WHERE TO GO WHEN YOU NEED INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRATION

Let’s talk interior design inspiration today! Prior to the internet age, the “old school” method for drawing inspiration for a home decorating project was to thumb through your favorite home decor catalogs/magazines and dog ear the corners of pages that contained appealing images…

How many of you have file folders filled with catalog and home decor magazine pages collected over the years?  Maybe those pages may contain images of the perfect color palette for your master suite. Or perhaps those you’ve found a photo of just the right furniture configuration for your family room, or an innovative window treatment idea.

The digital age has really changed the way we research and gather information across all aspects of our lives, including interior design.  Today, I’m sharing my top two online resources for interior design inspiration.  As a bonus, I’ll introduce a promising new resource to keep your eye on as well.

INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRATION ON PINTEREST

Pinterest came on the scene just a few years ago, and is currently the most popular “non-Google” search engine in the world.  In case you aren’t familiar with it, Pinterest is an online pin board…essentially a digital version of your file folder containing ripped out magazine pages.  A “pin” is an image that links to a website that a user has added to Pinterest.  Any pin on Pinterest can be repinned, and all pins link back to their source on the web.

Pinterest boards are used to organize your pins by topic. You could pin ideas for remodeling your bathroom to your House Projects board, for example. Boards can be secret or public, and you can invite other people to pin with you on any of your boards.  Here’s a screenshot containing some of my Pinterest boards:

When you follow someone on Pinterest, their pins show up in your Pinterest home feed (click here to follow ME on Pinterest!). You can follow all of someone’s boards or just the ones you like best.  I use Pinterest as a mechanism for capturing general design ideas. When I used to work with clients, I also created project-specific boards for client projects that the client and I used to communicate ideas, share product/sourcing  information, etc. It’s the perfect tool for collaborating with others!

INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRATION ON HOUZZ

Houzz is the the largest collection of interior design and decorating ideas on the web.  Word of warning:   when you enter this website, you will be engulfed in a sea of home decor eye candy!  Most of the image collections that are posted on Houzz represent the work portfolios of interior designers, decorators, and home stagers.

Houzz users can gain inspiration by browsing images sorted by room type and design style.  They can post to discussion boards to ask for or offer advice concerning their own specific design dilemmas.  They can source products that are featured in room design images, and even research local design professionals in their area.

Similar to the Pinterest board, Houzz enables it’s users to organize their curated images into categories via “Ideabooks” that can be shared with others to facilitate collaboration on a particular project.

INTERIOR DESIGN INSPIRATION ON ZILLOW DIGS

You’re probably familiar with Zillow, a popular search website for real estate listings and real estate market information.  They’ve recently introduced Zillow Digs, an online community for home design ideas and inspiration.  Similar to Pinterest and Houzz, this site lets you browse images and save them to idea boards. You can search by style cost, and room type.   But Zillow Digs boasts one unique feature…it  provides an estimated cost for the project.  I am looking forward to exploring this site in greater detail in the coming months.

So there you have it.  My short list of “go to” websites to get my creative juices flowing when embarking on a new redesign/home staging project.

How about you?  Do you have any great online resources to add to the mix?

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