"Design is in everything," says interior designer Kir Noel. The trick in creating an interior space—whether home or office— that makes you feel good is to learn how to find its natural design and work with it. "We can find enthusiasms in every area of our lives, even in our environment," says Noel. "It's important how you feel about being in your house or office. If the space has been designed well, with feng shui and light and color and form and texture all taken into consideration, then it's much easier to be there. I've worked in places that have terrible design and places that look great, and I know where I flow best—in a space with good design."

With offices in both Woodstock and New York City, Noel has more than 20 years experience in the business and has designed and/or built more than four million square feet of space for clients from New York City to London. But it doesn't necessarily take Noel's level of experience to be able to design your own living or working space to express your personality and make you feel good when you're in it. With training, Noel believes, any of us can learn to find design elements all around us. Her course, "Designing for a Client," which is being offered at the SUNY Ulster Business Resource Center in Kingston starting May 4, answers the question: "What is it like to be an interior designer?" Created to walk students through the basics of interior design, Noel's course focuses on designing a specific space for a local client, finding sources for materials and making selections, and working with other trades (including contractors, electricians, and painters) and professionals (architects and building inspectors).

An office designed by Kir Noel

"What is design depends on the person and the space involved," says Noel. The course is primarily an introduction to design for ages 16 and up, whatever a student's skill level, considering design elements like modules, layout, flow, and feng shui. Students will design an addition for a local homeowner, visiting the site and taking measurements, learning how to do scale drawings, accessing sourcing and choosing materials, and creating two final designs for presentation to the client during the last class. If there is time, students will also learn how to bid jobs to contractors. "It may sound like a lot to squeeze into four weeks," admits Noel, "but with my 20 years of experience, hey, look what you get." And yes, there will be homework, but she promises it will be fun.

"Some students will have no experience, some will have a bit but need to have their hands held, and some will already have a good amount of experience," says Noel. "Some students will learn enough to design for their own homes, and others will get enough experience to ask themselves, 'Do I really want to be an interior designer?'"

By the end of the course, says Noel, all the students, regardless of their level of experience, will develop their own individual awareness of design aesthetic and know where to look for inspiration. "Look at how Henry Moore created his great huge sculptures—from going along the beach picking up stones and looking at their patterns," she says. "Design is about what you can see and how you interpret it. Look at other people's homes, look at magazines, go out into nature. I like to look at trees, the way they balance, their symmetry."

During the course, Noel says she will ask students to "look at the design of things they already know and love—horticulture, fashion, books—and bring looks or colors or shapes they like to their interior design." What the course is really about, she explains, is "basic design requirements, which could be applied to anything people might be interested in doing—and that certainly includes designing spaces in your own home or office."