Design Restrictions

Some of you may know that I am in the middle of an interior design course. That has been challenging, but the most challenging thing is working with my own space.

Money, or lack thereof, is one restriction.

But the biggest for me at present is working with the furniture I have, and of course the space in which to put it.

For years I have played around with room designs. I draw scaled rooms and furniture pieces that are blue tacked on so that I can move them around. But even in that I can only move them around within the contraints of the room and what the furniture itself is.

This is my current layout design. It's probably a bit hard to see, but you should get the general idea. The main problem is that this is all 2D, but I have yet to come up with an easy way to make the furniture 3D.

I've been toying with rearranging the furniture, but some things can't change, and the placement of structural an built-in elements are really limiting. The wardrobe and window limit things quite a bit, as does the fact that one wall backs on to the toilet.

Sometimes people really don't think when they design houses. Why, would you plan to have a toilet back onto a bedroom - seriously!? But that's one of the dilemmas that I have to deal with. So that's why I have one whole wall filled with bookshelves. I'm trying to use the books to block out some of the sounds from that small, but necessary room.

But it also means that is something I won't even consider moving when I think about rearranging the room.

Sorry about my rambling. I never was that great at getting my thoughts down on paper. And this is kind of paper - the electronic kind!