For the last couple months, I've been busy working on an interior furnishings + decor design project for a local metro Detroit lake house. The house itself is about 5,800 square feet, and for the next several years, it will be used as a vacation home for my client's family.
Since it's not a primary residence, and as is often the case with vacation homes, we were working with a completely blank slate. In a primary residence, folks often have a handful of—or many!—pieces they'd like to work with, but in this case, the family had absolutely nothing they'd be bringing to the house—and I was up to the challenge!
The project is currently in Phase 2 (the execution stage), which means it has been presented, approved, orders have been placed, and we are currently in the *waiting* stage (you know, the 8-12 week window where the suspension is like, the worssssst!!).
But in the meantime, I thought I'd start to share the design room by room, and maybe by the time through all of them, it will be installation day (FINGERS CROSSED)!!!
I thought this would be a good opportunity to walk you through my design process for a large project like this one, since most of what I share on the blog are day session projects. That will also give me the opportunity to show you each room design plan over the next several months and we can all get HYPED as we wait, wait, WAIT for the installation day this summer!
The Discovery Meeting: Creating a Shared Understanding of the Style and Functionality Vision for the Space
Now, the Discovery Meeting technically happens before a client and I have signed an agreement, but it's an important part of the design process because it's where we talk about the visions for the space.
This meeting is typically 1-2 hours in length. We start by walking through each of the spaces we'll be considering, and talking through needs, functionality, wish-list items, and must-haves, and I create a list of all the details I'll be addressing during the design phase.
Prior to this meeting, my client will do some homework pulling together images of spaces that connect with their style or showcase some design element they'd like to include in their space. At this point in the meeting, we'll sit down and look through these images with the goal of creating a shared understanding around the style vision.
Below you can see some of the style images my client pulled from Pinterest for her home:
Taking Measurements of the House
I'll admit, I only slightly underestimated how long it would take me to measure this house because it's the largest space I've measured at one time. LOL. I think it probably took about four hours—realistically, not that bad for an almost 6,000 sqft house!
The measurements that I take are strictly for furniture space planning; these are not house plans or construction documents or anything "official" like that. If ever I were to need those, I'd outsource to another company or professional.
My main goal for furniture planning is to get a foot print of the space and note the locations of windows, doors, ceiling heights, and important elements like chandeliers, sconces, electrical outlets when there is a need for one: basically anything that would be important to note when creating a furniture and decor plan.
While it's a little unusual for 2D space planning, I use Sketchup, and I draw up the footprint of the spaces in realtime as I measure. That way I'm able to check any measurements or wonky angles that I might have gotten wrong right in the moment rather than have to come back on site later to double check.
Creating the Interior Space Plan for the Design of this Detroit Home
Once I have the measurements completed, my first step (similar to a day session, actually) is to come up with an ideal space plan for the various pieces of furniture that will live in the spaces. My goal here is to create a furniture layout—over which I can then lay any particular design style—based on the functionality needs of the client and ideal flow for the space.
For example, below you can see the main floor layout as a whole, which helps the client understand the relationship of the various rooms/spaces together. Rather than starting from any particular piece of furniture as my jumping off point, I like to have a plan for the placement of the individual pieces of furniture and then start filling them in with specific pieces.
Sourcing Specific Pieces for Each Space
Once the space plan is in place for the home, I start sourcing for the project. For each piece, I'll select many possible options, and as I go along, I begin pulling items into a style board to see how they play together color/style/size wise. It's sort of like a puzzle where any particular piece can change the overall vibe and direction. Later, during presentation, the the floor plan combined with the style board is how I'll help the client visualize each space during presentation.
I started with the space I figured would be most central in the home—the main floor living area—and moved outward from there! This room (the first photo in this post!) is very much the show stopper of the house due it it's massive windows overlooking the lake, which is why I chose to start here.
So! Stay tuned...next week when I'll be sharing the design of the main floor living room!!
Work with Lauren Figueroa Interior Design
LFID is an interior designer working with folks in West + Southeast Michigan and NYC, known especially for her unique and speedy Designed in a Day service.
LFID works with clients from Detroit to Clarkston, and all the way to Grand Rapids, Holland and Traverse City, and most recently, NYC. I pride myself on creating bespoke, people-centered spaces—because after all, people are what this life is all about!
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