Wherever you live—country or city; house, apartment, or mobile home; private bedroom or one you share with a brother or sister—there are things to learn and do to make your home more enjoyable.

Interior Design is a great way to learn about design, color, texture, and space. It will help you make your personal space a fun and comfortable place to be and a space that you are proud to show off!

What You Will Do

• Use your imagination and creativity.
• Take a glimpse into new career opportunities.

What You Will Learn

• Use the basic elements of design: line, shape, texture, pattern, light, color, and space.
• Select and care for quality furnishings and accessories.
• Recognize the variety and quality of products relating to the home environment (carpet, fabric, wall coverings).
• Create a budget.

Levels of Competition

Junior Level I: 9 to 11 years old on December 31 of the current calendar year (compete only at local and regional levels).

Intermediate: 12 to 13 years old on December 31 of the current calendar year (compete only at local and regional levels).

Senior Level I: 14 to 15 years old on December 31 of the current calendar year.

Senior Level II: 16 to 18 years old on December 31 of the current calendar year.

Refer to Alabama 4-H Competitive Events on the Alabama Extension website (www.aces.edu) to review the Competitive Events General Policy and the Age & Eligibility Chart.

Identification of Entry

Name, county, and level of participation should be displayed with each entry. An introduction at the beginning of your time would be appropriate.

Rules for Interior Design

1. Compete by yourself or on a two-person team to design a room of your choice. Youth on teams should be the same 4-H age level (e.g., Senior Level II).

2. Your design board is a tool to display the color scheme and furniture arrangement. Use a three-panel foam display board that is 36 inches × 48 inches. These are available at most craft and school supply stores and most large chain stores.

3. Use swatches of carpet, flooring samples, paint samples, or sample wall treatments (free at most building supply stores). Mount these to your board to show what type of floor and wall treatments you will use. You must have at least one example each for floors and walls. You may have more (for example, ceilings or two different wall treatments in one room).

4. Fabrics: Include two swatches of fabric that will be used in the room (for example, pillows, curtains, and chairs). Fabric samples should reflect your color scheme and coordinate with your paint color. Samples should be wrapped. To wrap fabric, cut a square from poster board or cardboard. Wrap fabric around this square, securing raw edges to the back of the square.

5. Labels: Label the board (for example, Office) and any swatches of fabric, paint, or floor samples for their use (for example, pillows, curtains, etc.). For examples on creating a design board, search “Interior Design Boards” on the internet.

6. Furniture arrangement: Use the room template and furniture template (included) to organize the room layout. The furniture layout will be judged on creativity, proper use of space and lighting, neatness, and accuracy of the scaled drawing.

7. You have a $7,000 budget to complete your room. Use the budget form to show how you used your money.

8. NEW: You may use props and other design elements as part of your display. These elements must stay within the parameters of your design board.

Rules for 4-H Interior Design Board Presentation

1. Tell who you designed the room for: child, adult, or teen.

2. Tell what type of color scheme you are using in the room. Is it monochromatic, complementary, or adjacent?

3. Tell about the furniture arrangement and about the traffic patterns of the room. Also tell how you applied the principles of design to your plan.

4. Tell what type of floor and wall treatments will be used.

5. Tell how the fabrics you chose will be used in the room.

6. Tell what you like most about the room.

7. Tell about how you used your budget.

8. Neatness of the board will be judged.

9. Presentation skills will be judged.

• If you are competing on a two-person team, both team members must participate in the presentation.

Disqualification of Entry

• Youth are cautioned that language, gestures, and subject matter should be appropriate for the age level and the audience. Disqualification may occur if the facilitator and the event review committee consider the material inappropriate.
• Senior Level not completing and submitting a community service report.

Deductions of Entry

• Deductions will be made for exceeding the time limit.

Thinking About Interior Design

Design is “an orderly arrangement” or “a plan.” Design is described as the selection and arrangement of material with two aims—order and beauty. Interior design refers to the inside space of a room or building. It is the art that deals with the organization, selection, and arrangement of the elements of design.

The Elements of Design

Lines: Lines may be straight, curved, or a combination of both. When you enter a room, lines help to make it easier for you to look from one part of the room to another.

• Long, horizontal lines can make a piece of furniture seem restful.
• Vertical lines seem to be more formal.
• Diagonal lines create action and restless movement.
• Objects in a room can be made to look taller or wider with the direction of lines. For example, vertical stripes at a tall window will make it look taller.

Space: Space is an essential element of any design. Your personal space is limited by walls, window, fabrics, furniture, and other objects. The challenge is to use space effectively, especially in high traffic areas.

Color: Use color to an advantage in planning a scheme for your room according to one of these blendings:

• Monochromatic: when one color is used in shades, tints, and tones.
• Complementary: using two colors opposite of each other on the color wheel, such as red and green.
• Adjacent: when adjoining or related colors are used, such as yellow and yellow-green.

Where Do I Start?

There are many different ways to decide how you want to decorate your room. If you have a clear idea in mind, you might just start shopping for materials. If you like to use a computer, you might start playing with a design program. Or you might try the approach we have written out here.

Let your imagination flow. Look at interior design magazines. Following are some examples:

• Better Homes & Gardens
• House Beautiful
• Martha Stewart Living
• Pure Contemporary

You could watch some home makeover shows on television.

Sometimes, inspiration comes through nature, or finding one piece of fabric that you could build a room around.

It is also a good idea to check your local library for books on home and design. You could even check the yellow pages for a local interior designer.

Once you have something in mind, begin your board by finding your paint, fabric, and flooring samples. You can also cut pieces of furniture out of magazines that you would like to see in your room. Play with your floor plan and furniture arrangement to make sure that you will have enough room for your items. Once you have everything decided, begin putting your board together.

Keeping Track of Your Costs

The purpose of this section is to show that the total cost of a room is often more than just the furniture or paint. Since you are not actually purchasing the items for your room, you will need to estimate the costs for your room.

For Example: Bedroom

Community Service

Telling a great story, showcasing projects at a community library, speaking at the local nursing home, or organizing a community cooking or a building blocks workshop are great opportunities to serve others. Serving others helps build your academic skills, learn civic responsibility, and develop leadership. It may also give you a good opportunity to meet new people, publicize 4-H, and practice your communication skills. Alabama 4-H is now requiring all Senior Level 4-H members to add a community service component to all 4-H Competitive Events. Each Senior Level 4-H member will have to complete the 4-H Community Service Report as a part of their project. 4-H members will be disqualified if the community service report is not included.

It is important that you decide what service you can provide, not have a parent or 4-H leader make this decision for you. Groups of young people are encouraged to work together to discover how they can serve their community.

Other Documents

View the report form, score sheet, and floor plans for Interior Design in the corresponding PDF download below.

 

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Joy Scott, Extension Specialist, 4-H and Youth Development, Auburn University.

Revised July 2024, Interior Design, 4HYD-2241-M