Simple Interior Concepts

Designing Interior Layouts Like a Pro: Why Every Project Starts in a Sketchbook

Before choosing furniture, colours, or decorative items, professional interior designers begin with layout planning.

Whether you’re redesigning your home or developing client concepts, using an interior layout sketchbook helps you map zones, circulation paths, and proportions before making expensive decisions.

It All Begins in a Sketchbook

When you walk into any well-designed room, you will recognise that the space feels intentional. The way the furniture, furnishings, and other décor items fit in seamlessly. How the walk paths flow well and make sense. How nothing seems out of place, and no item feels forced.

That kind of feeling doesn’t happen by accident. It starts long before you choose the floor finish, colour schemes, fabrics, or interior accessories.

It starts in a sketchbook.

And no, you don’t have to be a professional designer to use one. You can be:

A homeowner planning a living room upgrade.
A design student learning space planning.
A beginner interior designer, trying to build their professionalism.
A home developer mapping out condo layouts.
A freelance designer aiming to impress prospective clients with their skills.

Whosoever it may be, the process begins the same way. Conceive the idea and draw an interior layout.

Why Drawing a Layout Must Come Before Decorating

Many people make the mistake of starting to decorate by buying things that strike their fancy. A sofa set. A floor rug. An accent chair. Wall-hung metal artwork. Fabrics for window curtains. And then they try to make everything fit.

But professional designers and home stylists don’t work that way. They begin by defining:

Zones (where activities happen).
Circulation paths (how people move within the decorated space).
A focal point that is the main anchor.
Balance, scale, and proportion.

Only after these issues are clear can you think about purchases. And it is only on paper that you can see such clarity.

What Happens When You Sketch First

When you first sketch your ideas, even quickly or crudely, you will see spacing problems early enough, can roughly test furniture sizes, and understand scale and proportions. You will also avoid blocking walk paths and consequently make fewer expensive mistakes.

With a niche-specific sketchbook that has a well-structured interior, DIY decorators will gain confidence, students will gain structure, and beginners and professionals will gain methodical documentation in one tidy place.

Sketching slows you down in the right way by letting you plan an intentional design before implementing.

Space Planning Sketchbook for Interior Design Students

Room Layout Drawing Book

What a Professional Sketchbook Actually Does

Task-specific drawing books are not just notebooks with blank pages. They are professional tools that create order for your business, tasks, or assignments. They come with features ranging from graph and dot grids pages that help with freehand layout ideas and scaled floor plans, to perspective grids that help visualise 3D concepts, sections to record objectives and measurements, and index pages that help track multiple projects.

Professional sketchbooks turn scattered ideas into a structured process. Instead of loose sheets everywhere, you build a documented design journey.

For students, this can become a portfolio asset.
For professionals, it becomes a record of design concept developments.
For homeowners and DIY(ers), it becomes a clear resource before spending money.

How Different Groups Can Use the Same Tool

Homeowners and DIY Enthusiasts

If you are a homeowner and a DIY enthusiast, use this book to make quick sketches of:

Your living room floor plan, before moving or buying furnishings.
Your bedroom refresh idea before buying a complete bed set.
Storage reconfigurations and solutions, before calling in the fitters.

Even rough sketches can reveal mistakes before they happen.

Beginner Designers and Students

If you are a beginner or a student of interior design, use this book to:

Practise interior zoning.
Develop multiple layout options.
Record form and site measurements.
Document your design inspiration and reasoning.
Build a structured archive/collection of tasks, assignments, and projects.

Over time, this book will become evidence of your design thinking.

Professional Designers and Real Estate Developers

If you are a seasoned professional or real estate developer, use this book to:

Log client and project details.
Try out different ways to arrange the room.
Create concept sketches before CAD drawings.
Maintain a physical record of design evolution.

Not every idea belongs immediately in software. Some ideas need to be worked out on paper first. This matters more because today, many people jump straight into using digital tools that never give clarity at that initial stage. Drawing or doodling on paper forces clarity.

