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Tobi's Color Inspirations

So let's, jump in and look at some fun ideas I'm gonna sit down for how I find inspiration and my projects and I would love for you all to join in with me asking questions on dh share during this section because I think it's really fun it's not again techie at all it's just really fun and exciting to say how do we take a project from ordinary to extraordinary? And I think this is the piece that designers and really creative people using their homes to make something not just look like a cookie cutter design, but to really bring in that personal design style we talked about yesterday so it's it's interesting because any of us can select trends and colors and it could look the same. But it's when we bring in our personality in our own travels and our own favorite people and the way they inspire us and all those little details of our lives that make our projects in our homes truly unique and actually such a joy to be in. So we were talking yesterday candid about no uninspired interior. So...

this is where that inspired part of interior's come in and it's what? What makes this one to read magazines like house beautiful and read about people's life stories and where they picked up things? I must hear a lot of your gorgeous textiles are from travels and other really neat places that you've been and people you've been inspired by so you'll all have to share some of your favorite personal inspiration today but let's look at from a designer's perfect perspective a professional designer in the business how I find my inspiration because I think a lot of people suspect designers they have two gop beyond where the normal people go to find inspiration will not really you're going to probably find the same things that inspire me or the things that inspire you even starting with design itself and yes, as designers we do look at other designers work and it's not again the idea of copying their work but just being inspired by the creative things that they come up with a unique um use the unique ways that they use materials and a lot of times one tiny little detail about something someone else has done will inspire me to do an entire project I'm sitting here looking at like just the detail on your jacket, the little grow grain terim somebody making a decision like that whether it's in fashion or something else could inspire a really clever or exciting or innovative thing in a design space right? Eso it's all about the details and definitely like others like many of you, I'm hooked on design blog's have been riding mine since two thousand eight many many hours riding blog's reading other people's blog's of course I'm definitely addicted to pinterest like everyone else that I know you're not in your head jackie it's funny when we work with other clients that are designers to help them build their brands we get him on pinterest if they haven't been on and we know that like the first four weeks after that we're not going to hear from them at all because they're going to be actually having to sleep during the day because they spent from like eight p m to two a m pinning all of their favorite things on pinterest of course magazines like house beautiful huge inspiration I'll never even though we love the digital version of house beautiful and we love all the amazing things are happening on the web there's nothing like curling up with a stack of your favorite magazines and just googling over the gorgeousness and the creativity in there right on then of course design books and you see just a fraction of my collection of design books that was in my last house they're probably still in boxes at the new one because we haven't quite settled in yet but I can't wait to get him out on dh I can read the same design books over and over and see things that I never saw before and it depends on what's happening in your life at any given time so you know yesterday we were talking a little bit about how what you havin any in your home like fewer accessories or more accessories or less color might be a reaction to what's going on in your life at any given time? Well, that's the same, um, thing that affects what I'm inspired by and, you know, it's it's like if you're thinking about buying a new car and a certain brander style, every car you see on the street happens to be that car all of a sudden, but you never noticed it. Well, if you're thinking about using a color and design suddenly everything you open, you start noticing how that color is used, so that's the same way that I find inspiration in a lot of these places because I'll move into kind of exciting period of blue or loving green or something else, and I'll start really noticing the creative ways that its used in all of these places. But for me personally, even though I'm inspired by all of these things that are usually showing finished designs by other creative people, and I do get ideas there, my most creative ideas and details for projects really come from other things for me, and we're going to go through a series of those and talk about that, and I can show you how I really analyse things. Particularly photography and I know there's a lot of photographers that are part of creative live and that loved to watch creative life, so they'll probably get very excited about this because I know this is what they do as well and when we travel or when we see things taking pictures of them and thank goodness for smartphones because how many of us are literally walking around like on today? I could take a picture of this floor on the stage and say that might be an inspiration for my next project, so inspiration is everywhere and design is everywhere, and I'm constantly collecting ideas that I may not even know when I collect them what they're going to fire sometimes when I'm looking for inspiration, I just will scroll through all the pictures on my phone and look at what I've seen maybe it the latest high point market that I just went to the furniture market or a trip to new york and other places so let's take some time this morning on dh let's look through some of my specific sources of inspiration and really think about how you're engaging