Designing Bespoke Printed Handles

Hello everyone!

Some of you may know that I have been having my garden completely renovated just in time for the Summer & within it I have had my dream outside work studio created in the form of a summer cabin!

It’s still a work in progress with lots of little bits that need finishing but for my next task I’ve been working on designing some bespoke cupboard handles featuring my own designs.

A post shared by Rachael Taylor (@rachaeltaylor_) on Jul 30, 2017 at 11:56am PDT

Above is a little test batch of the oversized printed cupboard handles, not bad for my first trial!

I’m using these to decorate some brightly painted bespoke cupboard doors in the cabin. I think I might give these another whirl & design some more for a few other projects.

Below are some design challenges I had to think about:

Design challenge 1: Choosing the designs

When we started designing we had around 16 potential design ideas that we could use for the handles, some of which we’re picked from my vinyl floor design & a few that were added in as we believed they would complement that design.

I only needed 6 designs to fit the 6 cupboards that you see above so I needed to narrow down the choices. In the end I went for a mixture of all over pattern & motifs re-scaled to fill the circle so that there was a variety of scales to make it more visually interesting.

Design challenge 2: Scale

Scale was a really important factor to consider with the designs as I would like for the handles to stand out but not be too in your face, especially since I wanted to go for quite an oversized option for the handles compared to standard cupboard handle sizes.

I experimented with all over patterns & blowing up motifs to fill the circles to see which would work best. Sometimes it’s the simplest changes that really make a difference to a design.

Design challenge 3: Colour

I always try to avoid everything looking too matchy-matchy in terms of colour & since the cabin is painted white it’s pretty much a blank canvas to work on, meaning I didn’t have to limit myself on colour choices.

I chose colours that would complement both the already painted cupboards as well as the eventual vinyl floor design. There is a good mix of bright, popping colours as well as more neutral tones that balance each other.

So many circles!

My garden design included quite a few curved & circular elements from a round pergola & patio section, to a curved brick path leading up to it, to the curved flowers beds & decorative walls. So when it came to creating the floor vinyl & working the cupboard handles, a circular theme seemed to organically grow. It’s amazing how a theme can unintentionally evolve within your designs & seamlessly bring everything together.

Being a print & pattern designer & an interiors lover can be a problem…

Sometimes I find it hard to settle with an idea along with actually beginning & finishing the tasks as I know I can try out so many things these days! The possibilities are truly endless & I always push myself to go bespoke & experiment in lots of unique ways & drive myself up the wall in the process.

You can follow #rachaeltaylorgarden or #rachaeltaylorhome for more of my home renovations, or check out my posts here on the blog. You can also read all about how I designed the bespoke floor vinyl.