Using Pinterest To Find Your Design Style

photo via: decorpad

When clients come to Sumptuous Living with a new design project, one of my first questions is “Are You On Pinterest?”. You’d be surprised how many aren’t or they pin things randomly. Your home should be a very personal expression of you. Not just something that looks good but that any friend walking in the door will recognize your personality in the room. We have a few top tips (or rules if you like) that will help you hone the look you’ll love!

Our Top Tips For Pinterest Design Boards

{If you’re new to Pinterest, you have one crucial step before these… Open a Pinterest Account… Le Duh! It’s Easy.  Here’s a tutorial video}

BE SPECIFIC: Set up specific boards for your new project. Don’t just leave it for the whole house. Be Specific! Lighting for Master Bath, Dining Room, Exterior Paint Colors, Kitchen backsplash tile… You can be as specific as you like! The more specific the more your boards will feel tidy and organized. You can move them around and keep like rooms together too!

COLLABORATE: If you’re working with a designer, add them as a collaborator on your boards. Designer’s Kindly Request: Name your boards with your last name first like “Smith Kitchen” or “Smith Dining Room Lighting”. Your designer probably collaborates on a bunch of client’s boards and they all show up in their feed. So when I need to pin something to a client’s board, it helps not to have 5 different “Living Room” boards to play Pinterest Roulette with.

ADD NOTES: Add notes to each pin with what you liked about that picture. Is it the color of the walls? The light fixture? The layout of the room? 3 months from now (or 2 days in my case) you may not remember what you liked about it and it helps communicate to your designer what you liked as well.

Love the teal chairs with the big art. Can we do this color palette? {pic: Leverone Design}

Blue built-Ins with rustic wood details {pic: fox-confessor}

EDIT, EDIT, EDIT: Edit your boards every week if you’re heavy into a project. If you’re just pinning to find your style, edit every month or so. What you liked before you may not like as much today, especially if you’ve been looking for specific inspiration or ideas.

PUSH YOUR LIMITS: The secret to long-lasting design that you’ll enjoy for a long time is adding in something more modern, more unexpected and fresh. Art or patterns that you’d never think to put somewhere and, for some reason, you love it in that picture. Pin it! Write what’s drawing you to it and look at more pins on that profile. Follow Them. See who they follow. Expand your Pinterest world from just your friends or that magazines you subscribe to. Who do the magazine’s follow? Those pinners may have some fresh pins that will wake up your boards!

Follow Sumptuous Living too!

BE REALISTIC: The pics you see are styled by a professional, edited by pro photographers and don’t have 3 year olds running around leaving a trail of Legos & Goldfish in their wake. These pics are meant to be inspiring but matching them exactly can drive you straight to crazy-town!

SHARE THE INSPIRATION! Who do you follow on Pinterest? Leave a comment below with your favorite boards to follow!