I have an accordion file. Each pocket labelled with a room, paint colours, lighting, etc. i clip out of magazines. Also keep photos, ideas on ipad. And Houzz of course, on ipad.

We've got a filing system with plans in them and then there are the project boards in the conference room.

It's a good idea! I think it depends on the type of person and how they learn, see, and organize things. I personally use a white board and sticky notes (a bit boring maybe). Our marketing guy uses binders.

The room in this pic would make me crazy when i went to bed, I use stickies and file folders depending on wheter I am working on something or just ideas .

When I see something I really like, I save it to a file in Pictures. This would drive me crazy...how can this person sleep at night?

I used to have a collage wall like this over my bed on the sloped ceiling of my attic room when I was in my 20's, different inspirational photos cut out of magazines and the like. That was before the digital age. I still use notebooks for writing ideas, but also a lot of Google Keep, Evernote, Pinterest, etc. for saving snippets of creative inspiration.

I have an inspiration library.

Mine is on my computer. And on Pinterest.

Of course! I think it helps when flipping through interior design magazines. You can step away from the computer and really get inspired on your own :)

I have many inspiration notebooks, which are big white binders with magazine tear sheets in sheet protectors. Only problem is I have about 20 notebooks ranging from recipes to decorating to party planning to garden ideas. My summer project is going through them and purging them and keeping only what i love and then scanning them in so I can have them on my computer instead of on bookshelves. I'd need the biggest inspiration board ever to hold all of my ideas. :) I guess I was compiling "Ideabooks" of my own before there was such a thing on houzz and pinterest. :)

I use Pinterest for my various compilations. It gives me the ability to save ideas without the clutter of notebooks, scrapbooks, etc.. I wish Houzz allowed me to pin their photos.

At least since a decade, I save photos from the Internet on my notebook, in various folders. Must be thousands meanwhile. When I think of furnishing a room, for instance, I copy some favorites into a simple Paint file.

This room reminds me of that movie Russell Crowe was in when he was playing the part of a Schizophrenic.. I couldn't even think about sleeping there.

Goodness, this bedroom is smaller than mine. However can you cope with this? At least I can have a bedside cabinet at each side of the bed even if I can't have a decent sized wardrobe.

I take photos from magazines, or clip them from the web, I create electronic moodboards with pages of possible info to the side so I can drag and swap them out as I discuss with the client... zoom and expand are excellent tools. All this on a notebook... much simpler and neater and saves a few trees as well..

That room would drive me nuts too, yuck! Mine is electronic, via this site, & Pinterest.

I'm with barbararitchie, binders and sleeves.

I tend to have grand plans about tearing out photos from magazines, collecting fabric and flooring samples, and creating a design board or binder. But I never get around to it. Mostly, I save pix to Pinterest, with boards for different rooms. I also save an occasional photo to Houzz.

I tear my favorites from magazines and catalogs and put in folders, been doing that for years. Still good to have ideas in paper, but Pinterest and Houzz make it easy to keep track of even more!!

It's important to me to allow time, at minimum 1 hr per week, to review various sites, magazines, news feeds, for ideas that look interesting. Our firm is interested in energy efficient housing, effective building envelope design (new products) and pure architecture and interior design ideas.... so I am very busy and keep different folders on my desktop to collect items by category.
Then, if I have downtime (when!!!), I sort through the folders by category and store items under 'Job Materials' or 'Job Suppliers', which includes fabricators, etc. for job materials.
Here is my favourite item this week!

I have overflowing boxes of samples with binders of products and inspiration collages done in photoshop, and also rudimentary sketches done in sketch up. I also have boxes of sketchbooks from being an artist. I don't have my own art studio yet, but when I do, I get a cork wall behind my closed door where no tidier person (hubby) can come straighten things up.

I have certain web pages saved on my laptop at home...some things saved here...then others on Pinterest. If I could save pics from the web in my ideabooks...I'd put it all here. But...we cannot.

I, also, use 3 ring notebooks, even though I have a desk top & an iPad. I like looking thru my notebooks for things I have either printed off of my Mac or taken from Pinterest or a magazine. The notebooks are also handy to take shopping, for a new purchase. I just ordered, from Amazon, a horizontal "lid" organizer, with nine large openings & holds my 1" & 2" notebooks.

augustine2, I agree! For our ongoing renovation, I put together a notebook with sheet protectors which has the house layout, our paint color chips, granite names and photos, names of contractors, list of materials we still need to buy with their dimensions, a piece of our wood flooring, and a tiny piece of our marble tile. I carry the notebook with me whenever we go shopping for the house. It has become a life saver. :)

These days I bookmark and save images on iPad mini, or save them on Houzz. Old days I had physical files. Always, I draw colour pics of room elevations. Don't understand why everyone doesn't. Pencils are cheap! I'm adventurous with colour and furnishings, so the drawings show me what will work.

This is a really useful thread. Well done!

I have a folder with pictures of my favorite designs, and like charliebeth, I have paint color chips and images, including climate-appropriate plants and project ideas. I just cleaned it out tonight! Having these hands-on images is really great and inspirational.

chookchook2...I have zero drawing abilities; however, I'm great at staying in the lines while coloring with the littles. That's about the extent of my artistic talent! :)

Pinterest and Houzz. I love virtual pin boards. For tangible items like paint chips, fabric swatches, and brochures, I also have a binder with plastic sleeves similar to barbararitchie

chookchook2 - like charliebeth I have very limited drawing ability. That's why I like virtual room design programs. So much easier to do on the computer and the newest programs can render images that are almost photographic in appearance.

chookchook2 - like charliebeth I have very limited drawing ability. That's why I like virtual room design programs. So much easier to do on the computer and the newest programs can render images that are almost photographic in appearance.

I have a 4" binder with 20 dividers that have pockets in them. Each room or area has it's own section and it's own divider with pockets. When I find something I like (paint color chips, layouts, materials, or furniture), I photograph and print them out and put them in the divider pocket for that area. I even have a section for Fire Pit Area that I'm working on now, and another for Chicken Coop which is in our future plans. An Inspiration Board would be too difficult for me because I wouldn't be able to narrow down my choices to their appropriate area/room......I need a way to divvy up the stuff I find and want to make record of (and I'm finding stuff all the time). I like to change up my rooms once every 5 years, and prefer to only work on one room at a time.

a wall that says, Wish it... Dream it... Do it and I have inspiration sayings and pictures to keep me positive when my goals seem to far away.

I have a Home Organizer File which includes, recipe/meal plans for when guests come, to do lists, schedules, birthday notes, and loads of other stuff even a home projects area.

I also, kept a Mood Board one time for when we doing all the rooms in our home. It helped a lot.

Near my desk I have a bulletin board with important notes, numbers, and the like. I decorate that as it is a fun area of my desk area.

I would never put anything on walls though unless it was art work or a clock, that's about it.

I save my images on certain files online! Mainly now that I can use Houzz to save any image I see on the web I'm fine!

I don't have an actual board but I use houzz, pinterest, and the gallery on my phone, and also the notes app on my phone, dropbox and gmail and google docs to save web links and bigger things such as any documents that may have inspiration :)

I do. It's actually a very interesting idea for those who don't have one.

Through houzz!