Where to find inspiration

Anywhere! No, really if you pay attention to the little details in life you can find inspiration everywhere. For me, spring and summer are the best seasons to find inspiration because there is so much beauty outside-flowers, grass, blue skies, clouds, rain, fresh scents, breeze, and even those little floaty cotton things.

Here's a list of 10 places where I find my inspiration....

1. Nature-if a color combination exists in nature, then it is automatically beautiful and acceptable to use in your home.

2. Design Magazines-(duh!) you can always find amazing things to look at and copy here. Some of my favorites include: House Beautiful, Interior Design, Metropolitan Home, Traditional Home, Coastal Living and I could go on and on.

3. Blogs- yes, it's true, I spend hours a day reading blogs and overwhelming my brain with all the gorgeous photos, and interesting writing, swoon-worthy rooms and crafty crafts that are updated everyday, non-stop. I literally find a new blog every day that I love and can't stop reading. It's awesome. Check out my blog roll for some of my faves.

4. Books-although I've been spending a lot more time lately reading blogs than books, I still love getting lost in an intriguing story and imagining the beautiful environments that the characters in the books are living in. The more descriptive the writing the better, but I love leaving some details up to my imagination too!

5.Interior designer's websites-I frequently google search designer's websites in my area for inspiration on many things such as website layout and ideas, business structure and pricing, their portfolio work and styles and their press. Today I found this website and blog. I'm officially in love.

6. The Internet-the world wide web is my oyster...I am constantly soaking up knowledge wherever I can get it and the web is by far the fastest and most broad source of information you can find. Google anything and you can find some inspiration.

7. Food-what's not to love? Seriously, look at the colors of your food. Hello, inspiration!

8. Garage Sales- Other people's junk is your treasure. I think it is a real talent to be able to look at someone else's throwaways and see all the possibilities it still has left in it. I am inspired by Censational Girl's blog almost daily-she is the queen of re-purposing. Check out one of my favorite re-designs she recently posted.

9. Showcase Homes-In my last post I talked about the 2009 ASID Showcase home here in MN. I loved being able to talk to the designers who created this lovely home and to be able to draw on the creativity of their work. If you have any of these showcase homes in your area, I highly recommend going on the tour.

10. Creative People- Surround yourself with creative people and you will be constantly inspired by what they do and how they live their life. Take notes. I've been lucky to spend my time with my mother who creates gorgeous handmade jewelry, my aunts who create unique handmade cards, interior design students who have blossomed after three years of design school, ASID members who have been in the industry for many years and my husband who always comes up with great graphic design ideas for websites, my business cards, my logo, and countless other things. I'm so thankful that he always pushes me to do my best, leave my comfort zone and take leaps even when I am feeling like a million other people already do it better.

Thanks for reading about my design inspiration! Where does yours come from??

Kitchen image from http://www.fiddleheaddesigngroup.com/