How to Find Your Style and Get Started

One way we suggest people get to know their style and tastes is to gather a bunch of examples of rooms or decor that they like. I used to use magazines, now it seems most efficient to use Pinterest.

How to use pinterest to define your style

Gather Images of Home Style that You Like

After starting your own Pinterest account, simply search "interior design." Pinterest will pull up images that are related. Scroll through and save the ones that speak to you. Maybe even have a board for "design I do not like" and "design I like." Try using various design terms (e.g., modern, eclectic, minimalism, traditional, bohemian) to see what comes up. You can use these words in Google too, obviously.
Visit blogs about design and save the photos you like or do not like to your Pin boards. Good design sites include Apartment Therapy, Design Sponge, Domino, Lonny, any home design magazine's website, even go to your favorite Instagrammer's webpage or Instagram page.
Go to your favorite stores' websites (Retro Den, Target, West Elm). You can save their product images as well!
Take photos of furniture or accessories that you'd like included in your room design and upload those photos to your Pinterest board.

Domino Magazine Galleries: can search by room or color

What not to do with Pinterest

Do not ONLY pin photos from searches within Pinterest. When you search within Pinterest, it's a little incestuous and keeps you from finding the newest, freshest content. We love this platform for SAVING collections of links and photos in one visual place, but there is a disproportionate amount of super crafty, DIY people using and adding things to Pinterest, and sadly this can keep you from hunting down the best versions of a style you hope to obtain. Go to the places we listed above to find great style articles and the best versions of what you are looking to bring into your home.

Look for Themes

Once you've pinned twenty items or more (The more you do, the better the final results for your space. It's okay to pin fifty photos.), you can look at your overall board of pins/images and identify design trends you seem to gravitate towards. Go ahead, get your pen out and make a list of what you see that is a common thread. Blue walls, gold accessories, cream sofas, plants...whatever you see that is in 3+ photos. The more photos of a style, the stronger the argument that you really like this look and would enjoy being surrounded by it.

Palmer's kitchen themes: warm wood, whites, grays, open shelving, modern style

Congratulations, You've Discovered your Style Preferences

Now you have these internet boards and a list...want our help deciphering your style? This is our specialty. Making a Pinterest board is only part of your client homework. You'll take a home survey and spend some time face-to-face with us, then we'll provide a road map to a finished space you love.