When a hand-sketched layout is strong, everything else works out easier. And that’s why professional designers and serious enthusiasts still begin in a sketchbook.

Not because it looks pretty or artistic, but because it makes thinking visible first-hand.

So, if you want more structure in your design process, whether you are redesigning a room or building an interior design career, start where the true professionals start:

With hand-drawn layouts.
With distinctly laid out zones.
With good circulation flow.
On paper.

Everything else builds from there.

Softcover Sketchbook for Drawing Interior Spaces

For Interior Design and Interior Architecture Freehand Sketching

Final Thoughts: Start Where Designers Start

If you’re serious about improving your interiors as a homeowner, student, or professional, begin with structured layout thinking. A task-specific interior design sketchbook will give you this.

If layout clarity is what you intend to strengthen, start with a structured sketchbook dedicated to space planning and concept development.

Sometimes, the difference between a room that works and one that frustrates you is simply planning it properly at the onset.

Stop Presenting Scattered Mood Boards: Use This Interior Design Portfolio Book Instead

Every interior design project begins with your great ideas of beautiful interiors. You begin to collate your ideas here and there.

You save images on your phone, fabric samples strewn all over your desk, and colour swatches stashed in envelopes. Then, there are quick sketches you made in different notebooks and supplier details in tattered jotters.

And, of course, no tangible checklists to keep your project in check.

At first, it feels creative, like a new penthouse studio. Then, as time goes by, it becomes messy, overly cluttered, and your creativity? Utterly disorganised.

When mood boards are scattered and lack structure, your presentation loses power, and your clients will struggle to follow your thinking.

If you are a student, your teachers won't understand your concepts, and if you are an employee, your employers can't make sense of your ideas.

You end up spending too much time reorganising instead of designing. And that is why I created Mood Board Pages for Interior Designers: An Interior Design Portfolio Organiser Journal.

This is not a regular notebook. It's a niche-specific, structured mood board portfolio book designed to help you build clean, professional visual presentations in one tidy place.

Inside it, you can:

Paste inspiration images.
Attach fabric swatches and material samples.
Plan colour themes and palettes.
Sketch, draw, or doodle on designated pages.
Record vendor and supplier information.
Write notes that explain your design decisions.
Keep detailed checklists for each client project.

Additionally, you'll find dotted grid spreads for structured layouts and blank canvas sections for full creative freedom, side note sections, so that you can clearly explain the hows, whats, and whys of your design concepts.

All these features matter because interior design is not only about beautiful ideas. It is also about communicating those ideas clearly and professionally.

When your mood boards are presented in a professional book format, your work instantly appears more serious, more refined, and more trustworthy.

Students can use it as a portfolio.
Freelancers can use it to present their ideas to clients.
Beginner and practising designers can use it to organise multiple projects.
Decorators and home styling professionals can use it to refine concepts before execution.

Instead of flipping through loose papers and scattered notes, you now have one organised portfolio system to record and document projects and assignments. One space; one clear presentation tool.

If you are serious about presenting your interior design ideas in a clean, professional way, stop being random and be intentional instead. Start building your concepts in a structured portfolio book. Your ideas deserve better than clutter. This mood board planner gives your creativity a boost, and your clients a reason to trust your vision.

*View it here on Amazon:

Mood Board Pages for Interior Designers: An Interior Design Portfolio Organizer Journal

(Available in paperback and hardcover).

Other Interior Design Books and Resources:

How Interior Designers Charge for Projects and Services
Important Business Tools for Professional Interior Designers
Interior Design Workbook: Clients' Data, Project Details, and Measurements Record Book for Interior Designers
Space Planning Sketchbook for Interior Design Students: Room Layout Drawing Book
Tired of Scattered Client and Project Notes? This Interior Design Tool Fixes That

Tired of Scattered Client and Project Notes? This Interior Design Tool Fixes That

If you are an interior designer, you already know this struggle.

