Design for Everyone: Brainstorm with Virtual Idea Boards

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.” ~ Walt Disney

When I first started, I felt like I had no business designing spaces. I’m good at the big picture but putting textures and colors together that will sell the house I was not so confident. I’ve been using Pinterest and Houzz to piece together ‘dream boards’ that you would put together using ripped out magazine pages and taping them together to compose some sort of theme or color scheme.

Pinterest is known as a predominantly female geared platform. People use it to plan events, like weddings, or recipes for special occasions or holidays. It is a great tool to use to plan your decorating scheme for an interior and the exterior. You can easily gather ideas for landscaping, curb appeal, how to style your front door and entry way, from kitchen materials to flooring and bathroom tile. What I like best is that other ‘pinners’ have done most of the work for you already. Most pins that you research are already part of a larger board, and if you visit that board you can see what else that user put together already. It has been easy to use, either hit pin, send or like on the image. Once you click an image it usually leads to the website that sells the item or a blog post about how to do the project. Sometimes it’s just a source image from google, so it is still a good starting point to show a contractor to get the gist of the idea. 

Pinterest also has some good infographics that will show dimensions for desks and sofas in certain spaces. It has also linked me to a variety of blogs that have diy projects that I could do on my own, others I can get started in the prep work and save a bit on bringing in a contractor on the tail end. A good example of this is taking out the grimy carpet off of a stair case. Things like taking off wallpaper before a crew comes in can save some time you would otherwise pay a crew to do.

Houzz is more of a functional site, like Pinterest, but often there is a price point associated with the image. This has been so helpful when talking to a home staging crew and doing comparison shopping on my own in different places. I also use it as a way to get ideas that can give the project a unique spin. Hidden projects that most people don’t think of, like a gate that slides into the doorframe for dogs so you don’t have to use a baby gate, can stick in the mind of potential buyers.

It’s simple to use and it’s a fast way to get ideas together in a crunch. Where else can you see what tile looks nice next to granite at 2 am? Shop around for different types of hoods to use in a kitchen and put that picture together next to your tile and cabinet selections. There are tons of home improvement ideas I get from Pinterest.  It’s a great help if you have no imagination or clue what to do.