Finding Inspiration
When faced with a blank slate like a new home, or in our case a new-to-us house that’s really sixty years old, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all the possibilities for your space. We still find ourselves equal parts excited and overwhelmed with ideas on a daily basis. Especially for blank slates like 2nd guest bedrooms, unfinished master bedrooms and living spaces that just aren’t quite there yet.
This morning’s post is all about finding your style. If you’re like us and still not sure what your style ultimately is – have no fear. Most people, especially couples cannot pin down their style to just one source and it’s definitely more fun to develop it and collect it over time.
1. Keep an eye out. Of course look in the usual places like home magazines and catalogs. Some of our favorites are: Better Homes and Garden (yes, I feel like that makes me a little old since my mom used to read BHG), House Beautiful and Fresh Home. House Beautiful is the higher end of the spectrum, showcasing usually luxe designs that are in no way DIY-ed. We get lots of ideas for knock-off and pattern combinations from here.
More achievable, middle of the road designs can be found in Better Homes and Gardens and Fresh Home. I am absolutely in love with this office space from a past issue of BHG.
2. Look in other unexpected locations like travels and even the every day. We love to use meaningful souvenirs from our trips as decoration around the house. We’ve included rugs from our honeymoon in our kitchen for example.
You should also pay attention to what you wear. What colors you choose to put on your body everyday is also a good indication of what you’d like in your home.
This isn’t always true for Chad though.
If you’re not ready to commit to a design item like a rug during your travels or a tuxedo tee shirt, consider picking up some stones, or a map or postcards from where you’ve been for future projects. A newspaper is also a great inexpensive item to snag that could later be framed or used in other creative ways around your casa.
3. Keep all of your inspiration items in one place like a folder or a large shoe box. We prefer the shoe box method since we often pick up match books, stones, ribbons and even leaves to be used as inspiration.
We especially love those photos in the lower left hand corner, Chad’s parents took them of one another in the 70′s. With film – what a thought!
Pick up colors swatches from the paint store, fabric swatches from the craft store, old family images, anything that you really love.
Keep an inspiration file on your computer too. An easy folder of images to click through and drag to can keep you inspired for quite some time. We enjoy the tangible items too though, so don’t skip the shoe box if you can help it.
4. Put it all together when you’re ready to act. Look at the images or items and take note of the things you really love. What makes the images similar? Do you have a lot of red pillows in your images? Lean towards ikat patterns or brass fixtures? Figure these things out and slowly start infusing the items that you love into your room. This will not only make your room look more collected over time but it will likely save you money too in that you won’t run out and buy just any curtains, but instead will take note of what you truly love and buy only that when you’re ready.
We’d love to know what inspires you guys right now and where you find all your great ideas. How do you keep your thoughts organized? Are we the only one’s with a little design ADD sometimes?
Photos: House Beautiful, Better Homes and Gardens, Plaisirs Simples, 6th Street Design School
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just found your googling ‘orange lamps’ lol! love your blog…..just started perusing so i’ll probably be up all night ;) but you asked about organizing ideas? I’m SURE you know about PINTEREST.com but just in case…….you download a ‘link’ (i think) that sits on your desktop called PIN IT…..then when you see anything anywhere online that you like you click the PIN and it brings up the photo. You ‘pin it’ to a notebook that you’ve created and they’re all saved at pinterest.com…….you can follow other peoples pins, etc. I’m not explaining well but i’m sure you’ll pick it up quick…you’re young.
There’s also HOUZZ.COM, basically a gigantic library of photos of homes, rooms, etc that you browse and can also ‘save’ and organize into folders.
By the way….can’t believe you’re in DURHAM. I was BORN there! Now I live in the big city of Raleigh…woot woot!
Thanks so much! I am happy to hear you are enjoying all the shenanigans thanks for reading-we love pinterest too by the way. We need to link to amy’s pins on the sidebar or something. Thanks again neighbor!