You have ideas in your head, pictures saved, client messages everywhere, and budgets written on random sheets of paper. Everything feels messy and scattered. And that can be a pain!

Designing and conceptualising are creative and so fulfilling; that’s the fun part of interior design, but managing clients' projects requires systematic organisation.

And that is exactly why I created this tool: 10-Client Interior Design Moodboard Template Book: For Interior Designing, Decorating, and Home Styling Projects.

This is not just a random notebook. It is a structured niche-specific project system, created in a book format.

The Real Pain Point

Many designers are talented, but when it comes to documenting design projects, they are often mentally overwhelmed. And that’s not surprising. From keeping client details in WhatsApp messages to measurements in emails, material lists in notebooks, and budgets in spreadsheets, when things are not recorded in one clear, tidy place, then:

Concepts get lost.
Budgets and calculations go wrong.
Communication between the parties becomes confusing.
Project implementation feels stressful.

But for a seamless project implementation, clients want clarity, contractors need details, vendors need clarification about orders, and designers need full control over it all.

How This Book Solves That Problem

This work tool/template book gives you, the designer, a ready-made structure. Each project and its client gets a full 10-page section to document:

Detailed client and project information.
Project brief/description.
Proposed style or concept.
Sketching pages for rooms and interior spaces.
Material and product requirements lists.
Vendors and suppliers log sections.
Mood pages for textures, patterns, swatches, colour schemes, etc.
Vision (box section).
Furniture, furnishings, finishes
Budget and pricing sections.
Pages for notes, references, and additional information.

It also includes index pages and 2-year calendars.

Think about the relief of everything being in one place. All records: clean, clear, organised, and professional.

No more scattered notes.
No more “Where did I write that?”
No more shuffling of loose sheets.
No more guessing what the client said.

Why Thoughtful Documentation Matters

When your documentation is methodically documented, you will:

Think clearer.
Give better presentations.
Communicate with all stakeholders better.
Look more professional.
Reduce mistakes and avoid problems and hitches.

*View it here on Amazon: 10-Client Interior Design Moodboard Template Book: For Interior Designing, Decorating, and Home Styling Projects

This book will become your reference point for every project and help you move from “creative chaos” to “confident clarity.”

If you want calmness while you work and feel organised and professional while executing projects, this was designed for you.

At just $15.99 for 10 full client projects, and about $1.60 per project, this is a small investment that can save you time, reduce mistakes, and make you look more professional. If you’re serious about running your interior design projects with clarity and confidence, this is an easy yes.

Other Interior Design Tools & Resources

The 3-Colour Rule Designers Use to Prevent Visual Chaos

If your room feels busy, mismatched, or slightly chaotic, the problem may not be your furniture. It may be your choice of colours. Learning how to decorate with only three colours can instantly create a cohesive, balanced space.

Too many colours can hurt the eyes; competing for attention, while too few can make the space feel flat and lifeless. But three colours, only? Yes, because three creates a perfect balance.

Have you ever been in a fix and had to search for:

How to choose a colour palette for a room.
How many colours should be in a room?
How to make my room decor look cohesive and balanced.
How to successfully decorate a room with just a few colours.

If you have, or have searched for similar home improvement queries, you are not alone. Many homeowners have also asked the same questions.

This guide will walk you through a simple colour palette that works in any room.

Why the 3-Colour Rule Works

Using only three colours helps your room feel organised and balanced. It also shows:

Clarity: The space feels clean and easy to understand. Your eye isn’t overwhelmed by too many competing tones.

Visual rhythm: When colours repeat in different areas, your eye moves smoothly around the room instead of jumping from one random colour to another.

Cohesion: Everything feels nicely connected with the furniture, decor, and textiles, and they all look like they belong together.

Intentional design: The room looks planned. Even simple spaces feel more polished when the colour palette is controlled.

