Create a Lookbook with Interior Design Ideas and Inspiration

Do you have a stack of design inspiration magazines somewhere in your home with pages marked?  Maybe you take photographs of beautiful places that you see when you’re out?  Well, if you are about to embark on an interior design project – or even if you dream of it in the future – then a personal look book can be invaluable.

A look book is basically an album of rooms and decorative accessories and items that appeal to you, which you have collected by tearing out pages from decorating magazines or those photographs that you’ve taken of beautiful spaces.  Developing one of these books can be fun and exciting.  When completed, it will serve as a guide to your design desires and a wish list of sorts. 

Once you have your look book completed, or at least almost there as it can be a constant work-in-progress, it can be useful to guide your style preferences and make shopping for your project a lot easier. You may be surprised while you’re putting together your look book at what your likes and dislikes are.

Start with a three-ring binder, or something similar. Use clear sheet protectors to hold your magazine tear-outs and other inspiration, and divide the book (with tabs) into sections based on the rooms (dining room, family room, living room, kitchen, etc.)

Gather up all of the decorating magazines that you’ve been collecting and go through each one, ripping out pages that have looks that you like.  Anything that appeals to you should be cut out.  While you go about doing this, you should be able to begin identifying your taste – then you will be headed in the right direction to creating a room that reflects who you are.

As you start looking through the design magazines make sure you only tear out pages of entire rooms that you like.  You should focus on what appeals to you overall rather than just selecting decorative items that you like; the details will come later.

Study the room that appeal to you and use small sticky note papers to indicate on the photographs what features of the room appeal to you.  These notes can help set the tone for your room’s design and perhaps even help to determine the room’s focus or its focal point.

When looking through magazines for inspiration, keep in mind the architectural features of your room as well as its dimensions.  Try to select inspirational rooms that are similar in size to your room.  The purpose of your look book is to have inspiration that is a close approximation of what you’d like to achieve in your room, so selecting a page that pictures a room twice the size of yours will not serve its purpose well.

You may be tempted to tear out a room that you are attracted to, but would not necessarily suit your lifestyle; you should resist the temptation because this, too, serves no purpose in your ultimate goal.  You will not be happy with a beautiful room that does not meet your needs.

Once you have all of the room photos that you want for your book, move on to tearing out photos of specialty items and details that attract you.  Details can include a picture of a decorative tassel on the end of a window shade cord – something that adds a bit of ornament to the look.  Select close up pictures of patterns and colors that you like if you can.  Other details can be cabinet hardware, trims on pillows, molding, and even plumbing fixtures. 

The final pages of each section in your look book should be devoted to photographs of decorative items (furniture, accessories) that you take during research field trips – the operative word here being research.  Go shopping around and get ideas, take pictures.  Research is necessary because the average person hasn’t shopped for furnishings in years.  Find out what’s available and what things cost.  Don’t be unduly influenced by “the latest trends.”  So, as you come across something that catches your eye, snap a picture of it for your book.  Before you put these photographs in your book, be sure to make necessary notes on the back of the photos.

Finally, your look book doesn’t have to include only items that you long for – by all means, include photos of treasured items that you already have. 

The last thing you’re going to do once you have your book put together is review your book carefully.  You may notice that several of your choices have a similar look.  It’s good in that it shows that you know what you like, but you don’t need a whole lot of redundancy in your book.  On the other hand, if you’re finding that most of your selections are radically different from each other, you should take the time to reevaluate them.  Some diversity can be good; too much can ruin your efforts to achieve a harmonious room.