Must-Have Supplies for Interior Design School

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In my first year of university I was asked to buy a whole bunch of drafting equipment. In this post I will share with you the tools that I consider essential for interior design and architecture students.

Notebooks (Physical or Digital)

It's pretty obvious that you need notebooks to take your notes, some of my classmates actually used to take their IPads to school to take notes, I actually did the same last semestre and I downloaded an app called Good Notes, but then I realized that I still prefer to have actual notebooks, I just love writing on paper notebooks. For my physical notebooks, I don't like grid paper or lined paper, I always get either just blank or with dotted lines, that’s because sometimes I like to sketch or make little drawings so having a blank paper makes it more neat and clean. And for some reason I find the big notebooks (8.5 x 11) very annoying, I feel like they are big and heavy, so I try to get smaller notebooks which in my opinion are easy to handle and to carry around. 

Pens

I love gel pens and I never take notes with anything else (or almost never). Gel pens have become popular because they offer a smoother writing experience compared to ballpoint pens because the ink flows more freely. I have found that gel pens make writing for extended periods more comfortable, which is good if you will be sketching for longer periods of time.

Pencils 

If you have free hand drawing classes you will most likely be asked to get graphite pencils or also called drawing pencils. Graphite pencils have 16 degrees of hardness, and the degree is always printed on the pencil. You will see a letter and a number, “H” stands for hard and “B” for black, in a nutshell the H pencils are lighter and B pencils are darker. You can also see there is an F one and that is not too light and not to black, it's a good middle point if you are not sure which one to get.

Architectural Scale Rulers

Architectural scale rulers are a must for designers and for architects. If you tend to break things like me, then I would recommend you get the metal ones instead of the plastic ones. And depending on what units your country works with you will need either the Metric or the Imperial scale ruler.  

Markers 

If you are going to be doing hand drawings and hand renders you will for sure need to get some markers. My suggestion is to get good quality ones, although they are more expensive, but the difference is huge and in my opinion they are totally worth it. Which brand to get? I am actually only familiar with two brands and those are COPIC and CHARPAK. I know for sure these are high quality markers, and this is what I can recommend to you. I have also heard about PROMARKER and TOUCH but I have never actually used them so I can’t really tell you anything about those. 

Measuring Tape

If there is one thing that you must get used to carrying everywhere you go is a measuring tape. Not only do I carry this to school but I carry this anywhere I go. I am always curious about what things measure. It’s a good practice to get familiar with measurements because as a designer, knowing the right dimensions for furniture, clearances, hallways, doors, and literally anything is very important. 

Templates

If you have space planning classes, you will most likely be required to make floor plans manually, for this, a very useful thing to have is furniture templates, and circle templates. They come with different types of furniture, doors, plumbing fixtures, etc. I love them because they can save you a lot of time and your objects will be more precise. 

Drawing Tube

A drawing tube or a drafting tube, is a cylindrical container used by architects and designers to safely transport large-format drawings, blueprints, and other documents without creasing or damaging them. I have always used my drawing tube  to store my architectural drawings, and keep them from getting wrinkled or wet, so it’s highly recommended to get one of this.

Sketchbook

For my studio classes I am always required to get a sketchbook 9x12 with blank pages, so there are different types of paper, some papers are specially for markers and others are for pencil only, so you want to double check which one you need to get.