With only three dominant colours, your room will not look like it’s randomly decorated. It will look and feel perfectly planned.

Step 1: Choose Your Base Colour (60%)

Your base colour is the foundation of your colour scheme and should cover roughly 60% of the room.

It usually appears in the following places:

Walls
Large furniture pieces
Area rugs
Floor finish

The popular choice for base colours includes:

Warm white
Soft beige
Light grey
Taupe
Soft greige (a combination of beige and grey)

The base colour sets the mood and should feel calm and neutral enough to support the other two colours. If your base colour is too bold, the room may feel overwhelming.

Step 2: Select Your Secondary Colour (30%)

Your secondary colour supports the base and adds personality. It usually appears in:

Upholstery
Curtains
Accent chairs
Larger decor pieces

For example, if your base is warm beige, your secondary might be:

Soft brown
Muted sage
Charcoal
Dusty blue

The colour should contrast slightly with your base, but not compete with it.

The base and secondary should feel like they belong in the same family (warm with warm, cool with cool).

Step 3: Add One Accent Colour (10%)

Your accent colour may be the smallest percentage, but it must have the biggest impact. The pieces best suited for accent colours are:

Cushions
Artwork
Vases
Lamps
Books
Small decor pieces

A real-life colour scheme example should be as follows:

Base: Warm white

Secondary: Soft brown

Accent: Muted blue

The key rule:

Repeat your accent colour at least three times in different parts of the room. Repetition makes it feel intentional, and not just random.

How Do You Know If Your Room Has Too Many Colours?

You definitely have a colour riot in your room if:

Every cushion is a different colour.
Art introduces new tones that don’t repeat.
Decor was bought individually, without a palette plan.
Your eyes don’t know where to rest.

A cohesive room allows your eyes to move smoothly around the room.

Real Example of a Living Room Reset Using Only 3 Colours

Imagine a small living room with:

A grey sofa
Mustard cushions
Blue throws
Green plant pots
Pink artwork
A brown coffee table
A beige area rug

Individually, they may be beautiful features, but together, they are competing with each other for attention.

Now apply the 3-colour rule:

Base: Warm beige (walls and area rug).

Secondary: Soft brown (coffee table and chair).

Accent: Muted blue (cushions, artwork, and small decor items).

When you remove the mustard cushions and pink artwork:

The room will feel calmer.
The eye moves smoothly.
Everything connects together.

Note that, although nothing expensive was added or changed, the colour structure improved.

Warm vs Cool Hues: Why Undertones Matter

One common mistake among decorating homeowners is mixing warm and cool tones unintentionally.

Warm tones include:

Cream
Beige
Warm wood
Terracotta

Cool tones include:

Blue-grey
Crisp white
Charcoal
True grey

If your base is warm beige and your secondary is cool blue-grey, the room may feel slightly off. So, before choosing your three colours, first check the undertones. When there is consistency, then there is harmony.

What About Patterns?

You can absolutely use patterns as long as they include at least one of your three chosen colours. For example, a patterned cushion that contains beige, brown, and blue fits perfectly into the colour palette.

Patterns should reinforce your colour choices, not introduce new dominant tones.

Can You Use More Than Three Colours?

Yes, you can, but they must be carefully introduced. You can include:

Wood tones
Greenery
Metallics

These colours often act as neutrals, but if bold colours start exceeding three dominant hues, the room may lose clarity. When in doubt, reduce first and add later.

A Quick 5-Minute Colour Audit

Stand in your room and list the visible dominant colours. Ask yourself if:

You see more than three strong tones.
One colour dominates too much.
The accent colour is repeated at least three times.
Your chosen colours share similar undertones.

If the answer feels unclear, then your palette likely needs simplifying.

Why This Method Works in Small Spaces

Small rooms (especially) benefit from limited colour palettes. Too many colours, small spaces will feel cluttered, but with three, and in the right ratio, you will achieve visual continuity, beautiful calmness, and a more spacious look.

