Inspiration. . .

What inspires designers to create?  Whether it's the the color scheme, the design of a rug, art work, the layout of the room, it all started somewhere.

I constantly find myself looking around, looking at color combinations that are just happening.  Not necessarily in what someone is wearing, but more like accidental combinations.  I've literally stopped my husband and pointed at these 2 dogs walking next to each other that were a rich chocolate brown and a deep blueish gray that I thought was a gorgeous color combo.

Lines and designs you see all around you or in magazines can give you the inspiration for a design on the side of a cabinet or the shape of a headboard.  Where the client lives, the geography, where they love to travel to, can create an inspiration for a theme, color scheme, designs all from one thing!!

It really is endless to what you can be inspired from and what the inspiration draws out of you to do.

These are some pictures that I've taken or found that really get my mind flowing about color schemes.  There's much more to a room, than color, but for a student who doesn't have a client to design a room for, it's pretty much where I have to start.  I've drawn out some colors from each image that I liked together, but obviously, there are many more colors to choose from!

The ocean has so many different blues, greens, browns



Cliffs, the ocean, the grass, boulders



These are similar to the dogs I've seen who's colors I really liked together

Right before sunset



Another accidental color combo.  My husbands sweatshirt with the greens of the moss and the browns and dark blues on the cloudy day in Monterey

I liked this painted piece of glass that I would love to put on a table, but after looking at it more, the brighter colors (yes, even the post-it note!) I think would look great in a light filled room

Not too many hidden colors here, but the colors of the corals are so vibrant (and I might be a little excited about a trip to Hawaii I'm taking in Jan)



This is an old photo of my father and aunts in the 70s or 80s.  I like the 'vintage' coloring on everything.





What inspires you?  Please share!!

Ever Imagine Living in a Shipping Container?

We are doing a Senior Showcase for my graduating class and are required to do an informational poster about a current trend, or sustainability, having to do with the Consumer and Family Sciences department (the department that the Interior Design program is based out of at SFSU).

My partner (Sarah Rodebaugh) and I have decided to do out poster on shipping container homes and reuses!  Really liked some of the ideas and what people have done to reuse these masses of steel so I thought I'd share.

Seems as though more people are using shipping containers for single family homes as well as condos and apartment buildings more now.  It seemed like before it was just an idea that wasn't really being used.

Shipping containers are sold by shipping lines after about 10 years and it seems like they sell pretty cheap (as low as $1,200!) used and new (upwards of $6k).  One homeowner used shipping containers that were refigerated so insulation was already included.  Using shipping containers for buildings is easy since they are made to stack on top of and next to each other.

These homes are by Cargotecture.  They had the last one at PCBC and we were able to walk through it.  It was fascinating that all your amenities could be contained in such a small space.  Obviously if you went from a regular home to this, you would have to have another storage for miscellaneous things and purge your life of everything.  Sometimes that sounds like a dream when I'm trying to organize my office!

A different approach - converting a warehouse space into work space!  They put in these shipping containers to create different rooms and offices.  Looks like they have a few in there!  With some slight modifications liek a side door and a window, you've got yourself the most desired office of them all!  What a fun environment to work in!

This 3 bedroom house is made of 3 shipping containers (refigerated) that Leger Wanaselja Architecture designed above the San Francisco Bay.  A truly gorgeous, eco friendly home!  The inside is gorgeous and you would never geuss you were in a shipping container!

These beautiful grounds are student housing in Paris France that were recently built.  Shipping containers are usually about 8 feet wide (which could be bigger than a regular dorm, right?) and usually 20' or 40' long.  They reused over 100 shipping containers!

I definitely have too many things I can't part with to be able to live in a container home, but I would love to experience it sometime in my life.  They should start making shipping container hotels!  They have one that Travelodge made in London, and there's another one in Amsterdam!