You’re planning your home renovation or change of decoration. After following my 10 steps to get clear on what you need and expect from the change, it’s time to look for some inspiration. And where on Earth would you find more inspiration than on Pinterest ? Nowhere else. Or at least not as quickly. Only a warning though : too much ideas at the same time is quickly overwelming. That’s why I’ve put together my own version of a Pinterest tutorial to keep you organized and lead you in the right direction.

Note 1 : if you plan to rely on your faithful interior architect, you will of course have less work (if not at all) on this topic than if you are doing your renovation on your own.

Note 2 : For my dear readers who are not fond of being registered on the kind of platform like Pinterest, Don’t run away ! You can still use the exact same advices but using google and do the work directly on your computer. You will replace Boards by folders, download your images in them and will add some keywords to your google research like « inspiration », « ideas », « interior »,… Probably a bit more work but the bright side is you’ll be able to stay anonymous :)

Now all information is given, let’s dive into our subject.

Be clear on what you are looking for.

That’s ESSENTIAL if you don’t want to loose days on your research. You need to know where you are going with your project. What’s your ambition, what style you are looking for, what do you need,… In short, you want the outline of your plan on the ready.

To get some help on this point, you can head to my 10 steps to get clarity and write this all down and come around here afterwards.

Create your first Boards.

I won’t explain here how to set up a Pinterest account as there are plenty of tutorials to do so, like here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRcVj-1pyk)

Your first priority is to create the « Boards » (Pinterest folders) in which you will save all images of what you would like for your renovation.

During the 10 steps, you’ve probably highlight some main elements which need some change. The walls ? The floor ? The colors ? The tiles ? The room layout ?… Create a board for each of them. Don’t think too much about the selection or which room it concerns (if there are several). It will come later. For now, these boards will be used for brainstorming. Every time you will see a color you like, you will save the image in your board « colors », a wooden floor in « floor »,…

Save all images of what you would like for your renovation.

Having these specified boards will avoid the work of writing a caption for every image you pin. Of course, you can write one if you want to remember one of your ideas (identify a room for example) but my advice would be not to take too much time on this.

Define your Keywords

Again, the 10 steps process will help you get some easy keywords to look for. And keywords are the starting point of your research. They can be the name of the concerned rooms, colors, objects, piece of furniture, lighting, style, atmosphere or even specific space layout like open kitchen.

You can highlight all these words on the paper you used for the 10 steps or write them down somewhere else, as soon as you keep them near you during your Pinterest trip.

Explore

Now you’re ready to loose your mind in the endless database of Pinterest.

You should know that, as soon as you click on a picture, it will show up and…directly suggest other related pictures on which you can click so they show up...and suggest other related pictures on which you can click….and... See where I’m going ? You can go through 5, 10, 15 levels really easily, that’s why it’s so important to know what you are looking for.

Your keywords are here to help. Using them one by one can be done at the beginning to give you a first overview of the kind of image you can find. But by mixing several keywords together in a smart way, you will narrow down the search to what you are actually looking for. Looking for « kitchen », « blue » and « splashback » altogether will get you where you want to look.

Loose your mind in the endless database of Pinterest.

Maybe sometimes you will need to get back to more general field of research if you are getting too specific. Pinterest is a huge database but is still a database built on what people are downloading and sharing on it. Meaning it can have its limits too.

This step is a brainstorming so don’t think too much and save as many pictures as you like. You will make the selection later.

Selection Time

You now have plenty of images on your account, it’s time to sort them out to get a better view of what your project could become.

First, you will need new boards, one for each of the room you plan to renovate. It’s the boards you will actually use for your project. You can name it « kitchen Final » for example.

Going around your boards containing the pictures, you will select maximum 5 images to save to your new board. If you plan to create a partition in your space, it means you will have to select 5 inspiration pictures from your board « partition ».

If it happens to be very difficult to narrow down to 5 directly, do not worry. It’s pretty common in the design world to have folders named « Final 2 », « Final 3 », « Final Final » « Final definitive » « Real Final », « Final what again », « FINAAAL »,… Use the same step-by-step process if needed :)

Final

It’s time for you to make the final decision. Among the 5 pictures (or less) for each item, you will be able to select the one you want for your project. That’s when you will make your choice so one element matches the other in term of style and make sure you’re not reaching the « too much » point. It’s like doing shopping : they are all separate items but you have to check if they look nice together.

Making your final decision, it's like doing shopping : they are all separate items but you have to check if they look nice together.

Well ? How long did it take ? Hopefully you have now a good representation of your future home and all the motivation to get started !

Share your Pinterest account in the comments below with your « Final Final Final » board directly at the top of it so we can all take a look. Here is mine.

Exhausted by the task, you prefer to hand over the rest of your project to me ? Just send me an email here or contact me here and go take some well-deserved rest :)

Have a great day !

Emilie