I’m someone who’s always had an innate love of beautiful spaces, an amateur instinct for combining colours, textures, furniture and objects together, and an enthusiast’s passion for buying ‘ugly duckling’ spaces and turning them into swans. This course connected all the dots and fill the gaps of my fledgling understanding and aptitude. I went from sort of knowing, imagining and guessing how it’s done (and in some cases, not having a clue) to learning the inside experts’ skills and fundamentals to help channel my interior design instincts and ideas that bounced around inside my head.
I wanted to turn what I love into real skills that I could bring to my house selling hobbies. The Interior Design Academy’s course provided me with both the discipline and flexibility to learn and soak up the tips of the trade. And I could do it at my own pace with no pressure of due dates. Rigid deadlines would’ve zapped the joy out of the process for me.
But that’s not to say the course doesn’t demand commitment, hard work and an artful juggle of creative thinking, business nous and pragmatism. By blending both theory and practice, the course provides you with a depth of knowledge to help you understand design concepts and also instantly apply them. The twelve tutorials cover the many facets of the trade; simple and engaging yet comprehensive enough to provide the rigour without being unduly taxing.
The eight assignments are carefully rolled out in a way to reflect your learning progression and push you to think and create outside of your comfort zone, without feeling overwhelmed or incapable. After each assignment, my tutor gave prompt, realistic and helpful feedback. Even though I purposefully chose to be quite low maintenance in terms of my needs and interactions with my tutor – it was very clear they were willing to be as supportive as needed.
As my knowledge grew, so too did my confidence and belief in myself. The learning was invaluable, but even more so, was my increased faith in my ability and courage to take my learning further. Other people’s belief in me also soared. Friends, family and colleagues not only began asking for tips and advice, but offered to pay me, or fly me out to their homes to take on projects.
So, what started as a personal hobby, is now evolving into a professional one.
I’m about to take the plunge into my 4th renovation and huge labour of love. Our very old, new family home is filled with 1900 charm and grace, but also rife with aches and pains.
The scale and doggedness of this grand old lady was what inspired me to sign up and take the course. The course will now be my inspiration and courage to give it back life; boldly colliding its bygone beauty with an edgy elegance for today.
