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Create a Vision for Your Apartment Decor with Online Tools
Do visions of apartment decor dance in your head? You may be familiar with “vision boards” where images are cut from magazines to create a collage, but did you know you can build a board like that online?
Here are some online tools to help you pinpoint ideas for decorating your new apartment or redecorating your home.
Online vision boards
If stacks of magazines and glue sticks seem daunting (and messy!), try a virtual bulletin board that lets you pin up and ponder the images that inspire you.
Pinterest is a social medium that allows you to create multiple vision boards, follow other users’ boards and create boards for private groups. You can pull vision board images from the Internet or piggyback on other Pinterest users’ research skills by searching images they have already pinned. (This is a handy feature because it keeps you from getting overwhelmed by an Internet search for a common item like pillows or desks.)
You can also create different boards for whatever dreams and visions you have. For example, you might create one big board called “Apartment Decorating” or break it out into smaller boards like “Bedroom,” “Home Office,” “Kitchen” and “Living Room.” It’s also fun to follow the users who have pinned your favorite images, so you can keep up with related trends you might want to try. It’s all about sharing ideas!
Oprah Winfrey is the queen of helping you envision your best life, and her web site offers up the O Dream Board. This tool also allows you to create multiple boards; the main difference is the image option. The O Dream Board’s partnership with Getty Images offers a great catalog of online images you can search through. This online tool also has a customizable interface that looks like a real bulletin board and lets you resize and place images into a collage.
Idea and image resources
Once you choose an online tool to create a vision for your apartment, you need to track down some ideas and the images that represent them. Searching online for apartment decor will yield thousands of results and could bog you down. Narrow your search by focusing on web sites that specialize in apartment decorating and design ideas. For instance, Apartment Therapy allows you to search their blog entries by apartment size, room, decor style and project. Freshome is another excellent resource to find images for decorating either your entire apartment or specific rooms.
Virtual layouts
After you’ve created a vision for your apartment style, test it out with online tools that help you mock up a floor plan and arrange furniture in virtual rooms. Floorplanner lets you do one floor plan for free and has a great gallery of floor plans to spark ideas. Room Arranger is a free shareware program that offers similar features for arranging a floor plan and trying new arrangement ideas.
Whether you have visions of a travel-inspired home or eclectic decorating, jump-start your dream decorating project with useful online vision board tools!
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Readers Poll
What do you think is the ideal number of apartment roommates?
- 0 (47%, 24 Votes)
- 1 (33%, 17 Votes)
- 2 (16%, 8 Votes)
- More than 2 (4%, 2 Votes)
Total Voters: 51
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