I don't use photos. I will use a print of art, a fabric I love or even a piece of pottery. The rest just builds from there.

Budget? WTF is that? Hehehehehe!

My kitchen was partially designed using several magazine pages - taking ideas from various pictures and making them work for me and our home. As far as decorating, like Miles, it's a piece of fabric, a rug, something I love etc or the house itself that gets me going in the right direction.

I haven't had a budget in years, but I don't like throwing money at things either. I'm always on the look out for a good bargain, sale or using an object as something it wasn't meant to be - for example, making a large wooden candlestick into a lamp.

The first three photos are magazine pages I used to design our kitchen shown in the last three photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen

I get inspiration from pictures in magazines, books,this site and others, but have never used a single picture as a base for any decorating I've done. Rather, it's a mingling of ideas and things that have spoken to me combined with what I already have as I've never done anything totally from a blank slate. My home, my rooms have evolved over time and continue to do so. I have pieces that I bought used when I was in college still in use and mingling with hand me downs, heirlooms (a distinct difference!) and new(er) items.

I've never worked off of a planned budget for decorating because it's always a work in progress. There may be something I'd like to buy but pass on it because it's too much money (to me) at that moment or for that item. When we did our kitchen was the closest we came to having a distinct budget but even then it was more a matter of deciding what we wanted then figuring out the most economical ways to get them or deciding the cost was not worth it to us so we'd rethink our plan.

I think fabric inspires me more than anything else. I don't usually set a budget. I take it slow in my purchases and look for bargains and buy what I can afford. When the money runs out I stop shopping. I hate the thought of sacrificing what I like because I can't afford it, especially when it's a small item. I cut back on something else to allow for the item I absolutely love.

Gosh, I have been trying to figure out what inspires my style.

Different things make decisions for me. It depends on what I am working on. With my FR it was a new rug. With my LR, it is fabric since I am updating a 7 year old neutral sofa with new pillows. For drapes I look at magazines like Architectural Digest and the dining room gallery to this forum (it's very interesting). I also cut out pictures of rooms, furnishings, and/or accessories that I like.

If you are looking to get started, first determine what you like. My suggestion is to go through magazines, catalogs, and the gallery section to this forum. Cut out pictures.

I have not worked with a budget nor would I know how to. It's a balancing act. I seem to be able to work in less expensive with more expensive. Like DLM, my home is a work in progess. I don't think you are ever done.

Allison your kitchen is absolutely lovely, a chef's kitchen. No McDonald burgers served in that kitchen I bet. lol

alison that black coffee station/hutch is in your kitchen? I LOVE it - hope you don't mind but I saved it to my inspiration folder! See - that's the kind of thing that will roll around in my head forever and someday when I have the chance I'll incorporate something along those lines, adjusted for my specific space and needs in my own home. I've never been a fan of second sinks in a kitchen but used in that way it's a fabulous idea.

I love looking through my many decorating mags and books for inspiration, but it's usually one item that actually inspires me. It can be a fabric or a light fixture or a table and all of the sudden ideas start flooding into my brain. I've been like that since I was four years old (I seriously drove my parents crazy as a kid rearranging our house!).
When we were in the beginning stages of planning our total kitchen remodel last year, I was looking for inspration. I came across a pic of an Old World hood over a cooktop that had a mantel on it and that was it for me! We had to have our gas and water lines rerouted, as we switched the fridge and cooktop locations, but it was worth it to get the kitchen of my dreams. This is that inspiration pic:
{{!gwi}}
It was too busy for me personally, and I didn't want to box in the cooktop, so this is what I ended up with:
{{!gwi}}
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Lynn

Love to see as much as I can in person, photos, model homes, drawings, etc. but then think how I want to "feel" in a space, and draw from my exposure to create the atmosphere. The use,sleep, create,work,exercize,study,play all respond to feeling, and the feeling from a space inspires the use, then favorite elements trigger a theme. I think it great fun and enjoyable.

Allison.
That is so cool, I have never seen how someone actually saw inspiration photos and then used them to build her own place. I have loads of insp. photos but I never seem to follow them. I do not know why.

I do it backwards. I get an idea for a room, then I look thru magazines to find a similar look so that I know I'm not completely off base.

Thanks!

Newdawn1895, I actually only enjoy cooking large meals for holidays. It's not that I can't cook, it's just not something I've ever enjoyed on a daily basis. I did cook daily when the kids were still at home. Luckily, DH likes to cook more than I do so we don't starve. (I do like McDonald's fries!)

dlm2000, the 1st black hutch is a magazine page but the second one is mine. The cream cabinets (I believe the 1st photo) was the inspiration for our coffee station. The small doors with chicken wire lift up, like those in the magazine. It is hard to take a decent picture of the hutch - light seems to reflect too much. The architect had a coat closet in that space, but I wanted to see something pretty when I come into the house through the garage.

lyban, I'm always ripping out pages, but don't try to copy something - usually just keep as a reminder of one thing. With our open floor plan, I knew I wanted the kitchen to not too kitcheny, so I started looking for ideas and was lucky to find a local store who (at the time) had a cabinetmaker in England building furniture for him, two fantastic local guys who did the installation and another local guy who did the painting/glazing.

You can see more pictures of the kitchen on Attic Mag's Kitchens We Love. Scroll down to the French Grey Island Kitchen. You can click on the pictures to enlarge.

Here is a link that might be useful: More kitchen pictures

I haven't found an inspiration picture for any of my rooms yet, but I am looking. The problem with finding inspiration for my house is that the house is an unusual style and it calls for something a little unique. It's a log house, which usually means a certain decor, but I'm not so much into typical "log house rustic" decor. My inspiration is more a story line. I want my house to look like a turn of the century mid-western farmer's wife moved to a rustic log home in the woods in Alaska, we'll see where that inspiration takes me.

~~Veronica

While there are many rooms I've seen that I'd love to out-and-out copy, minor details like budgets and existing architecture :-) get in the way. Normally it's a piece of artwork, textile, or rug that ends up where I take color, pattern, etc. I don't have a set overall budget per room, really, as I do things very gradually as money becomes available, but I know what I can afford/am willing to pay for certain things.

I've only had the chance to really do up one room "from soup to nuts", the master bathroom at my previous house, and I did start with inspiration pictures for that. I saw two pictures of one bathroom in Jane Powell's "Bungalow Bathrooms" and thought "that's my bathroom", but I still only took aspects of it for my own rather than copying it - the high, stained-wood beadboard wainscot and clawfoot tub with English telephone faucet were what grabbed me the most, so those were the "non-negotiables", but I didn't care for the floor tile and white walls so I threw those out the window:
{{gwi:1530685}} {{gwi:1530686}}

My end result:
{{gwi:1530687}} {{gwi:1530688}}

I've got the same situation WRT the will-get-to-it-someday kitchen in this house (it's more or less functional so it has to wait for a few years while we take care of higher-priority items). I found a picture of some cabinets that will fit this house perfectly - they're actually very similar to the trashed remains of a pantry cabinet we found in the shed, so there might even have been something like them there originally - but I hate the appliances and the walls and definitely the colors LOL so it'll definitely be another case of "a little of this, a little of that", but the cabinet style really socked me.