Five Places to Look for Fresh Design Inspiration (& NEW ways to use them — ONE Will Surprise you)!
One of the goals and challenges when staging an occupied home is thinking creativity and using what is already in the house in a different way that the homeowner may not have thought of. I have the pleasure of getting to hear my clients exclaim, “oh wow, I never would have thought of doing that” over and over again. Sometimes you need a fresh perspective and a new set of eyes. In our own homes we get caught up in the way things are and the way we think things should be.
That’s the advantage we have of stepping into someone’s house and seeing it from a staging perspective. We can see how things could and should be used for staging the house for maximum potential when selling, whereas our client may be stuck thinking about it the way it has always been or how it has always functioned for them. It doesn’t mean that what they did was wrong as our homes are ours to live in and decorate the way that best suits us but for staging we typically follow certain staging principles that help show off the home to its fullest potential.
The great part of this is that the homeowner usually ends up liking some of the changes I make better! On the flip side, sometimes a client may hate it because it is different. Change takes some getting used to. Nothing on a wall where something has always hung or a piece furniture gone may feel empty to them. A new picture on a wall or a piece of furniture in a different place may feel crowded. Encourage them to let it be for awhile and they will not only get used to it the change and may even like it better. The advantage to this in staging versus decorating is that you are placing furniture, art, objects in a certain place in a certain way with the purpose of selling the house, the common goal you both share, so its a little bit easier to convince them of why it should be there.
Here’s a example. In this client’s bedroom, she had always had the bed in front of the window (and a large armoire that isn’t pictured almost blocking the door when you came in the room). We moved the bed to the wall instead and she loved being able to see out the window from the bed. It also made the room feel larger and we were able to move the armoire to a corner where it didn’t feel like it was blocking anything when you came in the room. Although she was moving, and sold her house quickly after we staged it, it gave her new ideas for her new home.
That’s why our own homes can be hard because we can’t see something differently than the way we thought it should be or had in our mind even if we are frustrated when it just doesn’t feel right. Enlist the help of a friend or family member, with good taste, for some help coming up with a creative solution you may not have thought of.
Where else can we go for inspiration? If you are anything like me, I used to wait for those magazines to come every month so I could dig in and come up with new ideas that I could use! Now we have endless inspiration at our fingertips from design professionals to bloggers to diy homeowners sharing ideas on a daily basis. Here’s 5 places to go when you are looking for some fresh inspiration along with some ideas for looking at them in a new way.
Instagram.
Of course, right? But read on. Instead of just scrolling through your regular feed or what’s trending, looks to see if those you follow post who is influencing them. Scroll through their feed, then go down that rabbit hole a little more and see who or what account that person is drawing inspiration from. Give them a follow if you want to keep seeing what they are up to. This opens your eyes to a fresh design perspective that you are likely to like as well. Do this on a regular basis and discover some new and fresh ideas and perspectives. I was introduced to this architect, and fellow southerner and travel lover who shared some inspiration from this designer and Cotswalds dweller. We were fortunate enough to to visit the Cotswalds last July and and I’m in love with her home and design aesthetic. Use the … Share to… Pintrest to file them away into your design folders for future use.
For you fellow magazine tear sheet hoarders of the past (I’m raising my hand too), this is your go to to pin and save to your hearts desire without amassing stacks of paper and notebooks full of ideas. They are at your fingertips whenever you need them (as long as the internet is available) or never, but you don’t feel bad for pinning them as long as you organize them into folders where you can easily go back to them. You can follow others on Pinterest or simply search a category that you are interested in or stuck on and you’ll get millions of ideas. Pinterest will also begin to show you more like those every time you check back in. You can also go to the link where these are posted from, likely to be a blog or Instagram post to find out more. You may find new design inspirers to follow along with here but I use it more for looking and saving specific design inspiration. This is the place where I’m the one exclaiming, “oh wow, I never would have thought to do it that way,” so it really is a great resource.
You may or may not be familiar with Houzz, but its like Pinterest strictly for home and design, with more design professionals posting the original content. You can save photos to design folders much like Pinterest and comment on them and ask questions like on Instagram and Facebook. It’s a wealth of information for all things home and design and you can now shop directly from the site. There are also great design articles so it feels more like a digital home/garden design magazine. If you haven’t checked it out, and you are into everything house and home, inside and out, it’s worth a look around. You can also find local design professionals, so it can also be a great resource if you are working on a project.
Magazines/Design Books.
Sometimes its nice to put away the technology, brew a cup of tea (or open a bottle of wine) and relax with a good old fashioned magazine where you can dog ear the pages (or just rip them out) and then display the magazine for while before passing it on to someone else who may love it. It’s also a great way to get introduced to houses that you may not have seen online (many are never posted until it goes to print), see them styled in new ways, find out the backstory or history of the project, or find new design inspiration to follow online. My three favorites that come to mind first are Architectural Digest, Southern Living, and House Beautiful. Design books can of course be more educational or you can just enjoy the beautiful pictures. My very favorites of late have come from designer Lauren Liess (find her feed on Instagram here) and a peek into her books, where she educates about the design process (in Habitat) and gives us permission to create laid back style that is beautiful but that we can really live in (Down to Earth). If you are not sure, spend some quality time pursuing a local bookstore for the latest ones and put them on a wish list since they can be a little more expensive. They made great additions to a coffee table, especially if you love them and pick them up for inspiration and reference again and again.
House Hunting Sites or Open Houses in your area.
Not just for house hunting and you might to wade through some really bad houses. There are some real gems out there that are staged or decorated immaculately and can give you some great ideas for decorating and renovations (or help you know decisively what not to do). The beauty of this is being able to see houses all over the world in various price ranges and dream a little bit. Walk through houses in your area to see what the local trends are and get some ideas. It can be a fun way for house lovers to spend an afternoon. Try realtor.com or Zillow.com and they both have apps you can download as well.
Where is your favorite place to go for design inspiration or when you get stuck? I’d love to hear yours too!
