Okay, I am finally revealing how I vision board like an interior designer! 

I know it’s tempting to begin makeovers by just chucking furniture into your home and leaving it at that. However, that is an easy way to hate your designs and become overwhelmed.

To help you love your space, I’m sharing the seven ways that I vision board my way to successful renovations.

By sharing my design project process with you, I hope it will help you get closer to your dream home.

This includes:

1. Pinterest inspiration boards
2. Architecture and design books
3. Instagram design inspo
4. Furniture stores and galleries
5. Rug store or rug gallery
6. Fabric shops or fabric showrooms
7. Save real estate listings

Pinterest inspiration boards to vision board like an interior designer

You probably expected this, but I always begin my vision board like an interior designer is with Pinterest.

You can use the search box just like any Internet browser. Simply type the styles you like, such as farmhouse, French country, specific interior designers, paint colors, patterns, and wallpapers. Soon after you do that, images will start to appear that match your style.

I simply pin these to a board with the name of the home project or the room I’m focusing on. If this project calls for it, I also invite collaborators who can also add images to these boards.

A bonus to using Pinterest is that the software recognizes patterns in your searches. This means that once you start pinning photos, the app shows you more of the same types of images.

Architecture and design books

The second way I love to vision board like an interior designer is with good old fashioned books!

It’s in the books where I can really dive into the details. This is especially useful when you want to bring out special design characteristics of homes from different time periods.

This is where I can pull from different architecture and designs for my vision boards. 

To do this, I go to online and in-person bookstores to look for interior design or architecture texts. Then, I simply bookmark pages and take pictures that I add to my phone library or onto Pinterest. That way, I have a record of all of the neat ideas that I want to explore. 

Instagram design inspo

The next way that I vision board like an interior designer is by going down the rabbit hole of Instagram.

You can start by typing words like farmhouse, French country, modern farmhouse, or whatever style you want to see. Then, images will start to come up. 

From here, you can save and sort them by your favorites and start to discover new interior designers and architects.

In doing this, you’ll start to see patterns about yourself. You’ll find that you’re drawn to the same types of images over and over again. 

Do this and then save these photos into a couple of lookbooks to refer back to them later. Having these in your arsenal will give you insight into your true design style. You can also recreate them if you find any images that you really love.

Furniture stores and galleries

The next few tips are probably what you want to do as soon as you start a new project. 

This is where you visit furniture stores and galleries that fit the style of home that you want to create. 

example, many of our clients love coming to our shop, Village Antiques, to look around and get inspired by the home decor and furniture that we carry.

In the early stages of a project, this is where they can look at the defining pieces for their homes. This includes commodes, chest of drawers, chandeliers, turmeaus, dining tables, daybeds, and other large pieces.

This is a must-do for me to think beyond the four walls around the room.

Rug store or rug gallery

On this same note, I also encourage you to go visit a rug store or a rug gallery. 

I love that once you’ve found the right one, it helps you answer many of your design questions. They help you land on color palette, style, and the textures that you want to incorporate into the space.

When I have a client who doesn’t know their design direction, we always start with the rug first.

Once you do this exercise a few times, you’ll see several color palettes and styles that you are going to love. 

This also helps you choose the colors and shapes of large furniture pieces or even your walls.

Pro tip: Catalog as you shop! Photograph and catalog all of the things that you like and keep them in your vision boarding process. You simply keep an album on your phone or put them on Pinterest.

Fabric shops or fabric showrooms

Just like with rugs, fabric shopping is very important as I vision board like an interior designer. 

You can do this by going to fabric shops or showrooms. This is a great way for you to get more information about what you want to see in your home. 

When I take clients on these trips, we define the textures, colors, and patterns they want in their home.

Just like with my other tip, take pictures and save them to your phone or Pinterest. If you fall in love with a particular fabric, it would also be helpful to note down the price. This will help you work that into your budget later down the line.

This also helps you to define the finer details of your large projects. Moreover, it ultimately stops you from making design mistakes along the way.

Save real estate listings to vision board like an interior designer

My last tip to vision board like an interior designer is a little bit unconventional, but something that is oddly satisfying and useful; save real estate listings.

I often follow along real estate listings online and bookmark them for inspiration. 

Many of these homes are already furnished by designers, so they give me ideas that I wouldn’t have considered before.

Like all the other tips I shared with you, I take screenshots, and save them in my phone or Pinterest. I can use these ideas as inspiration in my home, a new project, or for clients on their projects.

Vision board like an interior designer review

I hope you enjoyed these seven different vision boarding techniques that I use on all of my design projects. 

Whether it be for a client, my shop or my home, I always start this way. Because we are such visual people, this will help you to avoid design mistakes and huge expenses. 

If you found this information useful, be sure to give it a thumbs up on YouTube. That helps me know that you love this type of content. Then when you’re done, hit subscribe and ring the bell so you don’t miss our inspiring episodes.

And don’t forget to sign up for your free newsletter! You’ll get notifications every time a new blog comes out and exclusive inventory alerts and design advice. 

Keep using your amazing design gifts to create heart in your home, 

Amitha 

P.S. You can find all of these early fall decorating items at our retail store, Village Antiques in Houston.

Please stop by! Check out our collection of farmhouse-style furniture, French country home decor, antiques, vintage, chalk finish paints, and more!

We are open Tuesday – Saturday from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm. 

You can also reach us at (713) 468 – 3931