After deciding to build a custom home, your imagination runs wild with ideas. You begin to find creative concepts everywhere you look. And, with so many avenues, apps, and websites to gather inspiration, it can become overwhelming to organize your favorite concepts in one place.
Luckily, there are plenty of programs, websites, and apps that allow you to save your ideas in one organized space. With a little categorizing, you can show your curated inspiration to your builder, providing them with sufficient foundations to craft your custom dream home.
Here are a few resources to cultivate inspiration and facilitate organization in the process.
This new resource allows users to curate their own feeds through individualized collections. To begin, use keywords and identify topics that interest you. Soon, your Mix feed will populate with potentially relevant articles, images, and resources that will provide plenty of inspiration for your custom home.
How to use Mix to organize your ideas:
Input keywords and topics that generate relevant posts
Save inspirational posts to your collections
Organize each saved post into collection categories (bathrooms, interior, landscaping, etc.)
Save websites outside of Mix to your Mix collections (add the Mix extension first)
Share individual collection links with your builder
Here are some websites and inspirational pages that you could send to your Mix collections immediately:
Studio McGee
J&K Custom Homes – Interiors
This visual resource allows users to search through each room of the house to find inspiration without having to sift through much extra website clutter. With its sleek website design, you’ll enjoy the process of browsing its content for inspiration.
How to use Dwell to organize your ideas:
Browse through various photo categories (kitchen, bathroom, etc.)
Save photos that match your desired custom home style
Organize photos into themed collections
Send individual collection links to builder
Here a few Dwell filters to get you started:
Living Room
Kids Room
Kitchen
With all of the excitement that comes with building a custom home, you’ll want to collect all of your ideas and research in one organized place to show your builder so they can create your dream home according to your vision. No matter what platform or resource you decide to go with, enjoy the process of finding creative inspiration.
This classic visual app has become a staple for the custom design community in the last decade. With billions of “Pins” to serve as visual inspiration, your ideas will just keep flowing.
How to use Pinterest boards to organize your ideas:
Save inspirational images to a custom board
Organize each board according to theme (kitchen, bathroom, home theater, etc.)
Curate each board to reflect your desired style
Share individual Pinterest board links with your builder
Here are a few examples of how you can organize your Pinterest boards:
Amy Storm and Company
Home and Design
Home Adore
As another visual medium for inspiration, Instagram allows you to scroll through photos of accounts and hashtags that you choose to follow. By selecting accounts that focus on design concepts, you can quickly build a feed full of inspiration for your custom luxury home.
How to use Instagram collections to organize your ideas:
Save photos that reflect your desired style
Organize each saved photo into a collection
Title each collection according to theme (home gym, living room, etc.)
Show collections to builder in person or through screenshots (Instagram doesn’t allow digital collection sharing at this point)
Take a look at some of these design accounts to begin your Instagram inspiration:
Home and Design
Home Adore
Decoholic
This resource allows you to browse for inspiration with predetermined categories to start your research. Once you move past the busy home page, you’ll find helpful search categories and filters to refine ideas for your custom home.
How to use Houzz to organize your ideas:
Explore the “Browse Ideas by Room” section (bathroom, home office, etc.)
Explore the “Browse Photos by Style” section (farmhouse, Mediterranean, etc.)
Save photos to ideabook collections
Title ideabooks by theme (bedroom, living room, etc.)
Add builder as a collaborator on individual ideabooks to share your concepts
Here are a few starting points to ease you into the Houzz resource:
Kitchens
Modern Home Office
Farmhouse Outdoor Living
go with, enjoy the process of finding creative inspiration.