Pinterest Love

When we first bought our house in 2003, it was a blank slate. We are the first owners, and walked into a completely unpainted, unlandscaped, builder-grade home.  Since I had never owned a home before, I didn't know quite where to begin.  We didn't have any money to hire a decorator, or furnish the house in one shot, and this was well before design blogs were created, so I didn't have access to all of the amazing ideas that are out there today.

I bought myself a spiral-bound notebook, slapped an "inspirations" label on it, and kept it on a bookshelf.  Any time I saw a photo of something that I loved: a room, fabric, a paint sample, a window treatment, I would rip it out of the magazine or catalog and shove it into the notebook.

This worked well until the internet and design blogs came into play.  When I wanted to save something that I liked on the web, I would have to bookmark it or save it into a folder.  And that was fine, too.  But I recently discovered a website that's changing everything, and I'm not sure I'll ever go back to the ol' Inspirations notebook.  It's called Pinterest.

Pinterest is exactly like a virtual Inspirations notebook.  When you see something you like on a website or blog, you "pin it," and add the item or photo to your own Pinboards.  I have a Pinboard for "Favorite Spaces and Places,"  and "DIY Projects I Want to Try," and "Fabrics," to name a few.  And when I look at my Pinboards, all of the things I love are right there, with links to them.  It's a great way to save and organize all of the things you love.

Here's my Fabric pinboard:

I'm searching for ideas for the wall around my mounted TV.  I saved inspiration photos for that project to this pinboard:

And here's my Favorite Places and Spaces Pinboard:

Pinterest is a bit like social media websites in that you can "follow" people, and they can follow you.  If you are following someone, their recent pins show up on your homepage.  I follow a few interior designers so I can see what kinds of things they are pinning.  If you are a member of Pinterest and are interested in following me, you can do that here.

If you aren't on the Pinterest site yet, and you want to join, it's not too difficult.  First, go to the Pinterest site and request an invitation.  (Yes, they make it feel like an exclusive club so it seems more special.) It will take about a week for them to send you an invitation, and then you can join! If you can't wait a week, then I can send you an invitation.  Just leave your email in the comments section of this post (or email me) and I'll invite you.

Happy Pinning!