Innovative Storage Solutions

Walking through home dept the other day, I saw some really cool stuff looking at their kitchen section.  Drawers and cabinet doors are getting a lot more "fashionable."  I saw sooooooo many different selections, and I'm not just talking about different finishes on wood cabinet doors, but the looks.  Some seemed like horizontal drawers stacked on top of each other and when you open them, they're actually single drawers that are deep and have different styles of organization in them.  It's like IKEA but fancier, from dish storage to pots and pans all organized in different hooks and slots.  It almost seemed like a closet concept, but in ones kitchen drawers :) Pretty cool

Inspiration This Week

Sooo. . . Inspiration this week truly came from doing nothing.  Texas had a horrible storm where everyone freaked out and everything was closed down, even Starbucks!!!! HAHAHAHA
  (http://pointedmeanderings.blogspot.com/2009/12/angels-or-demons.html)

SO from doing nothing and pretty much being stuck at home I really had time to just think and imagine.  Like I mentioned before, I am looking for a new place to live, but one day and one day soon I'd love to buy my own house.  What I did this week was pretty much imagined myself having all the money in the world and totally making my house my style in every possible way.  Not just the usual in picking out finishes and changing the paint colors here and there, but I really went into depth planning out how many sq feet the house would be, then what the measurements of my kitchen island would be, my ideal bedroom sizes and so on.  I truly loved every part of it and loved going through different magazines and making a collage of everything I liked.  Not so much of the usual "organized" look, but more of the scrap booking idea.  I cut pictures out, circled, made comments; you name it I did it :)
So next time you are a little bored, I suggest getting out some magazines, scissors, and glue and imagine away ;)

Inspiration in My Personal Life

So inspiration this week came from my personal life... No art no designs or magazines... Just life. I have a vision board I keep in my room and it's full of things I both want and need; kind of like a list to Santa haha, but less superficial. On it I wrote goals, dreams, and basically thought of the impossible. In the past month I have started checking things off that list. Of course simple things like having the money to register my car and getting a new drafting table in order to do projects at home. It's an amazing feeling knowing that when I wrote those items on my list it seemed impossible, but here I am checking at least one thing off every week or so :)

Inspiration comes from thinking outside the box and not limiting oneself to the small box we live in or the small box our money comes from. It's about believing I can have those things just like anyone else, and just like they also come up with awesome ideas and designs so can I. Inspiration this week came from within... Not trying to be "deep" haha but sometimes we gotta go there to break away from the norm... Get what I mean?

Finding Inspiration While Looking for a New Place

Helllllooo. . .  So First week back at school and yes blogs also start again :)

In searching for a new apartment this week I thought about what inspires me overall.  I need to find a place that I love both on the inside and out; while also staying within my price range (if you catch my drift . . . )  It's been slightly difficult being relatively new to the area, and making a "contract" decision of where I would want to stay for a year or so. . . Obviously I am surrounded by terrific options as well as really bad ones haha so I need to think about the inside design of the place as well as looking at the exterior architecture and general neighborhood of the area.  Walking through West 7th street the other day, here in Fort Worth, I passed some amazing lofts. . .   Price range was ok. . . between $700-2,300 depending on square footage.  Overall the area around is also very very very nice haha and new places are still being built all around.  Seems like a fun place.  I still have to see one from the inside and see what that looks like.  Important features for a place I need are the kitchen, I need it to be spacious- to me it's just as important as the living room; also layout- I need to be able to visualize furniture in the space and have it look cozy. . .  Well I'll let you guys know what I find on the inside, as well as what other options I find :)  I still have a month or so. . . Hopefully time doesn't fly by too quickly. 

Design Careers!!!!!!!!!

Even though HGTV is a fun channel, many designers know that's not the reality.  Thank goodness, I didn't come into this hoping for a spot on a new hit TV show, but instead I took a different route.  One of the most appealing careers I have found with Interior Design is Textile and Wall Covering design. 

Textile and Wall
Covering designers must be highly creative and have a strong sense of color, form and design.  They work in knit, weave, print, photography, and have to be innovative to create designs that are used to make a variety of fabrics, wall coverings, and other such products.  These designs are the beginning stages of textiles like linens, furniture and clothing; while the wall coverings can be an inspiration for any space and decor.  An average salary can be between $40-68,000 a year. 

Looking To Other Homes For Inspiration

While shopping for inspiration, some of the the best places to look are in other homes.  My favorite thing to do is go into a model home and just walk around looking at the funky things that were done to the space.  It's also fun to look at homes that are for sale and see what the lay out is of a simple apartment compared to a more "complex" condo or the layout of a house.  By adding a randomly shaped hall way instead of a plain one with parallel walls gives the space more appeal. 

Like this one:

                                
or being daring and fun by adding a fun colored couch

                          


I find it interesting how some apartments are pretty spacious in square feet but can still make you feel enclosed and squished in.  The apartment I live in has mirrors as its back splash in the kitchen, which brings in the natural light to the kitchen from the living room windows.  It helps in bringing in natural light to a space that would otherwise consist of shadows.  Due to the reflection it really works out. 

Also going into residences that go out of your usual norm is fun :) finding things you may never have in your own home, but bring a smile to our faces whenever we see someone daring enough to put it in their homes ha ha!

                                      

Poking at Someone Else For Inspiration

New week and new ways of finding inspiration.  Some of the best ways are looking at other blogs, maybe like mine if you're visiting this site as a fellow desgner :)  Well before writing this i've looked up a few different blogs and from them taken inspiration and been able to grasp new concepts. 



This picture from MOCO LOCO Designs, one of the top blogs rated.  It has everything from furniture to art work, so when looking for good inspiration here is one to look at.
 

This is from ikea hacker.  The wrighter posts invoative ways of using anything and everything from ikea.  This specific one chopping wood from tables and making them into soemthing else like another table or even a bed. 

So overall these blogs as well as others can give you an intersting look at what's new and what's hot.  There are blogs for just about any topic, even the crazy ones can give you a new idea.  So surf the web and google blogs, you'll be surprised.