I started collecting design magazines as a kid. I loved looking at the pictures of homes beautifully decorated on those glossy pages. For years, that was essentially the only way to seek inspiration images for design ideas and projects. Call me old school, but to this day, I still purchase and collect design magazines and enjoy tearing out pages for real pin boards. One of my dreams is to have my home featured in a design magazine one day.
However, things have definitely changed. When I set out to design our home, I had a problem. I found that after years of being inundated daily with images online, my inspiration was scattered everywhere and wasn’t organized at all! I had images saved on Pinterest boards, on Instagram, in my Houzz Ideabooks, and had tons of random screenshots on my phone. During meetings with my architect and designer, I needed to be able to quickly access my inspo photos but I had no idea where everything was. So, I started printing out pictures from all the places, and I created a binder with tabs. It worked for a while and was helpful in my initial meetings, but I was constantly finding new images and I needed a system that could be easily updated and accessed by everyone on the project. I explored different options, and here’s what I discovered:
1. Start Organizing Now:
Even if you are aren’t currently building a home or going through the design process, you might be saving images for that future project. If you put a good system in place now, it will be so helpful later. I’m not the best at keeping up with all the images on my phone, and I admire the moms that have yearly books with all their family pics so thoughtfully printed (I’ve always told myself I will be that mom one day). Once we decided to build, I had to come up with a solution fast! So, my advice is to try to keep up with your inspiration before you need it, and when that day comes, it will be one less headache.
2. Clarify Your Vision:
It’s fun to see how our style has evolved over the years. When you have all your photos in one place, it’s easy to look back at common themes in what you have saved. If there is an image that I saved from 3 years ago and I still love it, I ask myself what I’m drawn to about it. There are images that I saved a year ago that I don’t really like anymore. So, as I began sifting through my images, I was re-evaluating them and determining what stood the test of time. Cleaning out old images and seeing all your favorites in one place makes it easy to evaluate your own style and for it to be easily identified by other key people on your project. This will help your builder, designer and architect guide you to achieve your vision and determine an appropriate budget. If you like large windows and lots of trim work, it will be more expensive than if you like a cleaner, more modern look. A picture (especially a group of pictures) is worth a thousand words, so let the collection of images you have saved speak for themselves.
3. Decide which online tool to use as your hub and stick to it (My Favorite is Houzz):
Houzz was the easiest for everyone to access, and it offered the ability to upload images from any source. It become my new hub for saving all my images. I still think that Pinterest, Instagram, and various online sources are great places for finding inspiration, but SAVING IT ALL IN ONE PLACE that can be organized in folders and accessed by everyone is key!!
Houzz allows you to import any photo from anywhere into an idea book. So, I started screen shotting the instagram photos that I had saved and uploading them to my Houzz profile. I was also able to do this with items saved in Pinterest and photos saved in my screenshots on my phone. Even pictures that I had cut from magazines were scanned using an app on my phone and uploaded into Houzz. It might sound like lot of work, but honestly it’s easy to do and it felt so good to finally have it all in one place. Consistently using the same place to store my images became really important. I shared my Ideabooks with my team, and everyone was one the same page!
If you would like to see how I have organized my photos and what’s inspiring me, follow my Houzz profile HERE.
Learn to create Ideabooks on Houzz HERE.
If you’re like me and love design magazines, don’t think you can’t still use them. Do I still have a problem resisting the urge to spend $12 on a magazine in the grocery check out? I do, and I do! I still find that I can come across pictures not seen anywhere else in those magazines, and if I find just one impactful idea to incorporate into my new home, it’s worth it! Just remember that you can upload those pictures into your online “hub”. And go ahead, get out your thumbtacks and stick them on a real board for old times’ sake.
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