Ok, so i've been asked to create a website for somebody who sells bathrooms, kitchens and bedrooms. This is my first proper project from start to finish, and i want to do this well and looking great.

 

I need help with the design though (i'm more of a developer than a designer). It's a new website so he doesn't have any company colours or anything, so i've got quite a lot of freedom with it.

 

It's just a simple html site so nothing fancy, but i want it to look great. I'm think the best way is to do it using the photoshop method and slicing the images?

 

Looking around at different websites that sell kitchens and bathrooms. They all seem to be quite simple colours, usually white, and with areas for big images to show off different suites.

 

Can anyone help me, give me ideas or point me in the right direction for a design that already exists for me to use.

 

Any help will be appreciated

 

Thanks

Not sure about finding you a design you can use... surely that's cheating and if you really wanted to you could purchase a theme to use from somewhere such as theme forest.

 

If you decide to go ahead and create the design yourself i'd pay attention to the already existing sites that rely heavily on images of the suites as if i was looking for a bathroom i'd be looking out more for the products than the design of the site.

 

Use easy on the eye colours, plenty of big glossy images and negative space.

Finding a design somewhere was more just if there was one i could base my off. I'm not going down the route of buying one from theme forest.

 

Are there any tutorials i could use when creating the design in psd, sort of a framework i could based site designs off?

Try to dig here:

 

http://psd.tutsplus.com/

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/web-layout/page-1.html

 

What a great theme for design. What a great design it might be.

Try to dig here:

 

http://psd.tutsplus.com/

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/web-layout/page-1.html

 

What a great theme for design. What a great design it might be.

 

 

Heres another one for this list great tutorials here for psd

 

Vandelay Design Blog

 

Hope this helps

 

Joe

Thanks people.

 

Am i right in saying that doing a psd layout and slicing the images is the best way?

 

I'm not sure how i'm going to do it yet with this being my first one. Looking through some of the links i found this. Do you think i could base it on this, changing the colours to more light colours and natural colours.

 

hv-designs.co.uk/2008/10/26/interior-design-layout/

First thing I'd do is look at what content is needed and work from there not design and then try and make the content fit

 

Start with a pen and paper and jot down whats needed

Edited April 25, 201115 yr by mteam

It needs different sections for the different areas, i.e. kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms. Each with samples of what they sell and a from price. It needs some testimonials on there somewhere that i want to look hand written.

 

It's mainly to show people what sort of stuff he sells to get people into his showroom.

It needs different sections for the different areas, i.e. kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms. Each with samples of what they sell and a from price. It needs some testimonials on there somewhere that i want to look hand written.

 

It's mainly to show people what sort of stuff he sells to get people into his showroom.

 

Hi,

 

I've already messed around with the design from the link you posted. I never used it as a working site just did it to mess around.

 

Here is the Homepage

Homepage

 

And then if you scroll down and click beds that's the only working link on the page or link

Beds link

 

And then the second bed is only click-able link on that page.

Type of bed page

 

Hope this gives you some idea for what you can do.

 

And yes designing as a .PSD (or something equivalent) and then cut out the images is the best way to go about it but as someone said above make sure you know everything you want from the content first as it's not easy building a design for the homepage (like that site) and then having no idea what to do for a different type of page (like the bed page.)

 

Good luck with it and let me know if you need any help

Edited April 25, 201115 yr by j05hr

Hey Corbula,

 

If you need any more help, I'm actually an interior designer so I may be of some assistance?

 

Nina x

Ok, after some time a way i have recently come back to this.

 

Now, this is my first proper design so i want all your advice on the font, colours, and how everything is arranged.

 

The font i've used is just arial because i wasn't sure what would be a good one to use, so i just used that.

 

Any advice is appreciated.

I'd keep light verus warm approach.

 

Use colours that indorse in the cold nature of the bathroom yet also reflect on the warm nature of the bedrooms and kitchens.

 

Your palette can be a lot more than just limited to tones of brown and black/white.

 

It's a good start though are the fonts meant to be stretched?

Thanks for the advice.

 

Where are you looking when you say about the fonts being stretched?

