before any drawing, we stand in the room. usually for longer than anyone expects.
it is not a formality. a room tells you plenty about itself if you let it.
light, first
we look at where the light comes from and where it leaves. a north window gives an even, cool light that holds all day: good for a desk, less generous to an evening room. a west window brings an hour of low warm light that changes the colours on the walls completely.
this is why we never choose a colour from a catalogue. we see it on its own wall, at the hour the room is actually used.
how people move
we follow the routes. door to sofa. kitchen to table. where the bag lands when you come in, where someone stands while talking to whoever is cooking.
those routes are already there, worn in over years. an interior that contradicts them will be corrected by the people living in it within months, with a chair moved and a box put somewhere it should not be. better to draw them than to fight them.
what was already good
almost every home has something worth keeping: the proportion of a room, an old door, a floor that only looks tired. we write those down first, before proposing anything.
light is the first material.
only after all of this does the drawing start. not because it is a procedure, but because a design that ignores the light and the routes will look good in a render and be exhausting to live in.