Making an Entrance: Interior Design Students Share Their Ideas

Each year HOMEMAKERS Expo offers the Interior Design students of Nelson Mandela University (NMU), based in Port Elizabeth, the opportunity to realise their design expertise and share their creative ideas for the entrances and ticket office at the show.  

NMU Interior Design Students Challenge

The 2019 challenge, was themed Raw Comfort: The authenticity that comes with stripping pretentiousness, and moving consciously toward products that are aligned with wellness and sustainability.

The student’s biggest challenge, hinged around the entrances and how use the “power of first impressions” to intrigue visitors while establishing the theme and offering a sneak peak of what’s to come.

It was a challenge this talented bunch of young creatives took head-on. As you can see below, the three participating groups’ entries did not disappoint.

Group One

The first group presented a beautiful wooden raw timber log option dipped in concrete and paint, surrounded by delicious monster leaves and practical décor ideas that would allow visitors to immediately make the “home” connection.

Group Two

The second group interpreted Raw Comfort as an eco-friendly alternative and solution. Their simple, yet effective design dubbed “Paper Storm” was inspired by the trendy vertical garden. The students created a paper ball from newspaper and combined it with a vertical wall surrounded by lights made of rope. The overall effect was rustic yet trendy.  

 Group Three

The third group took the initiative to work with Pantone Colour of the year for 2019, Living Coral. Their design incorporated cork, paper and natural fibre. The pop of colour against the natural brown cork cut-outs, offered a contemporary look with clean lines juxtaposed by several textures.   A bed of folded paper flowers combined with a vine of paper leaves and webbed string completed the striking overall picture.

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“At HOMEMAKERS we believe in supporting young talent, we find it stimulating and exciting to work with them!  This is one of the ways we give back and invest in the development of future decision makers and design influencers,” says Johandie Slabbert, Head of Marketing and Communications at HOMEMAKERS.

And the WINNERS are!

In first place, we would like to congratulate the Interior Design Students in Group Three for their trendy yet raw design concept. Second place goes to “The Paper Storm” group. In third place we chose Group One with the timber logs.

HOMEMAKERS Expo would like to thank the students who participated. We wish each one of them well with their future design work.

You can see the latest interior design trends at Pretoria HOMEMAKERS Expo at Sun Arena, Time Square from 24 – 26 May.