 

The only place where i did stretch the font was at the top of the logo. Where it says 'Restyle'. To make it fit the width of the bit below it.

The attached image. Everything is stretched - must just uploaded wrongly.

Doesn't look stretched here

 

Would you mind if I had a play around with your design?

Ok so i took your advice and tried to use cold and warm colours. One the first one i did i tried to keep it to one colour.

 

What do you think of it now? Do the colours work? or has it made it worse?

Quick one for ya.

Edited May 12, 201115 yr by midouglas

i just finished designing a similar site

Thanks for that but i'm not sure it would fit the type of website. The person who it's for sells bathrooms and kitchens from suppliers, he doesn't do interior design. To me that image says interior design. The black and white flower bit, is that the background for the whole page?

No just below the nav that's it.

 

I don't think the layout is working. The logo is rather old fashioned... er.

 

Try reassembling the layout. Look at some inspiration on the web.

i got a +1 for sayin i did a similar site haha.

Edited May 12, 201115 yr by alzer81

The logo is what he has on his business card, so i just used that. It's not set in stone though so it can be changed i just used that because that's what he had.

 

That looks very good alzer81. Like i say though, I'm not a designer and this is my first attempt at designing a website.

 

I did look around at different sites before i did it, and they all tend to go for minimal text with big images and simple neutral colours. That's what i tried to do with mine.

i got a +1 for sayin i did a similar site haha.

 

I gave you it cause your from Ireland haha!

I had a quick go hope you dont mind

 

Thanks mteam.

 

That looks pretty good. I will have a go at a second design soon. Could i use certain aspects of your design? Things like the search and the newsletter i wouldn't need in mine. But maybe i could use some of the style/layout in my second design? The logo looks good as well.

 

One thing though, they don't specialise in one particular area i.e. kitchens. That's why i did the original three column layout, to show all three areas. Your layout would be good if they only specialise in one area though.

Edited May 12, 201115 yr by Corbula

Your quite welcome to use any ideas from that

 

I just did a page for the kitchens my idea would be to use different colour schemes for the kitchens bathrooms & bedroom pages

 

example bathrooms page just to give you an idea

 

Thanks.

 

I did think about using different colours for different area. I thought if i did that i could use my original idea with the three columns and use the different colours for the text section underneath the images.

 

Would it be wise to change the colour of the logo though, or would it not really matter?

 

What do you think about the the footer i used? Do you think it's good or should i have less on it or something?

What I'd probably try would be a black/grey & white home page and then have 3 blocks of content that on the hover add the color scheme of the page it links too

 

Does the client already have a colour scheme ? logo ?

The only logo he has is one he has printed on a couple of business cards, which is similar to the one on my design. The logo will probably get redesigned anyway. He doesn't have any colour scheme either, so i can use any colours i want.

 

I might try your idea for having a black/grey colour for the content column that change to colour on hover. But keeping the nav and the footer the same or similar colour they are now, or perhaps the colour of the first section i.e. kitchens.

 

The footer at the bottom of yours, does that have a texture applied to it or something or is it just the way the image has uploaded?

Yes a bit of noise applied to the footer area

Well done, Mteam. Right direction. And +1.

I also like designs. They are look good.

I've made a couple of changes to my design mainly the logo and the footer. I've made two, the first one showing the footer as it originally was, and showing some different colours for the different areas. The three sections with have a black/white adjustment layer though and show the colour when you hover over them.

 

The second is with the testimonial gone from the footer and replaced with the logo in the centre. What do you think looks best for the footer? With the testimonial or without, should i remove the quick links as well? I was just trying to make more use of the footer.

 

The reason i haven't changed the layout is because it's just the homepage, so it shows all three areas. For the actual pages for the different areas, I might go for the same or similar layout to mteam's design.

 

Also, mteam what's the font you've used for the logo on yours?

Edited May 16, 201115 yr by Corbula

Logo was AGaramond Lt Bold everything else was Georgia

Well done, Mteam. Right direction. And +1.

 

Couldn't agree more

Do you people actually like my design? What do you think needs changing, how would you improve it?

Edited May 16, 201115 yr by Corbula