Designing Bespoke Drinks Cabinet

So so proud that at least one part of my project for the KLC studies – design of the bespoke drinks cabinet is finally done! For those who don’t know – I am doing an Open learning course with KLC School of Design in London. So ashamed to say that I started it two and half years ago and I am still on Module 3 (there are 6 altogether). Those who study online know that the hardest thing is self-motivation. Lack of deadlines and studying at your own pace keeps you procrastinating all the time. You will find a thousand of reasons why you didn’t study today and keep promise to yourself that tomorrow is “The Day” when you finally finish all things pending….

Recently I’ve been chatting with my friend, who all of a sudden asked me “Listen, but why in two and a half years you still haven’t finish the course?”. I said: “Well you know I was too busy with my blog, freelance writing and house wife duties…” – “Not really convincing,”- she said – “don’t tell it to anybody else…” Can’t describe what I felt at that moment, it was as if someone has hit me on my head pretty hard and my eyes finally opened. What happened with my primary goal of becoming professional interior designer? Did I compromise it for living careless life, parties with friends, my freelance writing activities? So for all those who are in the same boat as me, here are some tips on how to stop procrastinating and keep moving towards your GOAL:

• You need a plan. Plan is everything, in fact. Think how many hours per week you can devote to your goal. Document it in diary.
• Move towards you goal EVERY day. One day in a week/month is not enough. Even 15 minutes per day is better than nothing – like this you will keep thinking about your goal and don’t let other activities to put it in the shade.
• You need a buddy. This doesn’t have to be necessarily a study companion or person from the same field. In fact it can be anybody. Every week you and him need to prepare the list of things to be done – share it in front each other. Next week report what has been done and what hasn’t and why. Share the new plan for the upcoming week.
• You need to have someone from you circle who is able to give you a punch from time to time (like my friend did). If you don’t have – ask someone, whether it is your friend, husband, mom, sister or brother – this someone need to be very judgemental and have no compassion for your laziness/disorganization.
• Get rid of activities that are unnecessary/ distract / you can easily delegate to someone else.  Do you really have to vacuum clean the carpet every day? Perhaps you can do it once or twice per week and the released time devote to moving towards your goal? 
• Note all your progress and congratulate yourself with little presents.  

Now getting back to the design of my bespoke drinks cabinet. Here is the design brief I’ve got for it:

“As part of your planning solution, your clients would like you to incorporate a bespoke drinks cabinet to offer guests an aperitif before dinner. The unit should also house storage for glasses, placemats, napkins and serving utensils. It can be built-in or free-standing and they don’t mind which of the two rooms it goes in. This cabinet should of course appear on the furniture layout and in addition you should draw and submit a plan and elevation drawing of the unit. These drawings should be dimensioned and labelled with finishes and any details to explain its function.”

1) My first step was to decide in which of the rooms and place my cabinet is going too. I’ve noticed an empty niche in the wall and decided that this will be the perfect spot to place it. It will decorate the empty wall and will not interrupt the traffic flow in the room.

2) Since I wanted the cabinet to perfectly fit in this niche without leaving any empty space between it and the walls, I already had two dimensions – width and length. The next thing was to decide on its height and think on how it will be constructed inside. I have listed again the whole list of things I needed to store – bottles, glasses, plates, etc. and came up with the following solution:

3) Now when the main task – the function and technical structure was done I needed to think about materials and decorative finishings. Inspired by some patterns and colours from my concept board, I came up with the following solution:

Three doors will be opened with push-click opening mechanism, cabinet frame and side doors will be made from eco-friendly timber covered with polished walnut veneer, while middle door with intricate circle design will be hand carved from wood and covered with gilt and varnish.

4) Now I needed to create working drawings – plan and elevations will all dimensions and specifications needed to construct this cabinet:

Done! Moving to the next part of the project – Plan and furniture layout of dining and living room!