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Building a Home

How to Easily Organize Home Build Design Ideas

Published on:

5/13/20

written by:

Carrie Barker

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Unlike building a production home with limited design options, building a custom home allows you unlimited design freedom. While this freedom to gather design ideas and inspiration from all over the internet is great, it can also be very overwhelming UNLESS you know how to easily organize your home build design ideas.

Lucky for you, there is a VERY easy way to organize all of your inspiration photos … the virtual mood boards of Pinterest ????.

Not only is Pinterest a great way to get all your ideas in ONE spot, BUT it can also give you more clarity on your vision for your future custom home. I’ll explain below!

HOW TO EASILY ORGANIZE HOME BUILD DESIGN IDEAS

Pinterest is the BEST place to organize all your design inspiration in ONE SPOT, and it’s completely FREE!

I imagine you’re already using Pinterest to get recipes, DIY projects, outfit ideas, etc. Did you know it has TONS of amazing home design inspiration photos as well?

Not only can you pin the inspiration images you find within Pinterest, but most websites (and even Instagram) have the option to PIN images directly to your Pinterest account. This is how I store ALL of my design ideas and inspiration!

Unsure how to use Pinterest to search for design ideas? Read How to use Pinterest, Instagram, and Houzz to Find Design Inspiration.

I recommend that you create several boards (by room or category) OR one simple ‘Dream Home’ board. Within this overall board, you can create sections for each room in the home as well as exterior inspiration, architectural details, paint colors, etc.

See how I organize my Pinterest boards HERE.

The best thing about organizing your design ideas virtually is that your images (a.k.a. pins) are ALWAYS ‘with you’ to pull up on your phone or computer. So … if you’re at the flooring store, for example, pull up your flooring Pinterest board to show the flooring expert. It’s as easy as that!

HOW YOUR PINTEREST BOARDS HELP YOU GAIN CLARITY

When you save all of your design inspiration photos in ONE virtual spot (a.k.a. Pinterest), you have the benefit of seeing patterns and themes emerge. You’ll start to notice common themes across your images that will clue you in as to how you envision your future dream home style.

What [fill in the blank] keep coming up in the photos? (e.g. exterior materials, flooring, cabinet colors, cabinet styles, textures, fixtures/metals, architectural details, finishes, paint colors, etc.)

These patterns will help you gain clarity on your design vision for your future home. I recommend that you write these patterns/themes down (or record in a Google doc). Then create another Pinterest board to organize your absolute favorite future home inspiration photos.

All of your future home boards will be great to share with your builder and subcontractors, but especially your ‘favorite’ board. Your builder can’t read your mind, but he/she CAN do his/her best to recreate a design in a photo that you share with them.

Want even more tips on how to stay organized during your home build?! I have a great blog post that you’ll find SUPER helpful … HOW TO STAY ORGANIZED DURING CUSTOM BUILD.

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I designed my own custom home from the ground up, inside and out. A home that is cozy, comfy, laid out perfectly for the way my family lives, and makes us happy every single day. Oh, and did I mention I did this all without blowing the budget?! 

Yep, it’s true. I’ve been there, done that, and actually lived through it … and you will too. Pinkie promise!

a.k.a. Caroline on Design

I’m Carrie Barker.

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