# How to Design a Room in 10 Easy Steps - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/how-to-design-a-room-in-10-easy-steps/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Graphic Design · Solid intro · Rated 7 /10 # How to Design a Room in 10 Easy Steps Updated August 2026 Erikka Fogleman · Interior Designer Beginner · 107 min A systematic 10-step framework that turns a vague, overwhelming redecorating project into a repeatable formula anyone can follow. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fhow-to-design-a-room-in-10-easy-steps%2F1907604869) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. ## A formula for a notoriously fuzzy problem Erikka Fogleman's premise is that interior design, despite its reputation as an intuitive art, actually follows a repeatable process, and the course is built entirely around proving that claim. The ten steps run in a fixed sequence: measure the room, decide on key activities, choose a style, pick a color scheme, select a rug, choose furniture, add wall art, layer the lighting, hang window coverings, and finish with accessories and greenery. Each step gets its own short lesson followed by a matching activity, so a viewer working along fills out a room design page by page rather than absorbing the material passively. The color scheme lesson is a good example of how the course turns abstract taste into a checklist. Pick one or two neutrals, add one to three accent colors chosen either as an analogous group (colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel, like green, blue, and purple) or a complementary pair (opposites, like orange and blue), then decide on a hard-surface finish such as brass, chrome, or wood tones. It is not a deep education in color theory, but it is specific enough that someone with zero design background can act on it immediately. The lighting lesson stands out as the strongest single lecture. It insists on three layers in every room, ambient, task, and accent, and backs that up with a formula for fixture size (add the room's length and width in feet to get the recommended chandelier diameter) and hanging heights for pendants, sconces, and chandeliers over tables versus open floor space. It is the kind of concrete, numeric guidance that is hard to find distilled this clearly elsewhere. ## Where the course thins out The furniture and layout instruction is more procedural than creative. It covers clearance minimums, such as 36 inches for a main walkway and 14 to 18 inches between a sofa and coffee table, and a two-thirds ratio between coffee table and sofa length, which are useful guardrails but do little to help someone actually choose furniture they will love. A late demonstration lesson, where the instructor designs an empty living room from scratch using the full method, ties the steps together well and is worth watching even for someone who skips ahead through the earlier material. Several bonus lessons address specific scenarios: open floor plans, hot and humid climates, radiators under windows, oversized rooms, irregular layouts, and decorating around pets. These add real value for viewers with an unusual room, but they are addons rather than deepening the core ten-step method, and some of the advice, like fabric choices for humid climates, verges into territory more relevant to renovation than to a beginner decorating class. The course is explicit about its own limits, and that honesty is a strength. It does not cover kitchens or bathrooms, does not attempt to make anyone a professional, and stays narrowly focused on family rooms, dining rooms, and bedrooms. Within that scope it delivers exactly what it promises: a usable, low-jargon system rather than an inspiration reel. Anyone who already understands the basics of scale, color, and layout will find little new here, but a true beginner staring at an empty room will come away with an actual plan. The standout The three-layer lighting formula, ambient plus task plus accent with a specific fixture-diameter calculation, is the single most transferable, immediately usable technique in the course. ## What you will learn - · Measure a room and draft a to-scale floor plan using a simple half-inch method - · Build a coherent color scheme with a neutral-plus-accent-plus-hard-surface formula - · Choose furniture with correct clearances and rug sizing for a given layout - · Layer lighting into ambient, task, and accent sources with fixture-size formulas - · Identify and select among named interior design styles like transitional or mid-century modern - · Style shelves, mantels, and tables using repeatable accessorizing rules Best for: A homeowner with no design background who wants a concrete, step-by-step method for redoing a living room, dining room, or bedroom themselves. Skip it if: Anyone designing a kitchen or bathroom, or anyone who already knows design fundamentals and wants advanced technique rather than a beginner framework. Organization of Lessons Helpful Examples Clarity of Instruction Engaging Teacher [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fhow-to-design-a-room-in-10-easy-steps%2F1907604869)