Interior Design: Classroom Games

Race to fit a large sheet to a chair.

There are different projects and games that can be done in a classroom for interior design that are fun and utilize skills that designers need. There are two types of classroom games: short term and long term. Short term games are fast and often involve races, while longer ones can be competitions for best design, best presentation or cleanest execution.

Mixed Fabric Decor

It's easy to design a room around a central fabric color, but it's a challenge to change the fabrics up and mix solids, patterns and different materials. Group the students and provide a book of fabric samples to each group. Tell them they need to use at least 2 different patterns, 3 colors and 2 textures to design a living room. You can provide them with a sketch of the room layout and furniture or let them decide that themselves. Have them put together a proposal for the room with your specifications that ties the different materials together to create a cohesive design. This makes a good classroom game because it can be done in a single class period and students can vote on the best designs.

Chair Fitting Race

One aspect of design on a budget is covering furniture so that it matches the other furniture but still maintains a clean look. Separate the students into teams and challenge the teams to race to see who can first cover their chair using a sheet and safety pins. The first team of students to cover their chair so that it is well fitted and neat wins. You may want to have an example chair already done so that they can copy the design. Alternatively you can take the racing element out and have them create the neatest chair covering with other materials they have available.

Refinishing Old Furniture

In order to get the right piece for a design, it is often necessary to refinish an older piece. A longer term class project is to refinish something to make it fit into the design of a room. Provide each student or team of students with a design style and an old piece of furniture such as a wooden chair, a cabinet or a dresser. The task involves stripping the old finish, sanding it down, repainting or staining, and adding extra details such as distressing, paint details or new hinges and hardware. This can be a fun game when it's a competition for the most dramatic and best refinish.

Design Proposal Board

For prospective designers the ability to present the ideas to a customer is crucial, and an excellent way to do this is to prepare a design board which displays the materials for the design as well as photos of the furniture and drawings of the plans. Provide the students with the personality and style of a person that they will be designing for and ask them to design a room for that person, taking their tastes into account, and give them boards to display the ideas. Have students try to make different designs for different people to see how many design ideas they can come up with for a certain set of materials.

References

• Lowes: How to Refinish Wood Furniture
• Save on Crafts: Slip Cover