11 Interior Design School Supplies Part II
*Updated April 2016
It's that time of year again! The last time I did this interior design school supplies post, it was for first week survival of design school. This time, I dug a little deeper. I wanted to share supplies that I thought would be used often.
11 Interior Design School Supplies Used Most Often
- Color Fan Deck It's essential for your studio classes where you will be building your design concepts. I initially use the fan deck to build my color schemes and then I order larger paint samples via SherwinWilliams.com.
- Cutting Mat One of the first projects I had in interior design school was to build a model. You will consistently be building models. Models give you a deeper understanding of the space you are designing. The cutting board it used to protect the surface you are working on and it also has guides for angles and straight lines.
- Tracing Paper When you are space planning, tracing paper becomes essential. I usually print out the floor plan and use the tracing paper to sketch over it. This allows you to solve design problems before you design on the computer. Tracing paper can also be used for diagrams and draft perspective drawings.
- T-Pins Critiques are a big part of the interior design school experience. At school, we have crit rooms where we have to pin up our work for critique. This happens often. Usually, 1-2x a week. It's a good idea to keep these handy.
- Color Wheel The first class I took in interior design school was Color Theory. Color is huge part of design and it's very important to understand. The color wheel can help you understand the different color schemes are well as tints, tones, shades, etc. This is something you should definitely use to make sure your color choices make sense.
- Circle Template I used circle templates for sketching diagrams on tracing paper. They can also be used during the space planning process. There are many other interior design templates available but this one I use often.
- Architect Triangular Scale The architectural scale will probably be your most used design school supply. It's like a ruler, but it's used to draw to scale. It usually has three different sides with 6 different scales such as 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, etc. How this work is, sometimes you may be assigned a building that's very large. Let's just say 20,000 square feet. There is no way you can space plan on paper where 1' = 1'. You will have to adjust the scale so that you won't have miles of paper. For the 20,000 square foot building, you may draw at a scale of 1/8" = 1'. So you will use the 1/8" side of the scale to make sure the drawing is to scale. You will annotate the drawing to let your professor know the scale.
- X-ACTO Knife This is mostly used when you are building models. It cuts through the foam board, mat board and museum board. You will use this in conjunction with the cutting mat.
- T-Square This is used for model building, space planning, etc. It's used to make sure your line are straight. This can be used in conjunction with the cutting mat and X-ACTO knife.
- Tape Measure This one is self-explanatory. I use to get an understanding on the space I am designing for school. You make also do site visits for "real-world" projects in school. This will come in handy!
- Interior Dimensions Book You will need a reference book to understand the standard dimensions for windows, walls, doors, desk, etc. It's a great resource for making sure your designs meets ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements, height requirements, etc. You don't have to buy this exact book. You should find one that works for you.
I hope this is helpful! Interior Design School is fun, but it's also a lot of hard work. You have to be prepared! These interior design school supplies will have you well on your way.