Inspiration

How do you achieve design? It is through inspiration.

You do not need to be creative or a designer to be inspired by some person, place or thing. You just need to be able to identify what it is that inspires you and then either work with a designer or yourself to build upon your inspiration.

Design must be inspired. The first step you take is to decide what your inspiration is. This is really a very fun task. You can think about whether a particular color or an accent piece such as a painting or perhaps a fun or interesting fabric interests you. Perhaps it is a book that you just finished reading or a movie that you saw long ago or recently. Maybe a vacation or a business trip to a new city or town provided the source of inspiration in the landscape or the architecture or the people.

There are an infinite number of possibilities that can stand out in your mind. Take for example some things that inspired me over time like the beautiful antebellum estate in Gone With The Wind







Or the fabulous color of the dress that Amy Adams wore in the recent movie Enchanted






And the impressionist painting by Claude Monet called Water garden and the Japanese Footbridge,



Or the breathtaking views of Tuscany.





Each and every one of these things has given me a source of inspiration for design projects.

Once you identify which particular item you are going to use as your inspiration then you can start your planning. If it is the architecture in the antebellum mansion then you can utilize parts of the home in your design. If it is the color in Amy Adam’s dress you can create a palette that will complement the turquoise fabric and use it as a paint on a surface or within a fabric on the furniture. If you use the impressionist painting you might consider getting a copy and using it as focal point to your setting. There are outdoor pieces of art that withstand the elements from Mother Nature. Once you determine where the painting will be hung you can design around it.

My recommendation to you is to take some time out of your day and consider some of the things that inspire you so that you will be ready for your next design project.

These are my insprations…write and tell me yours. Marcia Blake