[int]: apartment, melbourne australia

In a few month's time, I will be moving out to Australia for a year. But the friend I will be going to live with has already moved into the flat we're going to share - which she is renting unfurnished. She has never furnished a house before, so I am helping her to plan rooms and find furniture.

A long distance project certainly throws up some challenges, but I'm largely treating the project the same way I would any other.

Bedroom, real estate photograph

The first step is to work out exactly what it is you're dealing with. I have the real estate photographs of the property, which give a rough idea, and the assurance that this carpet is actually blue, not black.

After that I started looking at what we want each of the rooms to be, and how we want them to operate. We're working to a budget, so it's important for us not to become too set on an idea - when looking for cheap or second hand furniture, the priority has to be using what you can find rather than searching for the perfect item.

Photos from my Living Room Pinterest board

I like to create a mood board of photographs to gather ideas, but it's important to be clear why you're choosing each image. Pick out a few aspects that you like about each image, and try to incorporate them rather than trying to copy faithfully. I used shared boards on Pinterest, so that we could both look at the ideas and give each other feedback.

Photos from my Bedroom Pinterest board

I began with an idea of what feeling the rooms should give out; the bedroom would need to be restful, the living room more fun and active. This formed the basis of my mood boards, bringing colour into the living room through bright, geometrically patterned cushions, and using more restful tones in the bedroom. Most of the apartment is carpeted in dark blue, so blue became the base of my colour schemes. The kitchen became about the use of different tones of wood and blue-and-white kitchenware.

Photos from my Kitchen Pinterest board

But then I had to face reality. Once I had the dimensions of the rooms, I started to draw up possible room plans. I could do this with computer drawing software, but you could use a pen and paper and draw to a simple scale. I used real furniture dimensions to plan out options for what could fit in the space, depending on what furniture we could find.

Early living room plan

And now is the fun part. I'm searching through sites like Gumtree for second hand furniture that might work, and my friend sends me photographs of pieces from shops. It's slower and more difficult to judge than working on a project in person, but I love a challenge.

Photograph of an Ikea Gateleg table, E MacColl

Stay tuned for updates! I have plans to customise furniture when I get out there, as well as searching for the perfect accessories.