LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

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

mockup of an yellow and peach-colored bedroom

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.

North Carolina Curriculum Alignment

Visual Arts Education (2001)

Grade 6

  • Goal 1: The learner will develop critical and creative thinking skills and perceptual awareness necessary for understanding and producing art.
  • Goal 7: The learner will perceive connections between visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.01: Identify connections, similarities and differences between the visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.02: Identify ways the art elements and design principles interrelate with other arts disciplines.
  • Goal 8: The learner will develop an awareness of art as an avocation and profession.
    • Objective 8.01: Develop and discuss an awareness of art as an avocation.
    • Objective 8.02: Develop and discuss an awareness of art as a profession.

Grade 7

  • Goal 1: The learner will develop critical and creative thinking skills and perceptual awareness necessary for understanding and producing art.
  • Goal 7: The learner will perceive connections between visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.01: Explain connections, similarities and differences between the visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.02: Explain various ways the art elements and design principles interrelate with other arts disciplines.
  • Goal 8: The learner will develop an awareness of art as an avocation and profession.
    • Objective 8.01: Identify and discuss visual arts as an avocation.
    • Objective 8.02: Identify and discuss how broad visual arts is as a profession.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will develop critical and creative thinking skills and perceptual awareness necessary for understanding and producing art.
    • Objective 1.01: Plan and organize for unique and original solutions.
    • Objective 1.02: Refine strategies for imagining and implementing images.
  • Goal 7: The learner will perceive connections between visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.01: Interpret and analyze connections, similarities and differences between the visual arts and other disciplines.
    • Objective 7.02: Demonstrate various ways the art elements and design principles interrelate within all arts disciplines.
  • Goal 8: The learner will develop an awareness of art as an avocation and profession.
    • Objective 8.02: Assess the criteria to pursue visual arts as a profession.

Computer Technology Skills (2005)

Grade 6

  • Goal 3: The learner will use a variety of technologies to access, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.
    • Objective 3.10: Select and use WP/DTP features/functions to design, format, and publish assignments/products. Strand - Keyboard Utilization/Word Processing/Desk Top Publishing

Grade 7

  • Goal 3: The learner will use a variety of technologies to access, analyze, interpret, synthesize, apply, and communicate information.
    • Objective 3.07: Demonstrate use of WP/DTP features/functions to design, format, layout, and publish assignments. Strand - Keyboard Utilization/Word Processing/Desk Top Publishing

Grade 8

  • Goal 3: Select and use a variety of technology tools to collect, analyze, and present information. Strand - Societal/Ethical Issues
    • Objective 3.05: Select and use WP/DTP features/functions to develop, edit/revise, and publish documents/assignments. Strand - Keyboard Utilization/Word Processing/Desk Top Publishing

English Language Arts (2004)

Grade 6

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives drawn from personal or related experience.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate an expressive account (e.g., fictional or autobiographical) which:
      • uses a coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • tells a story or establishes the significance of an event or events.
      • uses remembered feelings and specific details.
      • uses a range of appropriate strategies (e.g., dialogue, suspense, movement, gestures, expressions).

Grade 7

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives in response to personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate an account such as a news story or historical episode which:
      • creates a coherent organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • orients the reader/listener to the scene, the people, and the events.
      • engages the reader/listener by establishing a context and creating a point of view.
      • establishes the signficance of events.

Grade 8

  • Goal 1: The learner will use language to express individual perspectives through analysis of personal, social, cultural, and historical issues.
    • Objective 1.01: Narrate a personal account which:
      • creates a coherent, organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience, and context.
      • establishes a point of view and sharpens focus.
      • uses remembered feelings.
      • selects details that best illuminate the topic.
      • connects events to self/society.

Mathematics (2004)

Grade 6

  • Goal 2: Measurement - The learner will select and use appropriate tools to measure two- and three-dimensional figures.
    • Objective 2.01: Estimate and measure length, perimeter, area, angles, weight, and mass of two- and three-dimensional figures, using appropriate tools.
    • Objective 2.02: Solve problems involving perimeter/circumference and area of plane figures.
  • Goal 3: Geometry -The learner will understand and use properties and relationships of geometric figures in the coordinate plane.
    • Objective 3.03: Transform figures in the coordinate plane and describe the transformation.

Grade 7

  • Goal 2: Measurement - The learner will understand and use measurement involving two- and three-dimensional figures.
    • Objective 2.01: Draw objects to scale and use scale drawings to solve problems.
  • Goal 3: Geometry - The learner will understand and use properties and relationships in geometry.
    • Objective 3.03: Use scaling and proportional reasoning to solve problems related to similar and congruent polygons.

Grade 8

  • Goal 2: Measurement - The learner will understand and use measurement concepts.
  • Goal 3: Geometry - The learner will understand and use properties and relationships in geometry.
    • Objective 3.01: Represent problem situations with geometric models.
    • Objective 3.02: Apply geometric properties and relationships, including the Pythagorean theorem, to solve problems.