One of the new challenges we as designers face is Pinterest boards created by our clients according to which we now have to design.
Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that more and more clients refer to pictures on their Pinterest board when talking about their project.
“So now we are at the point where it's not the picture in the client's head that we have to design, but rather the picture on the client's Pinterest board.”
For this discussion, I'm going to use one of my projects as a case study to show the impact a client's Pinterest board has on the project.
Interesting statistics about Pinterest
According to Pinterest statistics for 2021, they currently have 478 million monthly active users.
According to Pinterest statistics for 2020, 6 out of 10 Pinterest users are female. For us as designers this is significant as interior projects are usually driven by the women in the family.
According to the GlobalWebIndex 2021, the main reason Pinterest is used, is for home design inspiration.
There are even articles detailing how to use Pinterest like a professional interior designer.
The Project
At the end of 2019 we were approached by a client to renovate her 1980's closed-off townhouse kitchen. The brief was to design an open plan, Scandinavian style kitchen, to suit the rest of the main floor's light oak and white design scheme. Part of her wish list was white Carrara Marble tops and copper colored taps. The timber flooring in the living and dining areas were new, so we suggested concrete colored tiles or a white epoxy floor for the new kitchen, to avoid the age old problem of trying to match the timber. (Image 1)
On presentation of the design, the client requested all white cupboards and tops, with marble look splash back tiles and sandstone colored floor tiles. Because of the white starkness of the whole kitchen, I changed the lamps over the island to the same copper color as the taps, just to add some warmth to the room (Image 2).
I sent this design to the client via email and received a reply with a multitude of inspirational images from her Pinterest board, which I only then found out existed. I realized then that the ideas in her head was actually on her Pinterest board and it wasn't a pure Scandinavian style, but rather Scandinavian mixed with a bit of farmhouse, as can be seen in the image at the top of the page.
Finally having all the information and inspiration images the client was using, I was able to design the kitchen that she had envisioned from her Pinterest board (Image 3).
This whole process made me realize that we, as well as our clients, live in a digital world with information at our fingertips. We use it for inspiration and to source the correct products and materials for our designs. Our clients use it to build a picture of the dream space that they would one day like to have or create.
How do we approach this challenge
I think most designers have a love hate relationship with Pinterest and not all of us have Pinterest accounts – for me it’s an active choice not to have a Pinterest account, because it’s just one extra thing to be active on and keep up to date - or if the client is male, we don’t always think to ask about a Pinterest board or even just inspiration images. And yes, we did have a project where the male client constantly sent us inspiration images for his refurbishment project. There are, however, designers that are very active on Pinterest, using it mainly as a marketing platform, showcasing their style and design aesthetic and completed projects. They add pin buttons to their project images on their website to encourage sharing and they even pin images themselves that link back to a website or blog post. They also use it to create secret boards for different projects and sharing these boards with their clients. In my research, I came across the following quote by Alycia Wicker:
“If you're not using Pinterest to get a ton of eyeballs on your interior design business, then you are missing our on getting known”
So maybe Pinterest is worth considering as a designer, since most of our clients are probably already using it. In saying that, here are a few tips from Interior Designers on the best way to make use of Pinterest:
Pinterest is not a social media site, it’s a search engine and is striving to link you to the information you are looking for, in the most efficient way. (Carla Aston)
According to Carla Aston, Pinterest pins take time to catch on, so don’t be put off by the low save counts or clicks in the first month or two.
Use vertical images, with the optimum ratio for being 2:3 or 600x900. A good website to have a look at for optimum Pinterest sizes is kristiehill.com.
Use text overlay on the image you want to pin from your website or blog post. It helps explain what is behind the link to the user.
When choosing images to pin, make sure that it is a good quality image and ensure that there is something eye-catching about the image.
Audrey Noakes suggest that you use separate accounts for your personal and professional Pinterest boards. (audreynoakes.com)
Keep your boards, except the one you are using for marketing, private. We must remember that research is billable.
And lastly, organize your project boards by project number and create sections within that board to organize ideas for different parts of the project.
We, as designers, also need to realize that our clients live in a world where they are bombarded with information and you do not always get only style accurate images if you google a specific design style. We as trained designers know the difference, but our clients might not. It might also be a good idea to start building an image library of different interior design styles, Pinterest is ideal for this purpose, that you can show the client, to make sure you are on the same design style page.
The Solution
If you work within an existing space, as was the case with this kitchen, go to the client, instead of them coming to your office. This will give you an idea of their current design style and taste. This client’s living room and dining room had a strong Scandinavian feel to it, so I assumed that she knew what a Scandinavian style kitchen looked like. Ask the client about a Pinterest board or inspiration images at the first consultation. Some clients are very upfront in telling you about their Pinterest board. And some of these boards consist of 1000’s of images, not all of them practical or even working together as a cohesive design, so make sure to ask them about their favorite images. Now it becomes our job to edit these images and explain to the client why not all of them will work for their project or why all of her favorite images will not work together in the same room. Sometimes it’s as simple as the budget that’s too small – I had a potential client that showed me her Pinterest board for her new kitchen design, but I knew that her budget, which was very small for a kitchen renovation, will never get her the kitchen she wanted.
I’ve worked in Architect firms my entire career and tend to jump straight into design and layout after the first meeting. I also have the tendency to work out the design in my head, before putting anything on paper. After the multiple designs done for this project, I feel like adding an additional step to the design process would make it more efficient. I’ve done very few mood boards in my career, but I know there are designers who can’t work without them. Making a mood board, like the one by Solid Wood Kitchen Cabinets, showing inspirational images, colours, textures, patterns and typical products associated with the specific style will give the client an immediate sense of what the space will look like, without you as designer having to do a complete design which you might have to change.
We also need to remind our clients that how a product or material looks on a printed or digital image, can differ from the real life version. A photograph is taken with certain lighting conditions and can be manipulated afterwards to make it more appealing or eye catching, as it has to sell a product or idea. Spend a day with the client in a tile showroom or a slab factory, or create a physical mood board. They might end up hating the real life version of the material or product they pinned.
Conclusion
Pinterest is here to stay and we as designers need to learn how to incorporate it into our planning and design process in a way that suit us as individuals.