Creating an inspiration board for your next home renovation project

Creating an inspiration board for your next home renovation project A step-by-step guide from Context Architects

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SCRAP BOOKING

Pull together your inspiration from all over: postcards, photographs, drawings, pictures from magazines or websites. Collect anything that you have a strong response to. Check out www.houzz.com and www.pintrest.com.

BE YOUR OWN PHOTOGRAPHER

Architects get their inspiration from everywhere – so try taking photos when you are out and about – your favourite café, your neighbour’s kitchen, interior colour schemes and parts your home or furniture that already work well. They don’t have to be amazing pictures, just something that excites you. At Context, we’ve even designed rooms around a client’s favourite furniture, art and lighting because they’ve loved a particular piece so much.

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RANK IT AND WRITE YOUR BRIEF

With your collection/electronic file/shoebox full of favourites, sit down with your significant other or good friend and articulate what you like about each element. For example: “love the colours in here, awesome couch and skirting board, hate the harsh lighting.”

Architect Scott Cracknell from Context Architects explains how design professionals use inspiration boards at the start of a project to formulate their design direction, and pull together ideas around colour, style and texture.

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AT CONTEXT, WE’VE EVEN DESIGNED ROOMS AROUND A CLIENT’S FAVOURITE PIECE OF FURNITURE Write down the most important aspects to you: • ‘Warmth is important because this is the cold side of house.’

• ‘We need it to be soothing and calm in the new baby’s room.’

• ‘The mud room needs to be functional and easy to clean.’

This will become your brief to yourself or your designer. For example: “We want a new kitchen that will be the heart of the home and complements our existing colour scheme downstairs.”

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RULE BOOK

From your written brief and selection of winning pictures, work out your design rules and palette to end up with the completed project you want, rather than a mish-mash of clashing ideas and colours.

“It’s a way of summing up an overall design feel and mood, and enables an architect to develop their concepts, and visually communicate them to the client and other members of the design team,” says Scott.

“But you don’t need to be a professional to make an inspiration board,” he explains. “Anyone can create one for their next home renovation project. An inspiration board will help you clarify your ideas, think about how your design will work in practice, and avoid style disasters.”

Context Architects

www.context.net.nz

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1 2

SCRAP BOOKING

Pull together your inspiration from all over: postcards, photographs, drawings, pictures from magazines or websites. Collect anything that you have a strong response to. Check out www.houzz.com and www.pintrest.com.

BE YOUR OWN PHOTOGRAPHER

Architects get their inspiration from everywhere – so try taking photos when you are out and about – your favourite café, your neighbour’s kitchen, interior colour schemes and parts your home or furniture that already work well. They don’t have to be amazing pictures, just something that excites you. At Context, we’ve even designed rooms around a client’s favourite furniture, art and lighting because they’ve loved a particular piece so much.

3

RANK IT AND WRITE YOUR BRIEF

With your collection/electronic file/shoebox full of favourites, sit down with your significant other or good friend and articulate what you like about each element. For example: “love the colours in here, awesome couch and skirting board, hate the harsh lighting.”

Architect Scott Cracknell from Context Architects explains how design professionals use inspiration boards at the start of a project to formulate their design direction, and pull together ideas around colour, style and texture.

2

AT CONTEXT, WE’VE EVEN DESIGNED ROOMS AROUND A CLIENT’S FAVOURITE PIECE OF FURNITURE Write down the most important aspects to you: • ‘Warmth is important because this is the cold side of house.’

• ‘We need it to be soothing and calm in the new baby’s room.’

• ‘The mud room needs to be functional and easy to clean.’

This will become your brief to yourself or your designer. For example: “We want a new kitchen that will be the heart of the home and complements our existing colour scheme downstairs.”

4

RULE BOOK

From your written brief and selection of winning pictures, work out your design rules and palette to end up with the completed project you want, rather than a mish-mash of clashing ideas and colours.

“It’s a way of summing up an overall design feel and mood, and enables an architect to develop their concepts, and visually communicate them to the client and other members of the design team,” says Scott.

“But you don’t need to be a professional to make an inspiration board,” he explains. “Anyone can create one for their next home renovation project. An inspiration board will help you clarify your ideas, think about how your design will work in practice, and avoid style disasters.”

Context Architects

www.context.net.nz

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SAMPLES

Keeping within your self-imposed design rules, gather actual samples of as many items as you can – like swatches of fabric, workbench finishes etc. There’s often a big difference between how colours and textures reproduce in a catalogue versus reality. Collect pictures of the specific fridge/light/table you want. Go to your local paint shop and arrange A4 brushouts or get test pots and make your own to see how your colours work in context.

Carpets and floor coverings are often neglected at this stage, but they represent a big surface area and investment in your renovation project, and they have a huge impact on the overall look and feel. Get samples and put them together with other key elements and pictures of any existing furniture you want to keep.

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CUT AND PASTE

Place sample materials on an A2 piece of card or foam board from an art or stationary store. Group items together that will be adjacent to each other in real life, e.g. place the living room materials and fittings next to each other. Play around with it before committing with glue or spray mount.

The finished board will be your style bible and touchstone, so take it with you when you go shopping or start ordering. If it’s not on it, don’t do it! Or, do it with care, thinking about how it’s going to affect the cohesion of the whole project. Think of it as your very own credit card protection device!

For more inspiration, and to download your renovation planning tool, visit www.context.net.nz

Scott Cracknell is a leading architect with Context Architects.

Scott specialises in residential projects; from multi-million dollar one-off commissions, to smaller renovations and large scale developments.

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Context Architects