Decorating Secrets: Guest Post

I'm sharing some of the best kept decorating secrets over at HowDoesShe today!

Click HERE to check them out!

army man texture ball

As I mentioned earlier this week, one of my very first projects as an Interior Design student was to create a texture ball. I seriously thought that mine had been destroyed by my little brother, but instead, it had been sitting in the top of my sister's closet for all these years! 

I'm not sure where the idea to cover my styrofoam ball in army men came from, but isn't it fantastic? It actually turned out to be much harder to do than I had planned. As you may remember, each army man stands on his own flat, platform. Well, flat platforms and round balls don't quite go together, so we had to cut each man off his stand {I say "we" because I recruited a guy friend to do it...it's very thick plastic}. So as he would cut off the stands with a kitchen knife, I would but hot glue on the little man's feet and stick him to the ball. We lost count of how many we actually used, but I know it took us over 30 hours combined. 

It was one of my very favorite projects. I remember being so proud of it when I took it into class the day it was due. No one else had anything like it. At the time I named it WWIII...but after finishing the "Mockingjay" last night, I'm thinking of renaming it "Panem".

Jerusalem Influenced Art

As a final in my color theory class we were given a city, mine was Jerusalem. By only using color and pictures, we were to represent the city as well as evoke an emotion that comes from the city name and life. We were to use our own original painting for the background and incorporate the items into the piece using photoshop. I was really happy with the way mine turned out, especially after my professor told me it was one of his favorites! 

wallpaper duplication

In my color theory class we were given a portion of a wallpaper and asked to duplicated it, half in exact color, half in greyscale. We only had the primary colors and black and white paint to mix together to find the colors on the wallpaper. It was extremely difficult, but very rewarding when the greyscale and colored side were seamless under a black and white camera.

Line Project

The line project was a study of different line types and thicknesses. 

Beginning with a photo, the student was to recreate the photo only using lines. 

The lines were used to create the contours of the objects, not to outline them. 

Understanding line thicknesses and weights, different lines were 

applied to represent different materials and textures within the photo. 

Shape Project

The shape project was a continuation of the line project. The same original photo was taken and used as an inspiration and a guideline to study shapes. Understanding the way shapes communicate separately and a whole was the purpose of this project.