Designers who Inspire

For the past two years, I have had home envy. From the moment I moved into my beautiful rental, my landlord told me that he would be moving back in 24 months later.  Since I knew our time was temporary, and that buying a house was on my horizon, I have been drawn to a few authors, publishers, blogs and design shows. And then on my Pinterest site I highlight all I have gathered.

Genevieve Gorder: Sigh. If there was one person that I could bring in to design my new house, it would be Genevieve Gorder of "Dear Genevieve" on HGTV.   Like any good designer, she listens to her clients and pushes them. What I love most is her desire to tell a story. She carefully combines a client's objects with one she discovers. As she said, "Design is emotionally a part of our everyday lives. What we see reflects how we feel. When a place is comforting, you are comforted."  She is a fan of built ins, flea market finds, using color to enhance a room, clustering mirrors and special objects, and yet never making a room cluttered.  She is particularly adapt at helping families create rooms that are as comfortable for kids as for adults. I tear up, pathetic as this is, at the end of most of her shows.  I would love to feel as inspired, transported and moved in my new home as her clients do.

I am definitely a fan of the Not So Big House books. I appreciate the way that Susan Susanka finds a balance between acknowledging that we lead complicated lives and need some things, but also can make do with relatively smaller spaces by using space efficiently. She also writes in a way that is very accessible.

Apartment Therapy: I have always been drawn to small spaces and had longed for a smaller house.  I loved the idea of less to clean, less energy to use, less room for clutter. Apartment Therapy is full of gems designed for people focusing on small spaces.  But the publishers also have a flare for the modern, green, contemporary, up cycled and just fabulous.

Design Sponge: This site is one of my sources for photos of before and after renovations done by real people (as in non-decorators or people with thousand to spend). Just like Apartment Therapy, it is updated multiple times A DAY which means I can spend way too much time checking out their featured products and designs.

Houzz: Sigh. This isn't my site for real ideas, unless I win the lottery any time soon! But since this is the the site for designers and decorators to show off their stuff it is also a never ending source of inspiration. I like that I can put in search terms like "warm colors living room" and find hundreds of photos that have those features.

My organizational obsessive geek loves the sites Real Simple, I Heart Organizing, and Bowl Full of Lemons. Because of these sites I am now the proud owner of my own label maker, many plastic containers and a home office binder.

Design Seeds is a sweet little site. Each day they have lovely palettes. I hope to draw from them as I create design boards for my kitchen and living room.

Taunton Press: I can count on these publishers to have books that feature gorgeous landscaping, stonescaping, hardscaping, etc.  The images are lovely and again, the books provide hopes for the future.

I don't have cable, so I have to rely on the web to get my TV fix.  But the HGTV site provides me with enough full episodes to listen to as I pack. I am a sucker for the shows that use software to quickly superimpose images of their vision on a current place.  In addition to Dear Genevieve,  I am a recent fan of CurbAppeal as my new house definitely needs it!  And I watched Holmes on Inspection religiously before my own inspection for a worst case scenario.

Feel free to throw any other ideas this way!