My Kitchen Renovation

This was my first ever assessment about renovating. I have never done a renovation before. This is a 2-person team assessment, my partner was Michelle C.. The final grading will be the same for both of us.

The task was to get a kitchen (preferably our own so that we can work conveniently) and find faults and inconvenience in the usage of the kitchen. We were told to contact the person who normally works in that particular kitchen, to ask them and list down the faults of the kitchen that can be renovated reasonably.

Michelle and I decided that we should renovate the kitchen in my new house, since it is plain, small and is basically incomplete (as for the appliances and accessories). We were going to renovate her kitchen but her kitchen has everything already, there is nothing to fix or modify for the better.

So first I took pictures of the kitchen, and we discussed the changes.

So I’ve made the list of points to write down;

Introduction to the existing kitchen

-Describe the placements and existing stuff

-Materials of cabinets and counters

-Materials of flooring and walls

-**Surroundings

Problems

-Dull colour of cabinets

-Dull pattern of cabinets and counters

-Lack of lighting in general **because maid/cook is old so it’s a eyesight problem

-Small fridge space, lacking storage for products that need to be cooled/frozen

-Microwave covers cooking workspace and wires are allover the place, dangerous incase water splashes from sink

-(not a problem but can be upgraded)Sink does not give out fast running water and makes noises when washing because of the quality of the material

-Storage is okay but can be useful to expand more

-Doorless passageway cause bugs and other insects to come in when food is on the counter or the person is cooking, also useless access and can be optimised in another way

 -Dispenser is blocking the way

Solutions and additions

-Rearranged and added cabinets so that the overall look is not plain and boring, added cabinets to make more room for more things like blender, mixer, bowls and other various items

-Changed the colour of the cabinets to white to make it look fresh, stripped the HPL finishing and added a frame and finished it again with better quality HPL

  -Addition of backlight for the counter on the back of cabinets and also inside cabinets when the cabinets are open

-Increased fridge space by moving counter 1 out of the way

-Added a hover overhead shelf exclusive for microwave so counter and cooking space is much wider, including more space to store ingredients like spices and bottles

-Change the model of the sink, a spray hose sink(aka pull-down faucets) which is a turnable faucet with a longer depth to the basin, use a more high quality sink which is stronger and silent, the lower 18- gauge

-Cemented the passageway and added a small window for air circulation and also for refreshing the mind when cooking and looking for ideas

-Added a special block for dispenser. makes it look more put togther

Budget

+additional cabinets and counters 

+new fridge (- old fridge)

+Blender 

+cement for covering wall

+window 

+Backlight for inside cabinet and below cabinet

+New sink with pull-down faucets 18-gauge

Grand Total Calculation

Here is a video of the before after, the whole explaination is in my Prezi presentation, which will be in here.

Mind map and Concept boards

This was my first time in making a mind map. I learnt how to do it from Ms. Mia, and she gave the class pictures of examples from past students who have done it before. Through that, I decided to search the web for more examples of mind maps because after the class ended, I was not sure that I got the right points of the mechanism of a mood board. So after I went home, I searched the web and found more examples and explanations. I finally understood and I started working on my mind map assessment the next day. 

So this class , Creativity and Concept Development, has assessments that are linked with each other. In the end, all of our assessments will be combined and we will have an end project of a particular interior of a particular function that we have chosen in the first place (when making the mind map). First of all we will make the mind map, then we will make the concept board and concept analysis, then we will make the concept development, and then the creative journal goes along the way, and finally the end combination of all of our analysation that will result in an interior of a function. 

