If there is one thing I recommend to our clients right away, it is to start an idea file. From magazines, to start tearing out pages that appeal to them ~ for any reason, whether it is for an entire room, the overall feel, a selection of colours, use of products they find attractive or functional, etc. Keeping fabric swatches and colour strips in the file is also a good idea. After a while patterns will emerge that will help in guiding you through the decision making process ~ helping you know the styles, designs and colours of today that you find most pleasing to your eye.
Nowadays, the web is the perfect place to find inspiration too ~ print out shots and add them to your files or possibly just have a file on your computer.
I wish I had a real inspirational photo of binders or folders to show you – but mine are all plain old black school ring binders, not even with pretty spine labels. This will be like showing an unorganized stuffed closet ~ eeekk!
What is important though is what the covers hold within – so many ideas and choices for what we may like to incorporate into our homes and gardens. For us, it is also a collection of photos that we can show to our clients ~ when they describe a look or idea they have we may be able to show them a page that has some similarities, thus enabling a better discussion.
Placing looks we love into one spot, where we can see for ourselves just what appeals to us is so helpful. In our hectic, information filled and rapidly changing world it is sometimes difficult to keep up with what we like ~ to know our own style ~ a style that has evolved along with us.
Photo shoots don’t always portray the reality of a typical home or garden but they lead us to believe we can achieve this level of dream like quality. To dream fills us with creative inspiration ~ something we should encourage ourselves to find more time to do!
A couple of pages from two of our binders….
Something I just realized in looking at the pages I chose to open for the photo, each shot has windows with grids – a look we have always liked and yet don’t use very often. All dreamy ideal looks don’t always become reality of course but they can guide us in achieving our goals.
