Decor

How to Use Pinterest for Your Home Decorating Projects

A visual wonderland for design and DIY afficionados, Pinterest can help you visualize and plan your renos and redesigns

By Bruce MacDonald /

Create pinboards on Pinterest to collect and organize images that inspire your design projects

Pinterest is a great way to create virtual vision boards to plan your design projects

Leave your magazines intact and house inspirational pictures online with social media website Pinterest. Think of it as a collection of virtual corkboards. You create themed boards by adding pins of things you find online and on other people’s boards.

Pinterest can help you organize and visualize anything from a one-room redesign to a garden renovation.

  1. Collect: Create a board for your project and pin ideas from your favourite stores, magazines, blogs and other Pinterest boards. As you pin images, make a note on each one about what you liked, whether it was a single paint colour or a DIY project you’d like to try. By the end of this hunt-and-gather phase, you should see a pattern forming in the kinds of furniture, colours and types of decor you pin, helping clarify the look for your project.
  2. Consult: Share your board with friends and invite their comments. If you’d like continual input, check off the Facebook button when you pin something new and it will post the image to your timeline as well. If you’re working with a designer, share the board with them so they have a clear visual of your desired style.
  3. Curate: Start the process of elimination by removing pins that involve unrealistic DIY work. Next, remove items that exceed your budget, or replace them with affordable alternatives. If you have several pins for one item, narrow it down to just a few – you want options, but not an overwhelming number of them.
  4. Complete: You should now have an edited collection of images that reflects the look you’re trying to achieve. This is now your jumping-off point to start shopping and get into project mode!

Originally published in BC Home & Garden magazine. For regular updates, subscribe to our free Home and Garden e-newsletters, or purchase a subscription to the magazine.