As you are “pinning” away and filling your “Ideabooks” with inspirational photos be sure to notate what you like (or don’t like) about those photos. This does 3 things:

1) It helps you remember why you saved that photo 3 weeks, 3 months, or 3 years later! :) Sometimes projects get put on hold for various reasons, and so if you notate why you saved the photo it will help you remember what detail or feeling that was important to you.

2) Notating your “pins” and inspiration photos also communicates to your design team what about that photo you want to include in your project. For example, if you pin a photo with a killer light fixture (in the background) that you love, but your designer sees the photo and thinks you love the tile detail because the photos was pinned from a tile website, this will cause confusion and delays in the design process. BE DETAILED.

3) When you notate what you like about each photo - even if it’s just bullet points; like, “herringbone floor,” “black fixtures,” “blue tile” - you’ll start to see a pattern. If you keep pinning the same things over and over again then it’s not necessarily a fad or trend, it’s what you LOVE and chances are you won’t grow tired of it even if the rest of the world has moved on. So even if it’s “trending” it could be a classic design element for you, and maybe something you should splurge on.