Kitchen Workbook, Part 1: Gather Inspiration
When most homeowners embark on a kitchen remodel, they spend endless
hours collecting inspiring kitchen photos. But this doesn't necessarily
help a person figure out what they want, and can even cause confusion.
Most people don't have a favorite single look. If you're like me, you
suffer from multiple personalities in the design department. The tough
part of the process is learning to narrow down the options and hone in
on what you want your dream kitchen to look like.
Here are some tips to help you through step 1:
Collect images at random. Collect images that speak to you emotionally without thinking about why (at least for right now). Believe me, there's a pattern there — you may not be able to see it at first, but a pattern will show itself. You may find that a whole bunch of your kitchen inspiration images may need to be added to an ideabook for a future farmhouse or weekend getaway, but don't skip over them just because they don't relate to this project, save them for later.
Don't edit yourself (yet). Don't make yourself nuts from the get-go by trying to edit as you collect. I really believe in collecting with reckless abandon first and editing later. Editing yourself while you gather inspiration is certain death for creativity.
Organize (but only if you want to). It's OK to be unorganized and even a little messy — this is creativity after all! So what if your collections are a bit of a mess with no rhyme or reason. If you are fabulously organized, then you're a step ahead of us, but for those who aren't, don't sweat it. There's time to go back over all this stuff and label it later.
Start looking for a pro. This can be a great time to start noting the professionals who are responsible for the designs you like and looking for a local design professional you might like to interview. For some homeowners, the right thing to do is hire a professional out of the gate and have him or her help you through this inspiration-gathering phase. Some homeowners even hand this off completely to a designer, and it's the designer's job to listen, interpret and collect inspiration for the client and bring it back for approval.
Categorize. Once you have a fair number of inspiration images to work with, go back through them and put them into loose categories.
You can categorize by style: Maybe you seem to fall on the fence between vintage and modern. Or maybe you find that you have a bunch of images of kitchens with dark wood floors. You can create a collection dedicated completely to islands or kitchen banquette seating. One for lighting, one for wallpaper, etc.
We'll get into exploring your style with the next installment, so for now don't think about why you like things, just that you do or don't.
Continue reading.
Here are some tips to help you through step 1:
Collect images at random. Collect images that speak to you emotionally without thinking about why (at least for right now). Believe me, there's a pattern there — you may not be able to see it at first, but a pattern will show itself. You may find that a whole bunch of your kitchen inspiration images may need to be added to an ideabook for a future farmhouse or weekend getaway, but don't skip over them just because they don't relate to this project, save them for later.
Don't edit yourself (yet). Don't make yourself nuts from the get-go by trying to edit as you collect. I really believe in collecting with reckless abandon first and editing later. Editing yourself while you gather inspiration is certain death for creativity.
Organize (but only if you want to). It's OK to be unorganized and even a little messy — this is creativity after all! So what if your collections are a bit of a mess with no rhyme or reason. If you are fabulously organized, then you're a step ahead of us, but for those who aren't, don't sweat it. There's time to go back over all this stuff and label it later.
Start looking for a pro. This can be a great time to start noting the professionals who are responsible for the designs you like and looking for a local design professional you might like to interview. For some homeowners, the right thing to do is hire a professional out of the gate and have him or her help you through this inspiration-gathering phase. Some homeowners even hand this off completely to a designer, and it's the designer's job to listen, interpret and collect inspiration for the client and bring it back for approval.
You can categorize by style: Maybe you seem to fall on the fence between vintage and modern. Or maybe you find that you have a bunch of images of kitchens with dark wood floors. You can create a collection dedicated completely to islands or kitchen banquette seating. One for lighting, one for wallpaper, etc.
We'll get into exploring your style with the next installment, so for now don't think about why you like things, just that you do or don't.
Continue reading.
