How to Effectively Use Pinterest when Building or Remodeling a Home

I love Pinterest… you love Pinterest… we all love Pinterest!!  It helps us craft, cook, dress, DIY, decorate, highlight and contour…you name it!  So of course the second I found out we would be building a new home, I started my ‘Molyneux House’ Pinterest board. 

I searched and pinned pictures for just about every decision needed to be made along the way.  As we are now on the last leg of our building journey (moving in HOPEFULLY next month), I have learned how Pinterest can really help you and hurt you when it comes to building or remodeling your home.  Here my Top 5 lessons learned…

1.Use Pinterest pictures as inspiration ONLY!

This can be tricky.  We see these beautiful pictures on Pinterest and the only thing we know is we want to replicate them for ourselves.  The important thing to remember is that most of these pictures are of homes that cost an amount most average people like you and I can not afford! Keep focus on the big picture and inspiration these pictures supply- don’t get caught up in wanting to recreate exactly what you see.

Example:  I showed my designer these Pinterest pictures of kitchens I liked.  I saw white cabinets and a clean/crisp kitchen.  What she saw, as the expert, was inset cabinets that are custom made and insanely expensive!  So when showing your builder, contractor, or designer Pinterest pictures make sure you are clear about what catches your eye in these pictures and what caused you to pin them.  For me, all of these pictures were pinned because each kitchen space gives me the same airy feeling and that is what I want to capture in my own kitchen.

2. Use Pinterest pictures to clarify your vision.
While building our custom home, I have been to every meeting and making every decision.  That means I am working with electricians, framers, carpenters, painters, stone smiths, etc.  I quickly found that I did not speak the language of these experts.  This is where Pinterest helped A LOT.  With each walk through or selection meeting, I would arm myself with pinned pictures to show what I was trying to explain.

This is the pinned picture I used to show the marble/granite company as we discussed the design for our powder bath floating sink. 

Pinned picture for our pool mud room lockers.

I had a hard time explaining what I wanted for the trim in our home.  So having pictures helped me get across clearly the look I was going for.

3. Use Pinterest as a color idea board
When it comes to understanding and deciding upon color selections, I found Pinterest to be really helpful!!!  If I couldn't imagine two different tones of cabinetry in the kitchen or what dark trim work would look like, I looked on Pinterest. 

Dark doors and trim work for our basement?  This is one of the pictures that helped confirm that decision.  *I am still a bit nervous to see ours but willing to take the chance!

I love how 'manly' this office looks.  It was for sure an inspiration pic when creating the vibe for Ian's office.

This picture helped with deciding to have our butler's pantry a different color.  At first it was white cabinets, but now I LOVE the grey cabinets in there and I have this pic to thank for that decision.

Navy cabinetry in the Jack and Jill bathrooms...check.

Brown door in a wood tone or a painted door.  I went back and forth with this one.  After seeing many pictures on Pinterest, we went with a dark front door and coordinating dark garage doors!

Excited we went with white perimeter cabinets and a grey island.

Looking at different colors for cabinets, trim work, walls, hardware, etc. on Pinterest can really help narrow what look you are drawn to.

4. Be Careful of All the AMAZING IDEAS you will find...NOTHING is free!!! Especially if is isn't DIY!!
This was a hard one for me!  I would see all this great ideas and I would show my project manager.  That is when reality hit and I would find out how much it would cost to replicate all those great ideas.  Unless you are a master DIY gal or have a great DIY hubby, I caution on those 'fancy' pins.  All of the following pics are ones I pinned thinking- "those look cool and convenient."  Then I found out how much my builder would charge to create each of them; needless to say none of these fancy pin ideas made it into our home!

5.  Pin Specific Pictures
This one kind of goes against my #1 of using Pinterest for inspiration only.  If you are looking for something specific and you find it on Pinterest- PIN IT!!  I went back to my Pinterest Board so many times to look at a light fixture I wanted to buy or a faucet that I had selected months ago.  Looking at some of my more specific pins helped keep me organized when thinking of the overall style I wanted my home to have!  Right now I am pinning hardware like a mad woman.  But these pins are like my memory.  Below are some specific pins that are of items that will be making an appearance in our home very soon...hopefully!!!

So remember when pinning ideas for your home- stay realistic, consider what is DYI, and have fun pinning pictures that can inspire you to create your own unique space that makes you happy!

All pinned pictures in this post can be found from my Pinterest boards-For the Home and Molyneux House.