So, if you find that your small living room looks/feels busy, simplify your palette to instantly improve it.

Would You Like Some Help Choosing Your 3-Colour Palette?

If you would like a structured worksheet that will help you:

Identify a base colour
Select a balanced secondary colour
Choose and repeat your accent colour with intention

Or maybe audit your existing decor, download the Room Clarity Blueprint. It will walk you through diagnosing anchors, scale, layering, and colour, step by step.

Download the Room Clarity Blueprint here.

Final Thoughts

Decorating with three colours is not restrictive, but it’s more stylish and visually freeing. When your palette is clear and chosen with intent, then shopping for furnishings becomes easier, styling becomes simpler, and the rooms feel more finished, faster.

Structure creates calm, and calm is what you need to make your home feel comforting and aesthetically appealing.

How to Create Different Zones Within a Room

How to Develop an Interior Design Concept – 5 Basic Principles to Follow

How to Fix a Room That Feels Messy, Disorganised, and Mismatched

Why does your room feel messy or unfinished? Learn 5 simple interior design fixes to create a cohesive, balanced, and intentional space.

Let's say you bought the sofa, added attractive cushions, and hung art. And yet, something feels off. Or your room looks fine, but it appears unfinished. It feels mismatched, slightly chaotic, or visually confusing.

If you’ve ever searched:

Why does my room feel unfinished?
How to make a room look cohesive.
How to fix mismatched decor.

You’re not alone. The good news? The problem is rarely your taste or your style.

In this guide, I will walk you through five clear steps to find out exactly why your room feels off, and how to fix it without starting over or overspending.

Step 1: Identify the Missing Anchor

Every well-designed room has a visual anchor. But first, what is an anchor? It is the element that:

Make the space well-grounded.
Draws the eye first.
Organises everything else around it.

Common anchors include:

A properly-sized patterned area rug.
A statement wall-hung metal artwork.
A fireplace with a classic look mantle.
A headboard with built-in reading lights.
A bold statue on a tall, clear Perspex display stand.

When a room lacks an anchor, everything is just… ‘blah’. Features and elements begin to float. And nothing feels intentionally set up.

Anchor Tests You Can Apply

Stand at your room’s doorway and ask yourself these three questions:

What draws my eye immediately?
Is there one clear focal point?
Does my eye bounce around the room?

If you find that your eye keeps moving without settling on a focal point, it means that your space lacks a strong anchor.

How Do You Fix This?

Choose a dominant feature, and build around it. For instance, if it’s an area rug, ensure it is large enough to draw attention. If it is wall art, centre it properly. Scale it appropriately to the wall at the right height for optimal visibility. When your space's anchor is clear and outstanding, the interior cohesion improves instantly.

Step 2: Improve the Scale and Proportion

One of the most common reasons a room looks uninteresting and feels wrong is the incorrect scale and proportion of features and other interior elements.

Typical issues are, for example, when rugs are too small, art is hung too high (or low), a coffee table is too tiny, or the sectional is massive for a compact space. Another reason is having microscopic light fixtures in large, spacious rooms.

Scale is not about how much a piece costs. It’s about scale and proportion.

The Rug Rule

A living room rug should:

Sit under at least the front legs of your seating.
Ideally, extend beyond both sides of your sofa.

With a small rug, you are shrinking the entire room visually and making the furniture look (sort of) disconnected.

The Artwork Rule

Artwork should generally be:
Hung at eye level (roughly around 145–150 cm from the floor).
Scaled to about 75% of the furniture width below it.

A tiny wall-hung art placed above a large sofa creates an imbalance.

The Coffee Table Rule

Your coffee table should be about two-thirds the length of your sectional or sofa and roughly the same height as the sofa seat.

Correcting the scale alone can transform a space without buying new furniture. Sometimes, all you need is repositioning.

