Concept to Realisation

As I reached the end of my first few weeks at Hawthorn Interiors, Day 5 marked a turning point in the placement—where many of the skills I had been observing and building on began to come together. Today was developing and pitching my ideas for the show home project to Katie, Exploring how creative direction evolves into tangible outcomes within a professional interior design studio.

After sharing my initial plans built from earlier tasks involving moodboarding, Photoshop layouts, and FF&E ideas. Katie gave thoughtful feedback and opened up the potential to push the project further, encouraging to delve deeper into concept development, think more strategically about furniture selection and begin identifying the samples needed to bring the vision to life. This conversation really helped expand my awareness of what goes into a project beyond the aesthetic, including the practical aspects of product sourcing and the layered considerations behind each design decision.

One of the most impactful moments of the last few weeks came from our external visits to collaborators, including curtain makers, upholsterers, and industry suppliers. These trips provided essential context and really brought home the importance of maintaining strong relationships with the craftspeople and suppliers who help make designs possible. Seeing the scale and detail of the work being done off-site gave me a much broader understanding of the full project pipeline.

To support the next stage of development, Katie and I will be visiting The Sofa and Chair Company in Park Royal, a key supplier often used in staging and luxury residential projects. This visit will deepen my insight into furniture specification and how showroom experiences can help guide both designer and client through decisions with clarity and confidence.

We also explored the internal shop Dansk, where I was able to evaluate some of my wallpaper and fabric selections in a real retail environment, pairing them with items already styled in the shop. This hands-on exploration gave me a chance to test how cohesive my choices were in practice, rather than just in theory, and it reaffirmed how important physical interaction is when it comes to interiors.

The internal shop, Dansk, we explored to evaluate selected wallpaper and fabric combinations within a retail environment, these selections were paired with pre- styled items already displayed in-store, offering the opportunity to asses the realisation of design choices in a practical setting; hands on exploration highlights the importance of physical interaction with materials in the context of interiors, experienencing the value of texture, scale and colour harmonies.

The placement so far has offered a valuable combination of observational learning, guided experience, and increasing independence. With each day building on the last, there is a growing understanding of the balance between creative expression and technical execution that defines the interior design profession and contributes to its unique challenges and rewards.