family. My design is all out contrasting ideas, colors and lines, carried out in an environmentally friendly and aesthetically friendly manner. I am quite happy with how it all turned out, it is amazing what you can accomplish in such a short amount of time!
Final Boards:
Space Model:




Concept Model:


Inspirational Object:

Monday, October 5, 2009

Tranquil Simplicity- Bathroom Design

My inspiration behind this bathroom design was the Ash Leaf Maple’s leaves. I loved the color in the leaves as well as the repetition of geometric shapes that tiered down. I was very pleased with how this ended up because I had problems along the way as far as generating ideas and working to tie in the leaf with the final design. I have always been the type of person who enjoys the flowery, more colorful side to nature, and the leaf and tree is very earthy colored and straight edged, more of a masculine connotation, where as flowers and loose, lots of curves and very feminine. Over all I think I was able to include leaf references, yet still create a bathroom that had feminine qualities, like the slab of glass counters that I used. They are pale yellow and smooth, very contrasting from the slate tiling on the floors and shower. I also had problems creating a space that was visitor friendly according to the NKBA guidelines. Fitting in all the necessities of the bathroom and then leaving space for a wheel chair proved harder than I thought, however I think that I blended the open space nicely so that ADA accessibility did not become the focus of the bathroom. Overall I feel as though I learned a lot from this design and there are many things I will take with me when it comes time to do another!

Concept Model
Model for light studies



Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Child's Room

The Complete Design:

Concept Model:

Space Model:

I absolutely loved putting together this room design! The fact that it was for two twin girls that were 6 years of age made it really fun to use Thumbelina by Hans Christian Anderson as my inspiration and then take from that the aspects that I believed would be a good fit for the parents criteria for their prospective room, as well as things that the girls would be able to grow old with, yet still appreciate as young ladies.
I learned a lot about the space that is required by certain things, such as an entertainment center (something that caused some preliminary problems because of the rooms long and narrow space).
In the end I decided to divide up the room into 3 main areas: sleeping, play/entertainment/ and work. Their sleeping area is sectioned off partially by a half wall that extends from the North wall of the room, and is further concealed by sheer curtains that give the space a separation without being too intrusive. The play and entertainment area is very spacious and includes plenty of room for books, games, and a closed off TV (after all this is a Thumbelina inspired room, TVs do not necessarily go with the natural theme). Then to fit the last criteria, on the East wall there is closet space, room enough for hanging and folded clothes, and also a large shared work space the looks out a window for the girls to bathe in natural light as they let their minds wonder into homework land when the start school in the fall.
As far as the visual aspects included in the room I drew from the very natural and delicate undertones of the book. The colors are tranquil and soft, yet are contrasted by the tall vertical lines of the closets and curtains. All of the built-ins in the room are walnut stained wood to add richness and character to the delicacy of the other materials in the room. The fabric chosen is very gauzy and drapes lightly, just as the flower petals that fill every page of Thumbelina would do if they hung from their stems.
Overall I am very happy with how this design turned out. It fulfils all of the criteria and takes Thumbelina to a non-themed yet apparent level. I believe the girls would love to spend time in this room, I sure would!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Kitchen Design


This kitchen remodel was done for my sororities house mom, Patty. She desired an open space that could entertain around 4 guests, and cooking area for a family of two that did not spend much time preparing food.
Through this remodel I had to put into consideration the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) guidelines and create a space for Patty and her husband that was not only functional but also inspired by copper pots that were given to her as a gift. It took a lot more time than I expected to find a fitting floor plan that not only fit the guidelines, but also allowed enough space for Patty, her husband, and their dog to be in the kitchen at once. I realize after review however that not all guidelines were met, leaving room for improvement in the next remodel, or kitchen design that I do.
It think I did well on choosing colors based around her the inspiration, as well as borrowing the same lines that made up the copper pots. A very natural feel, something that seems to follow me in most of my designs, is prevalent in everything in this kitchen. There are large open windows that offer a plentiful amount of natural light, as well as an open atmosphere that lets the kitchen be incorporated in surrounding areas like the family room and formal dining area.


Concept Model:

Space Model:


Friday, September 4, 2009

Kitchen Study

As my first real evaluation of a kitchen as a design student I found this project to be somewhat challenging but also full of new things that I had never thought of before! Never before had I heard of a work triangle and all of the things that went into the function of it. As a group we worked together to make a meal in an ADA apartment kitchen, analyzing the good and bad aspects of a kitchen. I knew that some kitchens made more sense than others but this was especially interesting with the NKBA guidelines in mind. I feel like as a first look I learned a lot from this and I look forward to getting to know more!

Monday, July 27, 2009

Room Project- final posters



Note: Dissimilar to the onscreen image, both of these posters have the same color scheme.

As a final compilation of the Room Project, I am very pleased with the outcome of this entirety. The colors were chosen to follow Horta’s love for bold and natural colors, and the layout has a common theme of overlapping which is something frequently found in nature. I used a 24”x27” board and employed a combination of free hand and computer aided graphics and lettering. There is a grid to the board yet some things intertwine with others and move outside the boundaries. This was intentional because nothing in nature is bound to a 24”x 27” box, and I did not want anything on my posters to be completely uniform. I had a lot of fun putting all of this together as it had more of a creative edge, something I always look forward to. Cutting out the letters in the titles was a bit tedious yet I feel I pulled it off without any major mistakes. I took what I have learned through all of the process work as well as through readings and put it together in 2 posters and I am very satisfied with the end result.

RP- research poster

As one the first poster that I made while in Interior Design I am only relatively happy with how this turned out. The layout of the poster I was really excited about because I felt that it incorporated the curves and geometric shapes that Victor Horta often worked with. I was dissatisfied with the colors as they were far different that I envisioned them in the preliminary sketches. The yellow too pale, and the red-orange not exactly as I had hoped, along with the stark white contrast did not convey the message that I had originally hoped for. Although not executes as I had wished, this was a learning process and it made me realize what NOT to do on the upcoming posters and drawings centered around Victor Horta’s work.