For this, I have chosen a bistro as my function. Before I chose bistro, I was thinking of choosing a cafe as a function, because I thought that a cafe was nice, quick and useful for everyone anywhere. Then I thought that, I would personally own a bistro, but not only because of that, it’s because bistros sell small to main courses that people would enjoy and take more time visiting.  People must be provided with more comfort since they will be coming more often and longer than to a cafe, and because of that more interior would be needed to be designed, and I would love to take that challenge and make something pleasant. Aside from that, I thought that a cafe was too mainstream, a lot of people have used it instead of a restaurant, but if I chose a restaurant it would be too large to think and analyse about every single detail. So in the end I chose a bistro, which technically serves between a cafe and a restaurant. Secondly, we have to decide on a topic. I had only 2 topics, but my other classmates had 3 which was the original number of topics needed. But Ms. Mia said it was okay ( by that time I was already in front of her presenting my topics when she cancelled “retro” which was my 3rd topic but I didn’t know that retro was a style, and not a topic, so I had no other quick idea to whip out at that time). My 2 topics were teddy bear and flower. I did not choose teddy bear because teddy bear was just too much of a risk and there’s too much careful analysing needed, in which I was scared that I could do wrong on something and ruin the whole thing (for example putting teddy bear in every single corner of the place). So in the end I chose flower. Though, in the back of my mind I did not really want the topic flower because I was so bored in seeing literal flower themed cafes around Jakarta. But then I thought about it again that it’s actually an advantage, for I will be using some of the inspiration from what I have seen on the web and incorporate it in my own design (but of course, not plagiarising it, it’s just reference). I was hesitant in going too off topic for the mind maps, I was scared of writing something totally irrelevant with the actual matter, but in the end it turns out that the more clever I am able to analyse the connections, the better more things will connect and make sense.

Topic mind map (flower)

Function mind map

As for my function, I decided that I wanted a cafe, because I could easily pass for a small and simple cafe. But then again it wouldn’t be challenging at all. And instead of getting good marks I might end up getting the opposite. Plus, it would be more fun in decorating more space if I made something else. In the end I decided on a bistro. A bistro is a small restaurant. I have been to many bistros in my life, it feels similar to a cafe, but it actually serves main courses, but not as many as a normal restaurant. Therefore speaking of sizes, it is relatively smaller than a restaurant but bigger than a cafe. In addition to that, not many people have chosen bistro. Actually nobody chose that in my class. I don’t know about the past students, but having uniqueness is very satisfying for me. I get to stand out on my own with my bistro, instead of blending with the crowd in a restaurant.

Concept diagram

Flower + Bistro ^Georgian & Nature Style = Gardenistro

I really like the end result. Everything clicks together. I feel satisfied whenever everything looks perfect for each other (I don’t mean to say it’s perfect but I mean they fit each other perfectly). I chose Georgian style because Georgian style is nice and elegant but it has a bit of a classic style and it fits perfectly with something flowery. I chose nature style because I would want to feel natural because flowers are from nature and I want to make people feel the surrounding environment of a flower and that it all connects with each other.

Lettering and Scale Exercise

I did this in my freehand drawing class in the first term. This assessment was my very first assessment in college. The task was to practice architectural lettering and make a sample of our handwriting in an A3 paper. We were given a sample sheet that showed how the font looked like from A-Z and 0-9.

Here are 2 reference videos that I found useful :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLOgTz26BBs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky5p-L_m6BQ

This is the exact sample font that my teacher Mr. Pedro, gave to the whole class.

I made small boxes of cm x cm throughout the whole paper. Around this time I was taught how to make a margin and a title box on a paper. I was also taught how to fold an A3 paper to an A4 paper in an easy way. I found the exact demonstration Mr. Pedro made here. It took me a while to get it right, I used the margins and the boxes on the paper as a guideline on where to fold.

Introduction

Hello Everyone!

My name is Shania and this is my blog which will be about my journey and my projects as an interior designer. I hope that people will enjoy seeing my posts and go along as I walk through this adventurous journey.

I have decided to make a blog to document everything that I have done and will be doing from now on wards, so that people will see and know that everything that I have done was made out of precious sweat dripping physically and mentally (If that makes sense.) and I am just in my first year of college, specifically this is my 5th month in college. I am 16 years old. I have big dreams in becoming a successful interior designer, known nationwide or possibly globally. I have passion in many areas of arts. This will be an informal blog, though I hope I will be able to make it semi-formal so that it can act as a detailed description to my portfolio.

Thank you for dropping by my blog.  -Shania