Are you suffering from inspiration overload?

Access to the World Wide Web has transformed how we collect inspiration over previous decades, particularly with Pinterest, with more than 433 Million monthly active users. Wow! And although access to millions of inspirational images is sensational, it can also become incredibly confusing and overwhelming when planning a new custom build or renovation.

Before becoming a Home Build Mentor, I was a building designer specialising in family homes. Over my twenty-plus years in the design industry, homeowners' methods of conveying their visual intentions for their projects changed dramatically. In the early days, the client brief typically consisted of some images pasted into a visual diary or a small pile of tabbed magazines. Fast forward to the 2020s, and it's an entirely different story.

A client briefing nowadays usually involves clients' providing digital access to their Pinterest account, typically bulging with hundreds if not thousands of images, many conveying conflicting intentions. Over the timeframe of collecting your inspiration, your desires may have evolved and changed, and the entire contents of your file may no longer be relevant.

This is when filtering your images will help both you and your designer understand the true visual intent of your project. It's time to go old school and imagine you are choosing only the best images to paste into your visual diary or tab in the magazine.

The term "brief" in the context of your project is a concise portrayal of the key intentions of your project. And in this sense, it relates specifically to your home's appearance.

I challenge my Home Build Mentoring clients to choose a maximum of 3-4 images for each area of their future home, also remembering to consider the exterior. It can still be arranged digitally with the help of sections on Pinterest or by creating a digital diary on Canva. The medium you choose is not what is important; it's the transfer of ideas and information that is the key.

Because when it comes to your future home, vague intentions will lead to vague outcomes- And we don't want that. Let's get concise.