The Interior Detail File is Your Best Friend

It was more than a mouthful when Mies van der Rohe uttered his famous quote, “God is in the details.”  Details are what give an interior personality.  Details take a room from a bland nondescript box and give it life.  Architectural details give a building character.  Details make a house a home. Discuss all of these details with your general contractor to ensure that your vision can be fully realized.

Just like you I scour websites, blogs, interior design magazines and books.  Details are what we look for.  We rip out pages of fantastic ideas we want to remember.  Big or small these are elements of a room which speak to us.  Maybe it is the way a drapery treatment is finished.  Or the way the architect handled a staircase.   It might be the simply the placement of furniture in an odd shaped room.  It is the details which take a space, a room, a piece of furniture from generic to interesting.    Okay so I might be a bit more type “A” with my notebooks of photos in plastic sleeves, but it makes them easier to refer to than a file folder.  I also use them as inspiration with clients who know they want “something” but aren’t sure what.  Here are some favorites. 

Tile details are one of the more useful items in an idea file.

Great use of trim to highlight detail on a chair or sofa. Use of shelves in the lavatory. Exact detail of how this gate is constructed. I am in love with this fence.

Our brains ability for storage may rival some of the latest computers but not when it comes to recall.   Gather all the pictures of details which speak to you and put them in a interior inspiration file.  These visual reference points will become your best friend when it comes time to remodel or decorate a room.  Detail files are the perfect starting point for every interior design project.

What is in your interior inspiration file?