Where To Draw Inspiration For Your Home.
How To Draw Inspiration For Your Home.
Starting a new project can seem hugely daunting. Usually a renovation often starts because you want to change the spaces within your home. Sometimes just rearranging and good spacial planning is enough but the majority of the time when we look to radically change our homes, this means extending and reconfiguring our homes.
Starting Your Project
This part of the journey is hard enough. Even with the support of an architect it is you that has to unpack why you want the changes and what you want your new home to achieve. There are weeks, sometimes months of going back and forth trying new different configurations and weighing up the changes with the cost implications and getting to a point where everyone is happy!
This, however is only part of the journey. Now don’t get me wrong the spacial planning is, in my opinion the most important part of the design, but creating the right look, feel and finish for your home, is the other hugely important element of the design process.
Where To Begin.
Todays blog is not about listing out different designs, styles and options for your home. That would be a book in itself! Plus it’s hugely personal choosing the aesthetics for your home. When we work with clients, we spend a lot of time understanding what is important to our clients, how they live their lives and how they want their homes to feel. This then slowly allows us to build a design concept, which is tailored uniquely to them! It is one of my favourite parts of the design process, as it brings my love of design and my previous career as a facilitator and communicator altogether.
Designing For Yourself
Now if you are choosing your design direction yourself, then don’t fear here are some top tips to help you create a home that is unique and stylish and works for you and your loved ones.
The List!
Firstly if you don’t have a designer unpacking the details of your life and translating that into the right design, then you need to do it for yourself.
The first step is to get back to an old fashion list! Start with a general list, the reasons for the changes, what extra do you want your new home to deliver? How do you want your home to feel when you walk through the door at the end? What parts of your lives do you want to see represented in your home? Are there elements from your past, or places you’ve been to that you would like to see weaved into the finish design.
The next list is more specific to each space. Each room has it’s own list and take time to list the practicalities you want out of each space, as well as the feel and life experiences that you want to see reflected.
As you look through all your lists, you will probably see some consistencies. They could be practical elements but also conceptual elements that start to build the overall interior concept.
This is such an interesting part of the design, often I’ve had clients who have initially had a design direction in their brief, but when once we’ve delved into the home and how they want each space to flow and feel, the direction changes.
Translating You Into Design Decisions.
Now you should have some clarity of the feelings and influences you want to create in your finished home. But how do you translate that into choosing the right kitchen, or what sofa to get.
Before you jump onto Pinterest and cookie cutter a look you find, there are other places to look for inspiration. I’m not saying that online research is bad, it is a really important part of the design process, but if you want a home that isn’t like your neighbours and identical to the interior trends, then give this process lots of time!
External Influences
Now some of you might be thinking external influences, can’t I just go online, but trust me if you really invest in looking for inspiration elsewhere you will end up with a home that is really spacial.
Nature.
Nature might sound like a cliche but trust me it is an amazing source of inspiration. When I go out for a walk, I always have my camera ready to snap away some amazing combination of materials or colours.
When I saw this living wall (pictured above) in it’s own habit, it really impacted on me the power of greenery and vertical plants. There was also an amazing colour combination of the vibrant greens with the pale pinks and striking purples. Potentially a colour combination I wouldn’t automatically think of, but one I know I will keep in my mind for the right project!
This log with the rusty pennies is a piece of art in itself. Again this shows the beauty of rustic timber combined with the patinated copper, a beautiful combination that could be used in the right interior setting! The elements of nature that stand out to you will be unique to you and what you’re drawn to. This is what makes the process so interesting.
Holidays are one of my favourite places for inspiration. You are taken from your normal lives and surrounded with places you don’t know and so there is unseen visual inspiration is everywhere!
Beaches, cities, forests, it is all there, just stop and take note!
Places You Visit.
I also have my eyes peeled when I’m out and about shopping, eating and meeting people. I’ve snapped pictures when I’ve been in a bank before, so imagine how inspired I am when I’m in my all time favourite shop! I might not know what I like about a setting I’m drawn too, but when I analyse the photograph later it becomes clearer.
On-Line!
We are so lucky that there are hundreds of thousands of resources to search online to help us make decisions for our homes. All I ask is that you take the previous steps first, before you start scrolling the net! By doing it this way round it means that you will have many personal and unique influences that will impact the design direction for your home.
This also means that when you start to search online you’ve already narrowed down your searches and have a clearer direction of what you are looking for.
The list comes into play again with the online search. My biggest pet hate is when I see a home that is completely copied for some images a homeowner has found online. Take the time and set a side lots of hours over lots of weeks to do the research. When you come across an image you like, ask yourself what it is you like in the image and why. Then cross reference that with you initial lists of wants and ideas and see if it’s compatible.
Curation and Concepts.
You’ve done your research, you’ve made your lists, photographed everything in site and scrolled the internet for hours. Now is the time to curate all your hard work.
Concept boards are hugely helpful in editing and defining your final design. If working out how to do them online is too complex, then cut out images and arrange them on paper to see how they all interplay and work together. You will be amazed how clear it makes your decision process and defines what you do and don’t like. Keep reverting back to your initial lists and make sure that what was initially important to you stays in the design and doesn’t get passed over by some pretty picture!
This is obviously just the start, but it is a very important step in defining how you want your home to look and feel.
If you are feeling overwhelmed by all the design stages, then get in touch with us and chat through how we can work with you to achieve a home that is incredible, but also truly reflects you and your loved ones.
If you would like to know more about how we work, don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for more inspiration.