Lessons

Lesson Info

Using Inspiration Boards & Q&A

This is really what I go through toe honestly bring the ideas together so as part of the design process I'm looking for in a really loose way lots of inspiration but ultimately bring them all the way down to an inspiration board or maybe even beyond this this one's sort of just a concept for my living room that you all have seen in the green and white but then this was when we were freshening it up and bringing in the air mass pillow in the blue books and so this is what that could look like and what inspired all of that design so it could take us through this that would be really cool exercise isn't it fun? So yes so sometimes when we do these sort of concepts and we do them for clients as well sometimes it is truly before we make the design decisions so we may not know at that time that we're gonna have say this chair or those lamps this is a little more developed of a concept is you could see so it just depends on where in the in the stage of the process so sometimes when we're just...

getting to know a client will bring in just inspiration images like way I worked on a farm house that I'm just recently completing for a young family and it's a really chic cool, fun, colorful farm house for a young family and so she was greatly inspired by ah, a resort in tennessee called blackberry farm that's amazing. And so we took some images from blackberry farm and their gazebos and their horses and all their properties, and we translated that to a concept for her farmhouse and added color in this one for me was really the idea of making my project my living room when we were going to update it for that photo shoot that we talked about yesterday was going to be in a book, and the book was about how designers live and what inspires them and how they bring inspiration to their everyday life. So I was saying, what inspires me if I want to update the space? Well, as we just looked at, I'm inspired by travel and fashion. I mean here's a fabulous, bright green shoot that's amazing and a stone, a natural stone or crystal, and I adore you know, which could be reminiscent of a trip that I was on and had taken have some beautiful doors that I photographed in costa rica. So each piece of this is some part along the chain of concept to completion. So some ideas air very early, conceptual like the door all the way through to seeing that color reflected in the lamps that were on that actually ended up in the space. Do you have questions about this process to you any of you go so far as to do these? I thought it was so interesting yesterday that you showed one picture from two thousand eight that was the living room, huh? And then fast forward to two thousand thirteen and you really only changed for five elements but the big expensive pieces the couch, the table, the coffee table I'll remain the same but the room had a completely different feel because I think people are intimidated that they can't afford a designer I'm gonna have to go out and get all new everything's and really you don't even in your own home no but well and it goes back tio we're talking about making buying decisions yesterday on trends or not on transfer me if I buy something I pretty much always like it I rarely tire of things that I truly truly love so that should be sort of your litmus tests for investing in anything whether it's inexpensive or expensive I do really love this and then ask yourself cannot live without this and you're gonna probably make some very different color decisions for sure if you're saying cannot live without this cause can't most of us live without a boring beige sofa are like some ordinary something that we thought was going to be a good bye because it would last a long time like those are not the things that ignite a spark in us they don't make us excited and so I that's how that living room was built and I was buying things that I truly loved even though the sofa was white, I loved the style and the tuxedo arm and the slight curve of it in the ne be silk fabric that covers that sofa's so it's not just a white sofa for me it's far beyond that and it helps you look at pieces differently and when you're collecting pieces like that and layering them in, hopefully you're buying things you're not gonna want to get rid of and they can evolve and change just like my room did it was all green and white and that was a little boring after a while so how do we bring color in? And instead it is I could have done it and could have just gone to the local store and said let me see what kind of pillows they have but instead I said my friend brought me this amazing m s scarf that's inspiration, that's passion and travel and a person kind of three of my categories of inspiration and I turned it into a pillow that really was the starting point, the leaping off point of adding all of those blues and teals into that room but like you said, how expensive is it teo so so a pillow out of a gift get some of the coffee table books that I already had and sort them by the color blue and have some fresh head branches and then the entire room went from a green room to a blue room really in that tiny little step but it was it was all truly from my inspiration may I just address the actual sample bored because you know, looking at the sample board and I think everybody online will see it too it just starts toe look so cohesive you get the vision right from all the disparity paces and I'm wondering I know some designers interior designers and decorators do this I wonder if you do too where some of those elements that air pops of color you put on velcro so you can take them off and put them on do you do that thing where you can take some paces often try different paces within that boy? This is a court board perfect so that's what I do so we frame court boards and are off and if you look closely you can see all my little brass taxes pushpins s o I do that essentially in a different way so that things can come on and come off on dh instead of spending all this time making this elaborate board and then wishing you hadn't glued this whole piece onto which is what prevents people from doing this process because the ones the people that are designers that did go to school and they learned that labour intensive process of cutting foam core and wrapping fabrics around a little piece of matt board it was so intricate and it took hours, and then you go, okay, well, I hate that fabric, so now I've ruined the whole presentation. Yeah, velcro or push pins, and this whole idea of using a court board makes a whole lot of sense. Do you think the k is framing it like that's a stroke of genius? Because, I mean, if