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Interior Design
a passion side project
Preface
I believe that design thinking can be applied in any situation to improve its existing condition. Understanding and empathizing with user's stories, identifying pain points, ideating ways to solve pain points, build a prototype to visualize an idea, and test the viability of it.
Over the past 4 years, I have applied this concept when I took on home improvement projects for my family. I prioritized my family's needs while maximizing the small space we had and enhancing the aesthetics. My goal was to transform our home so that every morning my family would walk into the living room and feel inspired, at peace, and for my grandmother to feel comfortable and happy.
Part 1 - Living Room Edition
The Before
My parents know they made questionable choices when moving into the house. They chose yellow and purple walls for the living room and kitchen, pale green for the bedrooms, all of which are the hardest colors to paint over. The sunlight coming in would reflect the yellow walls and give a yellow tint to the entire room. Our black leather sofas could clearly be identified as an early 2000s piece and as much as I embrace my parent's quirks, I'm not sure why they chose bright green and orange barstools. The geometry of the door height to the hanging sailboat to the fish tank was a bit messy. Needless to say, the interior did not do justice to our lakehouse that I love living in.
Here is what our house looked like in 2005, when we first moved in.
My Process
1
Understand family needs, wants, and priorities. Achieved through verbal communication, showing pictures, and getting ratings or comments of likes and dislikes. How can I maximize space? What does our family do or use the most?
2
Research various living room and kitchen layouts, trends, and getting inspiration from interior design magazines, Youtube, and Pinterest with a cost-friendly budget in mind. My dad and I were going to tackle this project ourselves so it had to be simple.
3
Sketch rough outlines for possible floor plan configurations. Measuring walls to nail down spacing, provide an estimated cost for materials, and created visuals using design software.
4
Re-iterate design based on my family's feedback. Prep the space for painting, compile the tools needed and have the materials ready for installation.
Design Decisions
The first thing I wanted to tackle was the walls. The colors had to be changed to something brighter and more refreshing, and there was an opportunity to do something unique with a huge canvas. The slanted ceiling made it difficult to think of ideas for an accent wall since most work with a rectangular shape. However, I knew my parents wanted to emanate a lakehouse design so I went in the direction of a coastal aesthetic. Coastal designs include blue and green hues and white, natural wood accents, so I decided to go with a shiplap accent wall paired with light blue walls.
In these pictures, you will see the in-progress stage (left) and the finished result (right).
The next project was a blank rectangular wall on the left side of the door (not pictured). All it had was a large frame of a flower painting on top of a yellow wall. I knew that this wall was the perfect place to put an accent wall that elongates the space to make it feel taller than it really is, and because it was rectangular, I could create something that was geometric and symmetrical. Additionally, this wall is part of a hallway so nothing could be put in front of it, therefore, this was going to be a focal point.
I decided on a board and batten accent wall, which has a grid shape design. My dad and I purchased long thin pieces of medium-density fibreboard (MDF) and cut them to the desired lengths. Then, we nailed the pieces of MDF in their configuration and painted everything white.
As you can see, the vertical planks made the ceiling look taller, leading one's eyes up. It is now my favorite part of the house.
Part 2 - Kitchen Edition
The Before
Just as much else of our house didn't make sense, the kitchen did not fail to confuse either. Dividing the dining room and the kitchen was a chunky L-shaped island that wrapped around the living area and was blocked off by an intrusive glass cabinet. I do understand why the previous owners may have installed it - it separated the two rooms, however, the open floor concept is now preferred.
The flooring between the two rooms was also different, stark in contrast, the white tiles with a dark grout clashing the light hardwood floors. The right side of the island was also un-seatable due to the countertop being too shallow to fit legs underneath, rendering it useless, and not a complete wrap-around island. You may not be able to tell but I spraypainted the barstools a light blue to match the other grey-blue hues in the house.
Family Needs
This was a tough one. I knew that this renovation had to be a complete overhaul to fit the family's needs and that it could not be done in a small project. The floors needed to all match in order for the kitchen and living area to be one cohesive space that flowed and the island needed to go since it was blocking paths and my grandmother's cooking was hindered from the little countertop space she had by the stove. For a family who doesn't drink, the glass cabinets were useless for wine glasses we never used, and we wanted to open the space up.
