A picture is worth 1,000 words, so they say. This is also true when communicating what you want your new kitchen to look like and function like to your designer. If you create a digital scrapbook of your kitchen ideas you want in your kitchen, it’s very easy for your designer to understand you and incorporate them. Without pictures it may be more difficult to understand what you’re going for.
The other part of pictures is that seeing something helps you realize what you want. You know it when you see it! So browsing pictures is one of the best ways to fill your mind with what will make you happy.rIf you’re preparing for a kitchen remodel, start by gathering pictures of what you want in your new completed room. There are a few ways to do this.
Old School – Paper Magazines
If you’re technologically challenged, magazines and scissors may be your method. This is fine, as long as you can find pictures you want and organize them in a way that can be understood by your designer.
Smartphone Camera
Whether you’re online or have a magazine in hand, use your smartphone as a tool to capture pictures instead of cutting pictures out. Even if you’re seeing something on a tablet or a computer, you can take a snapshot with your phone. Most people have a smartphone that takes pictures and you can snapshot all the things you like and store them in folders to show or email to your designer.
We recommend these categories of pictures.
- Must Haves – The stuff you gotta have in your project
- Nice-To-Haves – The things you would love to have but you’re not sure you can swing them yet
- Curious-About-These – These things would be great to add if they’re easy enough and cheap enough
- Reference – This folder is for interesting things you just want to save to look at
If you need to capture documents of any kind, you can also use your cell phone as a document scanner. An app called Genius Scan does a fantastic job of making documents look like actual scans and not pictures.
The New World – Internet Pictures
Most people search the Web for what they’re looking for today. When you find something you like on a website, you should be able to “save” the pictures to your local computer and keep them in your local folders.
Depending on which browser you’re using, you should be able to right-click on the picture and choose “Save Image As” to save it to your local drive. If you can’t save pictures, you can use a “snip it” tool to capture the picture from your screen. Click HERE for help in doing that on Windows, or HERE for help doing it on a Mac.
Online Tools to Help
The following online resources are just a few that can help you find plenty of pictures to get your creative juices flowing.
Pinterest is a great online resource for tons of kitchen ideas. You can create online “boards” to save pictures you like in and categorize your findings. You can then share your folders with your designer so they can see your results.
HouseBeautifu.com is a home design resource with a lot of pictures of ideas that can help you. Many articles about design and styles to guide you.
Houzz is an online all-inclusive home resource with lots of articles and pictures about kitchens and kitchen designs. Articles will help you understand the process of remodeling as well as things to think about when doing a new kitchen.
HGTV is another all-inclusive set of ideas and helps for doing everything in your home. It’s a website connected to the TV show that is a helper of all things remodel.
Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers Website Galleries
Another great resource for ideas are manufacturers websites. They have galleries of kitchens featuring their cabinets and options. You can search “Kitchen Cabinet Manufacturers” on the web and search through the sites you find.
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