you just use a normal court bored, sometimes it doesn't feel as important, yes, so you were living in the ordinary and so again, even that piece of the presentation is what we're seeing beyond and going into those little bitty details that makes something, um, you know, more beautiful and a lot of times we have these what we have hordes of these sitting around our office, and if I start collecting some things that I don't even know what project they may go into, but sometimes I see a common theme or a common thread, so I'll start pinning them on a board together and that's exactly how that jade and coral room came about that you were commenting on yesterday and saying I would never think to put those together and I don't really love those colors but seeing them together now I do same thing for me so I saw an element that lead me to think about using them together and they were just kind of laying I had had that twelve fabric on my desk for months because I knew I wanted to use it somewhere and then it sort of started becoming a little bit of a fleshed out idea without even a project in mind and then when a magazine called and said, hey, would you do the show house with us? I see I thought instantly I have the perfect design already in mind and then it was able teo, you know, really sort of get fleshed out with that actual architectural space in mind, which was really fun so don't think that just because you're not working on a project right now, you shouldn't be collecting all of this inspiration because what you can't do is get a job or get a project or moved to a new house if it's your own home and then suddenly be able to travel the world and collect all of this, it doesn't happen that way it's the same thing about having a collected look in your house so much more interesting if you build it and decorated over time so I have little boxes of things like you said, like really leafs or stones or a nail polish or a button or something else that physical objects that I keep, and then many, many photographs that I also keep so that when I need them, I couldn't refer back to them well, and and I love color wiz is saying in the live tab, I love this idea because some clients would even love having it when the job is over. As a memento of the process, the brass pin makes it feel very interior, too. I would add before and after picks when the job is over and make it part of my thank you gift, but well, what we do with them, as we put them in a book a lot of times, so we take before images after images and even inspiration images and create like I love to use blurb, dot com other people use like my publisher and all these fun websites that you could make those beautiful but bound books. And so we put all of these images into a physical book that the client can keep long term, so it's also great through the process, because when you're when you're an actual designer of professional working with clients it's hard to keep them inspired through the process because there are certainly parts that aren't as fun as others like when they're writing big checks to spend money, but nothing's come in yet, and they're not getting to see and touch all the pretty things because they're not there. It can get a little depressing and a little scary for people, and so if you have images of this that you can let them have that they can keep or that they can print out or you can email to them, it keeps them inspired through the process because I can keep an eye on what that, in result, is going to look like cool, well, let's, let's, take a few cues questions here, let's start in our studio audience. I have a comment my husband has said for years. Deborah, people don't see things the way you see him, you need to give me a picture, give me a visual, so I've learned to do that. It took him a long time to teach me, but I think people will realize when they see a board like this that it could be the round handle on the door, right, that made you say it, yeah, I could spray paint rod, iron emerald green and make it into something else, right? The light fixture or anything a table a side table so when they see it all together on a board make gives them a little visual of how your mind word and it also makes them more connected to the space. So when you're working for yourself or with us, you know, we talked a little bit yesterday like a spouse or someone that partner you're living with your children are whoever is also going to be living in the space if they can become connected to the story behind the room, the inspiration for the room they suddenly have their more invested in the space they enjoy it more because they can walk in I mean, you could design this whole space around the trip or travel you know, the photograph that you were on with your spouse and not tell them that's what you did and they just walk through and be like, oh that's a pretty room but the minute you say remember when we were at that little restaurant and they had those perfect little tea cups and they had this color on them that's what inspired me? Then every time they enter that space they're also going to remember and that's what is so that's what we're trying to capture right? The emotion, the feelings, the memories and all of those things that's what makes a home truly unique and makes it functional and support people's daily lives in their quality of life is all of those little details? So I think that's where we were saying when I started this this morning it's not just finding a pretty room and going I can pick all of that stuff too, because if something like even this cover of house beautiful was created by that person's unique travels and family heirlooms it's going to mean something to them by you just mimicking it it's going to be nothing to you? You might like it for a little while but then when the new color comes on a long you're gonna be like, okay, well, let's, get rid of the pink and move on to something else. But if you're invested in it, you're not gonna want to change it for a long time because it's really an extension of your personality and who you are and I think that's where the most beautiful and unique projects and uses of color really come into play in people's lives and their interiors. I just wanted to mention uh for the inspiration board, I have them around the house, but they're so like I put them away and the idea of framing it makes me feel like I just could put it on the wall and every time I passed by just put something on it yeah, it wouldn't like being hassled where'd I put the inspiration board it's gonna inspire you and you could be inspired just everyday like going to work like a walking by and going up that's so pretty