Step 3: Simplify Your Colour Scheme

Many mismatched rooms suffer from colour overload. Imagine this scenario: You have blue cushions, jade green throws, gold-plated lamp stands, pink walls, and a Grey sofa!

Individually, each item may be beautiful or even pricey, but together, the look is a disaster. They all compete for attention.

Use the 60–30–10 Method

Here is a simple formula you can use. Professionals in the interior design industry use this principle as well. For the best working colour scheme, use:

60% dominant base colour.
30% secondary colour.
10% accent colour.

For example, choose colours as such:

60% warm neutrals.
30% soft browns.
10% muted blues.

Use your accent colour in at least three different places in the room. Like blue cushions on the sofa, some blue detail in the wall art, and a blue vase on a side table.

When a colour appears more than once, it starts to feel intentional instead of random. The repetition helps make the space appear connected and balanced.

If your room feels chaotic, limit your palette and repeat deliberately.

Step 4: Add Visual Layers

A room feels unfinished and messy when it lacks depth. If your interior space looks flat, it probably has:

Just one overhead light.
Minimal textiles and textures.
Bare walls.
Few height variations.

A finished room must feel layered. Layering includes utilising lighting, textiles, height variations, and natural elements.

Lighting:

Overhead
Table lamps
Floor lamps
Accent lighting

Textiles and textures:

Rugs
Curtains
Cushions
Throws

Height variation:

Tall plants
Low coffee tables
Medium-height side tables

Natural elements:

Wood
Woven textures (rattan, etc.)
Greenery

Layering makes a room feel intentional and lived-in and not staged or sparse. So if your space feels flat, you don’t need more furniture. You need layered detail.

Step 5: Remove What Doesn’t Add Value

Clutter makes a nonsense of an interior. When too many items compete for attention, even a well-designed room feels messy. To remove what adds no value to your space, try this 30% edit challenge:

Remove 30% of your decor.
Step away for a few hours.
Return and reintroduce only what truly adds balance to the room.

Often, you will find that the room instantly feels calmer, airier, and more stylish. Simplifying the space is not about minimalism but about clarity.

A Real-Life Example of a Small Living Room Reset

Imagine a typical suburban living room, with:

A big beige sofa.
Small patterned rug.
Random blue and mustard cushions.
Tiny artwork.
A single ceiling light.
A small coffee table.

This mix is very mismatched. It feels like a decorating mess, as well.

Now, to fix this mismatch, apply the five steps:

Replace the rug with a larger neutral rug that fits under the seating and extends from the sides of the sofa.
Swap tiny artwork for one large statement piece that visibly stands out over the sofa.
Reduce accent colours to one (eg, muted blue repeated in cushions and art).
Add a floor lamp and a textured throw.
Remove the excess small decor.

The Result

The room has not changed in cost, but it now feels cohesive, calm, intentional, and aesthetically appealing.

Summary: Why Rooms Feel Off

If your room feels cluttered, unfinished, or decoratively messy, it’s usually one of these:

There is no clear focal point (anchor).
Using an incorrect scale.
There are too many competing colours.
Lack of visual layering.
There is too much visual noise.

Before going out to shop, notice what is missing first, then fix it.

Will You Like a Free Printable Step-by-Step Room Diagnosis?

If you’d like to walk through this process with a clear worksheet, I created something for you. And it’s free. The Room Clarity Blueprint is a 7-page printable guide that helps you:

Identify your room’s anchor.
Test scale and proportion.
Refine your colour scheme.
Assess layering.
Create a focused action plan.

It helps to turn this article into a practical working session.

Download the Room Clarity Blueprint here.

When Your Space Begins to Look and Feel Finished.

A room rarely feels wrong because you lack style. It only does because it lacks structure. Once you understand anchors, proportion, colour rhythm, layering, and editing, you will stop decorating randomly and start designing intentionally.

And that’s when your space begins to look and feel finished.