26 Jun 19

How to tap into your own creativity

Getting into your creative interior design flow is an essential part of the design process which will carry you all the way through your design project. You need to keep inspired, have a pool of ideas and design references at hand, so you can come up with solutions every step of your design journey.

Interior design is really having a moment right now, don’t you think? With the fast growing popularity of Instagram and Pinterest, we now have so many more resources for inspiration and information. While this is all great and empowering, it can also quickly slip into overwhelm. When you are decorating your home, there are so many choices to make and making it all hang together, come in on budget and be something you feel happy that reflects your personal style is a big ask!

I believe if you follow a design process, you can be your own interior designer and make empowered decisions every step of the way. This is about ditching ‘copy-cat’ interiors in favour of creating a home that resonates with your own sense of style, feels authentic to you and essentially makes you smile! I’m passionate about people having spaces that they love, feel proud of, and that lifts them up emotionally and I do all I can to help. With the surge in competitive Instagram accounts and drool-worthy homes all over Pinterest, we can quickly feel inadequate, myself included! But this isn’t about anyone else, it’s about you, your home and your own creative expression.

Source your inspiration

In order to find your own sense of style and tap into what you love you need to invest time in discovering your own design inspiration. While Instagram and Pinterest are amazing resources and an invaluable tool to pull together images, they can lead you down the garden path too, and maybe make you copy designs rather than originate your own. So first up build up a gallery of images. I use my phone to take snaps while I’m out and about but also have a box file of images that I collect, from postcards to magazine tear sheets. What you are looking for is those ‘A-ha’ moments. What colours pull you towards them, what patterns do you love to wear, what design styles to you relate to? In fact, the wardrobe is a great place to start. We are often more free and experimental in the clothes we buy as they seem less of an investment. Do you own lots of grey marl cashmere or is it all leopard print or boho embroidery? Your wardrobe can be a great jumping off point to analyse what colours, patterns and fabrics you love that you can use in your interior design.

Find your tribe

Instagram has been game-changing for interior design as so many talented and passionate people create interiors accounts that show the progress of their renovations and home styling. My recommendation is to set yourself up with an interiors account and just use it to focus on following the accounts that lift you up and inspire you. I have a personal account for posting personal pictures and following love island celebs and then my main interiors account @sophierobinsoninteriors. What this means is when I am on Instagram sourcing design inspiration, it’s all I see in my feed and it helps keep me focused on the job in hand. There are so many great hashtags to follow too, which can help you find your own interiors tribe. Mine are #banthebeige #colourlover but there is a hashtag for every type of design style, so just find yours. One community I’ve recently discovered is the amount of amazing small accounts that are sharing their step by step home renovations. There is so much great practical advice and encouragement out there too.

Tapping into your own creative interior design flow is a massive step towards designing a home you love. If you’d like to develop more skills to help you design authentic rooms that lift you up. To sign up to my ‘Be your own interior designer’ follow the link here.  The price of the course is £295 but is on promotional discount until the end of June 30^th so you can get £50 off until then. You’re welcome!