We are running some favorite newsletter tips from the last few years on the BLOG this month. Enjoy!

Environments stimulate our imagination, but it works the other way around too. We need to imagine a beautiful place before we can create it. Read my tips below for letting imagination rule more of the roost in your home.

3 tips for giving space to imagination in your home

Create an inspiration board and a file of images: If you do not have a file folder of images that inspire you, please start today. Get a stack of magazines. Include some travel and lifestyle glossies in addition to design magazines for best results. You can even go to the library and make color photocopies of pictures in back issues if you like. Stretch yourself and pull non-decor images too. I love tearing out beautiful photos of fruit and flowers to inspire color palette ideas. Paste or tack 10 to 15 favorites on a board that you can look at every day. Keep the rest in a file folder and every month review and update. As you go about your days you will notice patterns in what inspires you. Incorporate into your home at your own pace. Or when you are ready have a designer help sort through the images and make a plan. A good designer will be very skilled at sensing the patterns in your file.

Create displays of beautiful objects at key focal points: Sit in your favorite chair at the dining table, your favorite spot on the couch, or where you sit in bed, and notice where your gaze falls. Find a few key places in your direct line of sight where you can create a grouping of beautiful objects, or objects that resonate with one another in an interesting way. Maybe it is a mirror over a painted chest topped with a footed bowl, or a side table with a great lamp and a fantastic photograph hanging on the wall just behind. A strong grouping will hold your eye’s interest for years and stimulate your imagination about other possibilities, but you can also change it up when you think you need fresh perspective.

Fill your home with art and books: Reading stimulates our thinking in a very direct way, and having books you love where you can see them will serve as a reminder of the ideas, information, or experiences contained in those books. This starts young. If I recite a line from a favorite book to Aadi while getting him dressed in the morning, he will wriggle away from me and point to the shelf where the book is. The books are part of our everyday life and we refer to the stories in them and things in our immediate environment interchangeably. Art on the other hand, often bypasses language and speaks to our subconscious mind directly, which can be a nice change of pace. Find some pieces you love and let them be windows into other worlds as you go about your everyday life.