interior design is about designing layouts and flow of a room or area. It looks at principles such as your daily routine in a room, how much time you spend there, making things easily accessible and in a logical place, looking at lighting, and ultimately creating the most usable space in a given area. Interior decoration is about dressing an area and making it look good, this is where colour, texture and accessorising comes in. An interior decorator will recommend cushions, an interior designer won't (in the technical sense anyway). Interior design can be very broad ranging from houses to airport terminals. Many interior decorators offer interior design too, but in the academic and qualification sense, if you were to do a course for example at KLC, they are treated as two very different disciplines.

Hi guys. Thanks for all your really constructive comments. Had some family issues recently so only just got back to this. The jane churchill fabric actually has a black background. There was definitely too much going on in the design. Am now planning on painting the walls black and having a light coloured carpet and keeping the Tudors reconstructed on one wall which will be broken up by the shelves and desks. In terms of room use my nephews will sleep in here when they stay, it won't be used for working for long periods, so I fancy quite a wacky/eclectic space - my equivalent of the fun people can have with a downstairs loo. The orange chairs look overbearing in the photo but ok once you see them in the whole room space. The black wall will have the artwork I've bought on my travels so I see it as a blank canvas for that. It will take some time to get this done but will post pics (and probably ask more advice...) as and when. Thx

I have noticed that lots of small town stations were built with highly decorative features such as brickwork, colonnades, and canopy’s which have fallen into disrepair or been removed (often in the 1960s). Often the priority is now practical considerations such as parking provision which means often there is no landscaping or decoration that would be the norm of other public buildings. Also they were built before cars were available so driving in and parking is often haphazard. They often seem to be foreboding places at night too. Of course there are examples were none of these things are true such as Kings Cross. So if I were a resident near a railway station I would hope that any plans increased investment on the site- perhaps bringing in other businesses such as hotels, bars and restaurants to improve the ambiance especially at night- I can think of stations where there are attached but underused buildings that could be connected which in turn could generate increased rail use in the quieter evening which in turn would help improve profitability and eventually rail fares. It occurs to me that if the objective is to also improve local pride then perhaps there should be some civic areas to draw in children (such as rooms that can be used for the Cubs, the Guides the sea cadets etc). Getting children involved with something has been shown to discourage antisocial behaviour towards the area in their later adolescence. Assuming there is room it might even be possible to have a prayer room and build associations with local religious community’s who in turn may be able to offer support for homeless people who also find themselves at stations. Perhaps there are lessons to be learned from Airports and hospitals in this regard. Given that these are often city centre sites the road traffic would also need to be considered for pedestrians safety- one solution might be to have public transport in one area and private cars in another with traffic lights or roundabouts planned to safely let traffic on to the town centre roads. I would love to see available and reasonably priced parking in safe underground and multi storey car parks with dry walkways to the platforms to help make regular rail travel more affordable. From an aesthetic point of view I would love to see good quality lighting that is not too harsh. It would also be good if the site could include trees which would soften the buildings and improve noise pollution. It would be good if the platforms, conveniences and waiting rooms were cleaner and better appointed and perhaps dedicated areas for retail or advertising could help pay for these upgrades. It occurs to me that tannoy announcements are often intelligible as they try to fill the entire complex with news to supplement information that is already on display screens- perhaps the station experience would be better if these announcements were limited to certain areas such as platforms and restrooms.

Hello! I notice this site is more about asking design/decor related questions however I'm planning on opening an Interior Design company but I need to improve my CAD skills and wondered if anyone could advise me as to which "short" course would be best to select? Note, I need to study at home as I work full-time.