For many people one of the biggest hurdles to starting a remodeling project is finding a starting place. One of the greatest ideas I’ve seen is creating an idea book. Your idea book can be as complicated or as simple as you want it to be. You can collect items and ideas and put them in a manila folder or a three ring binder or create a computer folder with all the ideas and pictures you find. Ideally you should include both things that inspire the feel you are looking for and specific items that you would like to incorporate into your project.

These are some places to look to collect ideas:

1. Clipping pictures from Consumer Reports and other magazines with great pictures of items or rooms.

2. Printing pictures of beautiful items and spaces off the Internet.

3. Taking pictures of things that are inspiring or express the mood you want.

4. Drawing out floor plans of rooms/homes that “work” on graph paper.

5. Collecting fabric or color samples that create the feeling you want to inspire.

6. Visiting showrooms or model homes to get new ideas.

The beauty of this plan is that if you only need to keep the items you like! It also gives you something to bring to the designer when you are finally ready to start your project to give him a better idea of what you are looking for in your remodeling project.