Inspiration Board Giveaway

Design dilemma? Feeling stuck?

One of my favorite ways to jump start a project is to pick a great inspiration piece and build a story board around it.

I love designing this way because it’s super easy to start with just one piece that catches your eye and build your board one piece at a time.

artwork // vases // faux fur ottoman // rug // mirror
Paint colors (Ben Moore) Soft Sky, Blue Gaspe, WhirlpoolInspiration can come from anything- a rug, a piece of artwork, an outfit, an accessory or even a pillow! Is there something that you’ve been eyeing from your favorite home décor store? Or, maybe you already have a treasured piece in your home that you’d like to work around

First, let me explain what an inspiration board is. It’s simply a story board consisting of 5-8 photos of home décor/furnishing items.

Each board is unique, but here are a few tips and tricks I recommend for starting your own process.

To start, choose your main inspiration piece.

Try to pick a piece that has more than one color or dimension to it. This will be helpful to start pulling your accents together!

Next, pick a color story of 3 paint swatches. Benjamin Moore’s website is a great tool for this. Once you’ve chosen your main paint color the site will automatically suggest the accent colors for you!

These colors don’t necessarily all have to end up on the walls, you can use them as inspiration to find pillows, throws, rugs etc. as your room comes together.

Now that you have the basics you can start picking furniture and accessories!

It’s helpful to choose items from a variety different categories so you don’t get stuck! (i.e. one piece of artwork, one rug, one pillow, one piece of furniture, etc.) Your board can consist of as many items as you want but a good rule of thumb is between 5-8 items.

Remember though, there’s no real science to it so, if you find 3 different pillows that you love and they work well with your scheme, then go ahead and put them all on there!

To start my own boards, I like to use Photoshop or PowerPoint (Microsoft Word works too!) I’ll drag in a photo of my inspiration piece, build my paint color story and start surfing the web for pieces to coordinate

A few tips…

Vary tones of color for depth and interest… avoid matchy-matchy!

For example, I chose 3 varying tones of blues for the paint swatches. I also mixed varying tones of light wood and gold for my accents. Even though nothing matches perfectly it all coordinates together to give a rich sophisticated look!

Does your inspiration piece have lighter colors? Find coordinating items with a darker contrast (or vice versa)

When pulling patterns together you want mix and match different styles – one floral, one stripe, one geometric is a great starting point.

Don’t forget to vary the scale of patterns (a large floral will mix well with a smaller geometric) to avoid your board from feeling too busy.

Now that your creative juices flowing I encourage you to create your own Inspiration board!

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, we’re here to help!
Follow this link to enter to win a FREE inspiration board.