The Steps of Modern Interior Design for a Residential Home According to Leah Salter’s Approach
Modern home interior design starts with the importance of creating a program, which begins with understanding the client’s needs. In modern home interior design, there are many different stages. To ensure that the design is personal, it is essential to get to know my clients; therefore, I present each client with an in-depth questionnaire and learn about their individual needs, family structure, lifestyle, and further nuances that are refined in a personal meeting.
A program is a concept plan and the conceptual framework for each family and client, developed before moving on to plans and drawings. Personal style is essential in modern home interior design, and to get to know the clients I will be working with and for whom I will design, I present an in-depth questionnaire to each client, learning about their personal needs, family structure, and daily lifestyle, which are further clarified in a personal meeting.
For example: Is there a need for dual-purpose spaces for viewing or computer use due to the nature, age, or personal preferences of the household members? How, when, and if you like to host, is there someone who plays an instrument and needs a private, separate space? Are there any health issues requiring home adaptations? All these are important elements in modern home interior design that we will address.
The concept and inspiration board for the modern home, will guide us throughout the process and keep us on the chosen path.
Using different images and visual means, helps me understand how each spouse wants to express their specific personal needs, and together, either as a couple or as parents in the modern interior design era. All this is intended to understand who you are— a unique client, commissioning modern home design, to create a home tailored to your exact measurements, in every sense of the word.
When I understand who you are I will be able to create a home that fits you in every way.
In achieving my clients’ dream home, my relationship with them deepens, and we create the foundation for creating working plans for modern home interior design that suits their lifestyle.
Many plans need to be created by me:
- A set of plans for one space
- Some of the plans will be in different resolutions (e.g., carpentry items 1:20, furniture placement in space 1:50, ceramic tile layout 1:20). An extended explanation about this can be found in a separate article.
Some people think that this is a quick process and want to hand over partial plans to the contractor when we are only in the middle of the process. It’s to your benefit, not to hand over any plans to the contractor before the comprehensive completion of the plans.Adopt this important tip, and you’ll thank me later for saving you disappointment and time in the planning process of modern interior design.
It may sound paradoxical, but I write this from many years of experience, knowing that haste makes waste, and along the way, things are forgotten, and mistakes are made that can cost you unnecessary money, and from my perspective, unnecessary work will also increase the price accordingly.
What are the planning stages?
When working with digital programs, the workflow is layered so that everything fits together. For example, superposition is necessary to ensure that the sprinkler system in the modern house does not fall on a cabinet or light fixture. Another example: the precise location of a flush button and sink faucet will be finally and precisely determined based on the ceramic tile layout selected at an advanced stage for the bathroom walls.
The technical plan preparation stage: In modern interior design, I provide the contractor with many work plans, from the wall dimension plan to the exact location of the electrical point and from there to the end of the wall.
But in the first stage, the plan is developed as a concept and differs slightly from a precise working plan. This is a conceptual plan because only after choosing the coverings do I adjust and refine the plan to create a final, accurate version.
For example, I slightly move the socket or the water point () so that the faucet center will be facing the middle of the wall tile. It is very important to me in the plans I issue for modern interior design that the ceramic tile placement is correct and symmetrical in the space, that there are no narrow tiles in the corners, or that the flush button is not centered on a tile or between two tiles. The small details make the difference and receive aesthetic attention and solutions.
In my opinion, the small details are meant for people who enjoy aesthetics, symmetry, and details that show there is no randomness here, but a guiding hand, applied with a lot of sensitivity and respect for the construction/renovation process and the client. The plan we agree upon is good enough to get a price quote from the contractor for his work and for tiling the floors, but it is not accurate enough to execute the work itself because it does not address the location and choice of finishing materials, which also affect the contractor’s work costs and the client’s budget. Therefore, modern interior design working plans will only be sent to the contractor after we have finished and agreed on all the details of the plans, sections, and layouts of floor tiles.
When I study the client’s needs, I use the questionnaire and various image cards and these bring the client’s personality and needs to the fore (such as open/closed space, order habits and storage needs, and color spectrum which the client likes), and together we can build the client’s personal concept of a modern home.
Once the concept of a modern designed home is clear to all of us, I create an initial inspiration board that will help us save time and indecision later on throughout the project’s development, especially during the material selection and color shade stages.
This is because sometimes clients, when exposed to various finishing materials during the planning process, become confused and indecisive, which, of course, wastes valuable time, delays project progress, and sometimes can be a reason for additional contractor fees.
The abundance available in the market for modern interior homes can sometimes overwhelm people without professional guidance. But in the complex process through which I lead my clients, I help them focus on building the concept and inspiration board, thereby creating focus and peace of mind during a stormy time of financial outlays and numerous decisions.
Now we can move on to the next stage of a modern interior home and plan the different spaces in your dream home. Want to read about the next step? See the following article: The link is attached.