The kitchen was the main space my family of 5 would spend our time so it was important to us that (1) 5+ chairs could fit around the island, (2) there is enough countertop space to prepare multiple meals at a time, (3) the island is multi-functional for work, entertain, and dining, and (4) serve a look!
My family decided two things - one, the island and cabinets were to be demolished, and two, we didn't need a dining room if we had a huge island.
I sketched a number of configurations for the kitchen and we began to demo. We didn't decide on a sketch since our design may change after seeing what space looked like after our demo.
Demolishing the Kitchen
My family and I decided to demo the kitchen together to both mitigate third-party labor costs and to use this as a family activity. It was bittersweet, but it was 15 years in the making, the start of something new. We ran into many problems while demoing. To name a few, the gas pipes were dated and wouldn't connect to the new oven we ordered, there was only one line of electricity coming out from the ground and it was not long enough to reach the island, and the removal of the backsplash tiles ripped the drywall off. Below you'll find a timelapse of the kitchen demo.
Design Decisions
Now that there was a blank slate to work with, it was easier to visualize what could go where. This is what my family decided upon:
Kitchen Island
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large 5' x 7' rectangular island
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create pathways around the island
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seating enough for 7
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seating that faces the water
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charging station inside the island
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extra storage inside the island
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Bonus: waterfall feature (the countertops extend to the sides of the island), decorative LED lights
Countertops & Cabinets
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extended all the way to the right edge of the wall for more area
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the countertop material is durable
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cabinets are bright and illuminating
Flooring
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Vinyl plank flooring for low cost and easy installation
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Waterproof
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Grey-tinted floors
To bring this design to life, I consulted with multiple countertop and cabinetry businesses to get the best quote, align our design and precise measurements, and schedule an installation date.
During this process, our design changed. The cabinets that extended across the entire wall felt like we were borderline overdoing it. Did we need that much storage? Would it feel like it's looming over us? We decided to cut the cabinets shorter so that we had space for another accent wall to break up space and look less uniform. That way we could put open shelving, a mirror, something to switch it up. The base of our island also was altered due to the base being not strong enough to hold up the countertop. For that reason, we had to take out a seat for structure reasons.
Installation
What I Learned
If you're still here reading this, thanks for being as invested in this project as I was :) I had so much fun doing this project, I soaked up every minute I could since I'm not home very often for school. That said, here are some things I've learned from my mistakes.
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The paint color probably won't turn out the way you think. The blue I chose for the walls was brighter than I imagined because the lighting changes the color and you should definitely get paint swatches or go a few shades lighter to be safe.
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The flooring was more grey than I wanted it to be (sensing a trend?), making the space feel cold, instead of warm.
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Check if the gas pipes will connect to your new appliances if you have an old house, this gave us a headache for a week!
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Think about how you want cabinets/drawers to open. Do you want to pull it out like a drawer? Do you want shelves within them? How deep do you want the drawers to be? How do you want to put them in order (drawer, cabinet, drawer)? I wish I had installed a pull-out drawer that was solely to hang pans vertically from a hook.
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Plan out electricity in the island...yeah our island still has no outlet, which makes it hard to work all day long without a place to charge nearby!
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Your walls and floors may not be perfectly leveled, it may have bends.
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Order appliances (e.g. oven, stovetop, sink) ahead of time so that everything arrives in the same week and make sure it'll fit!
Results
I stayed as long as I could at home to see this project through, but I had to take off back to college the day after the countertops were installed. I'm lucky that I got to witness that holy grail moment of everything coming together after all the hiccups we encountered. The home now is functional for daytime and nighttime activities and fits all my family's needs.
In the following week, I received numerous videos and photos from my parents and my sister, capturing moments of them enjoying the new space and it made me feel something I cannot describe. I was elated to see my parents pull out a ping pong set that was probably covered in dust and play, my dad feeling proud of himself for all the work he put in and the addition of the new LED lights, and my grandma enjoying a cup of ginger tea on the sofa looking out the window. They've already celebrated a birthday and had a special homemade dinner on the island. The space has been transformed into something my family is excited to see and admire every morning they wake up.
Next Steps
Our project is not completely finished yet. We still are deciding on a backsplash for the kitchen, what to do with that one wall without upper cabinets, and plan on replacing the trims of the door and window frames. However, I think that no matter what, I will always be thinking of how to improve the space.
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