Interior design: Designing my dream room

Students will study interior design as a profession. They will integrate their study with math, writing, vocational education, and computer skills by designing their own dream bedroom.

A lesson plan for grades 6–8 Visual Arts Education, English Language Arts, and Mathematics

By Paula Hightower

Photo credit.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• learn about art as a profession as well as an a vocation.
• practice measuring to scale.
• convert actual to scale sizes.
• learn to draw given lengths accurately.
• integrate with a geometry unit in mathematics.
• integrate with writing and computer technology by developing a precise description of their dream room.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 weeks

Materials/resources

• graph paper
• rulers
• pencils: drawing and colored
• construction paper
• erasers
• floor plans
• magazines: old ones to be cut up as well as current interior decorating issues
• glue

Technology resources

Access to computers with word processing software.

Pre-activities

• Introduce project by showing floor plans and other scaled drawings.
• Discuss role of interior designer. Refer students to internet sites on interior design. Show examples of interior layouts.
• Have students make a list of things that they need in their bedrooms and a list of things that they would like to have.
• Demonstrate how measurement using a ruler or yard stick. Ask students: Which would be easier to use to measure your room? What could you use to measure if you did not have either?
• Homework assignment: Measure your bedroom.
• Demonstrate conversion of measurements to scale. Have students practice. You may wish to create worksheets.

Activities

1. Have students draw a scaled drawing using graph paper and the measurements from their room. Include doors, closets, and window placements.
2. Students will also draw furniture to scale using their list of things they “need” to have for their bedroom. They may cut these out from construction paper and glue each item on their graph paper.
3. Sixth grade students will make a collage of their furnishings for their room using old magazines.
4. Seventh and eighth grade students will make a scaled drawing of one wall of their room using one-point perspective. A brief review of one-point perspective and terminology such as horizon line, view point, vanishing point, guide lines etc. should be done with students.
5. All students will write a brief description of their room and type it using word processing software on classroom computer.

Assessment

• Students will complete all work in a timely manner.
• They will use correct and accurate conversion of measurements.

Supplemental information

Comments

This plan could be expanded to make three-dimensional scale constructions of a room. Frame shops have scrap foam board and mat board that they will donate. Pieces of terry cloth or felt could be used for carpet. Scrap fabric donated by parents can be used for draperies, bedspreads, etc.