like that's going to be so, so much fun to build that or create that are looking at a half yesterday when we were in had the other audience member, she was saying that she couldn't find a dresser for a long time and it was driving her nuts. But if you say so, if you were looking at an inspiration board, even though you knew you were looking for a dresser, if every day he walks by that when we're inspired, I don't think he would kind of get us disheartened oris frustrated looking for that perfect thing because she would see the end goal every single day if, well, I'm not going to just break down and buy something because I really want to have this unique design that's represented here, so we'd keep you inspired and motivated to make really good decisions about your interiors. Awesome! I think I have one great final question before we go out kind of summarizes exactly what we've been doing this whole segment, but what is toby's? What is your cognitive process in taking inspiration from iraq and turning it into an entire room? So whether that rock is, you know something, traveler what have you s oh how does that happen? How does that come to pass? You know it's just like with anything there's usually an item like theorem a scarf or a rock or something else that inspires is my sort of leaping off point and it might be the color of it it might be the sheen of it it might be the the pattern of it and I just so I get inspired by something in a real creative way loose way and then I go back to more of a formal process and go into my design room and lay it on the table say it's a rock and I start thinking about the space itself and I usually start with okay what is it even back to the form and function? What is the space look like what's the architecture how's it going toe flo how many people are going to use this space because anyone can make a space and beautiful but if it only works if it's functional and beautiful so I go back from that really creative fun loose place to the truth needs that the space needs to you know the true goals that the space needs tio meat or reach and then have fun with all the other things that inspire me starting to pull textiles and fabrics and paint colors and I think in the little promo video of creative live from our whole course there was video of me in my work room and that's, really my work room and there's books on the wall and paint samples and tile samples and little tiny trims and braids and grow grains and buttons and nail heads and all of that stuff that then becomes like the candy store that you shop from to flesh out the whole design. Toby, have you ever taken something like a rock texture and digitally printed it onto fabric? Do you ever literally taken totally do that? And sometimes, if maybe say you're inspired by are the clients inspired bust something since we're using this idea of like a rock, but maybe it doesn't fit their aesthetic than we actually blow it up into artwork or a giant overscaled in a canvas that you don't even almost recognize its iraq anymore, but because it becomes abstracted or something really different, but it's still in from the creative standpoint and from the inspiration standpoint, you still know what it is, it's still has meaning so there's all sorts of creative ways to not say, okay, I have a rock, but the house isn't rustic well, who cares? Think of other ideas of how you could create something similar or use it in a pattern it might not even be just a fabric there's cool products like there's, a product called three form that's, almost like acrylic or loose? I and it comes in every kind of color and it can have pattern printed on it. So you could have, like, a pebble pattern painted all over it, and it could become anything a tabletop, the shower door in the bathroom. So there's, so many creative ways now, and you can find all of this stuff on the internet looking for product and educating yourself in. You know, yesterday we were talking about taking the time to really educate yourself before you make some buying decisions, too. Well, we then later had the conversation about okay, but what if I overwhelm myself? Because I can't ever buy anything? Because now I'm what hoping that there's not something better that comes along. So yes, certainly there's a place where you have to make the leap, but usually, you know, and that's, when I go back to that kind of good check and go ok, this looks like a cool product. This is an end of what innovative way to use my creative idea. Do I get a little spark of excitement? Okay, let's, make the leap and bring this and into our project in a creative way, and usually you're gonna love that I love it analysis, paralysis, exactly way says, yeah, I always loved to say any action is better than in action so when you become paralyzed go with what you think is the best idea because at the very least you get feedback to gook that didn't work let's do something else or it worked beautifully onda lot of what we're talking about here is taking leaks with color and form and pattern it's scary for people so I also love the idea of getting comfortable being uncomfortable if you have that little kind of anxiety and your tell me all the time you're onto some really cool stuff leap and bring some of it in especially in the creative world especially awesome I really love how you've just taken especially with that last explanation of your cognitive process but taking us through how the inspiration does need to be functional as well toa really work so taking us through the whole cycle awesome we are going to take that break next coming up what everyone's been waiting for the psychology of color what are we going to do there? We're going to talk about what different genders think about color what different cultural meetings you know how they can affect color what a lot of colors have mean to most people were going to look at what the ida's with certain colors as faras that kind of advancing or receding on dh help you find the perfect colors and how to start using them in your home with success awesome very excited. Well, here's, what people are saying online, marry in germany, said hi there from frankfurt, germany. Amazing stuff. My brain is full from yesterday, but I feel like toby taught me to see color better and gave me a vocabulary to express the emotion in them properly, thanks so much. Greets from the country of bold color germany and an c l says, I've got a bunch of work to do right now, but I can't pull myself away from this broadcast, and so it was the one who yesterday I was watching in bed. Correct. Weedy is with the wife that's, right? But I couldn't pull themselves away. Then I I glad to hear it.