Friday 28 March 2008

Hunting for design ideas

Img from Livingetc forums "Fulham home"

Home renovation is a bit like pregnancy. When you're pregnant, you're hungry for information (well, during the first pregnancy anyway) so you read everything you can get your hands on. You listen ad nauseum to other parents waffle on with anecdotes and advice. You join loads of online discussion forums and swap notes with other mums-to-be. But once the baby arrives, that's that done with and besides, you have no time any more to spend hours in discussion forums etc - it just doesn't seem as necessary or urgent any more. (Until the baby is ill of course).

With this renovation bug I'm scouring design websites for inspiration, re-reading old issues of home décor magazines and hunting for other blogs that talk about the exact same thing that I'm going through. I find myself frustrated with bloggers who only update once a fortnight, or those who post without any photos.

But this week I've made two important discoveries that have helped satisfy my renovation angst.

Firstly, the ultimate topical "news" page for whatever subject takes your fancy. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but check out http://alltop.com - the section that really bakes my potato is http://design.alltop.com - every major design website or blog that I currently bookmark and have to remember to visit is listed in one handy page. I can zoom over stories and see what's new or interesting and click through to read things more in depth. It saves time and gives a satisfactory hit every few seconds.

The second is the "See my home" section of the Living Etc forums where basically you can peruse readers' photos of their own adventures in redecoration. It's just a little bit addictive. And check out this fantastic shot (above) I found on these forums of a great storage/TV wall. The design feature of using the wooden flooring on the wall is genius - I warned you it was a bit addictive!



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