Pinterest via Senseless Sophistication
One project that we’re planning to tackle in the near future is the hideous three season room which occupies one corner of our house. It was definitely an after-thought, and a very misguided one at that, added on some point after the house was built. Since it has no insulation, I would describe it as more of a no-season room, or room-for-when-it’s-exactly-67-degrees. Otherwise, it’s a sweltering oven or an ice box. It obstructs windows to two of the bedrooms, meaning one of them gets absolutely no natural light. It also means we have to go out two doors when we let out the dogs. The outdoor water access on that side of the house, which is the only place we can access the yard, is actually inside this room, which makes watering planters or hanging baskets really annoying. Oh, did I mention it’s covered in really dark, rough, wood paneling which absorb every ounce of light? It has got to go.
Pinterest via Better Homes and Gardens
We want to open up the two walls that enclose the room from the outside, turning it into a covered porch. I love porches so much. When I was a kid, I spent the entire summer on either our front or back porch, playing games or reading books. We spend a lot of time outside, grilling listening to our iPod player, and just talking and relaxing, so it would be nice to have a comfortable spot out of the sun and elements. I’ve been collecting these images on Pinterest to help us nail down exactly how we want the porch to look, feel and function. You can check out the rest of my porch inspiration board here and follow me.
Holly Becker wrote a really great post today for Real Simple on how to effectively use Pinterest for minimizing your design ADD. I know I definitely suffer from many of the symptoms she describes, including forgetting about ideas and products I love as soon as I see the next thing I fall love with. This happens all of the time. I have been trying to use Pinterest more regularly to keep track of home projects I really want to do, but I have also been lax in another area Holly talks about – noting why I pinned the photo in the first place in the comments section. This is kind of inexcusable, because I always ask any client I work with on a design project to gather inspirational images and use sticky notes to describe what exactly drew them to the photo in the first place. Right now, all of these images are simply noted as “porch,” so I have a little work to do.
Are you using Pinterest yet to help you refine your interior or personal style? I’m also using it as a virtual recipe book and idea folder for DIY projects. There are really so many ways it can be used!