in almost a sort of continuing education by constantly be looking, being out there, looking for new things to inspire you you think this is often because we saw this question yesterday, but it's also one of the number one questions asked with any creative workshop is where do you go to get inspired, and how do you get inspired, right? And and how to designers get inspired because we inspire other people to do their projects, but how do we say inspired and is kind of hard sometimes because I would say, I guess you do get a little desensitized to some of the things that you're working with, right, sally's, not in her head because you like, she said yesterday, like, you start skipping steps and taking things for granted, and if you're not careful, you can find yourself kind of just going back to the tried and true methods and products, and not really stretching yourself and that's when maybe people in creative fields get a little burned out or their projects get a little flat, or their clients get a little disappointed if you're not careful. So how do we stay in this zone of creativity on dh there's? A number of ways that I do that these images are from a trip teo marrakech, probably about eighteen months ago, and I call upon these all of the time, and we were talking about yesterday how things like chevron can experience a trend, it could be trending, it could be popular all of a sudden, but by no means is it is it trendy, it's, really classic, and so I love this image because, you know, tile work. This was just in a little boutique where I went in to look at some silver and some other in light pieces. And this was the floor in the entry. But how beautiful. And even as an image itself had become art on the wall. It because they could become a great photograph that you use as an accessory or a decoration. S o I mean, tiny little things I could have. I mean, I think I probably took two thousand pictures in marrakesh, literally the spices, the little in light spoons. This was the hotel where I was staying, which was phenomenal and there's pattern everywhere. Look at the pattern. If you can see that on the ground on the tile work outside a tte the hotel where I was saying that could inspire a fabric design, it could be a floor for someone. It could be a pattern on the wall. It could be on the ceiling. It could be anything. And this is the sort of process I used to start really studying and seeing beyond the surface of things that I'm experiencing. Kind of like yesterday, a lot of us thought color was just kind of about this deep and it's really a a mile wide and an inch deep and it's really such a deep topic we're going to talk about it for three days the same thing with this just one trip and these air just five images from that one trip I went on it and there's so much that can be pulled from this and everything from pattern color, shape formed mentioned metallics everything andi really fun to look at so materials even since and flavors come to mind when I'm seeing these pictures and being reminded of you know what that experience was full sensory experience yes I was going to add as a photographer I used to just have my camera with me all the time and I realized after a while I was so burned out like I had I was like lacking inspiration when I put down my camera for one day and I just went out I was like no camera and nothing I was ableto live in the moment and I felt so much more like I could take in more. So for me kind of the camera was a little bit of a barrier for right like I can see that although I would love to have the pictures afterwards but I had to like let that go for one day and just experience and, you know, read live it, you know I can completely relate, because as a designer, we do the same things, and we spend time in our design work rooms, and you think, you know, a lot of people walk into my space and good, I would give anything to spend hours like coming through these fabrics and all of the things that you have, but for me, I'm like you. I have to get out of the office sometimes and look at things not just going to the design center to seymour fabrics, but literally, you know, spending time in the city or in nature or in some other place. And we're gonna look at some of those in just a minute. Andrea lee, looking beyond sort of that surface into the next level and dimension of what surrounds us every single day. I read this. Fantastic. So these images, I think you all are going to recognize, I spent I have been to san francisco many times, but I was here last summer with my family, and these were just a few of the images I took while I was here. We weren't one country, we were in the city, and I love the idea of seeing things that can inspire you in not the obvious way, so clearly, this is the golden gate bridge, but looking at it and as a form or a shape or a pattern or something then more than just the ob obvious but certainly the color I loved this orange door uh at the home of ah winery that the owners of a winery we were in this little tiny kind of private winery and a couple had lived here in this home for a long time they were in their eighties and still living there and she had been a landscape architect and horticulturists that was really interesting to see what she had done with her own and just taking pictures to remember that little you know, shade of orange that was on the door. Yes, I'm warning if you also ever take items away with you like sometimes I'll be blocking and I'll see like a leaf and I just love the shade of orange it is very much like to pick it up and take it for stone and had on in it my daughter and I a lot of times we'll go for walks in the neighborhood and I have some pictures I love that she and I walked years ago when she was about four so four, five years ago on dh we can't that the items but also to photographs of her hand holding a rock andi I've used that so many times as an inspiration, you know, like the pattern in the color of the stone but we collected so totally and I love having the physical item teo and how often for those things to even go beyond just inspiring you and maybe that even become an accessory maybe they sit on a book on a table in your house and you know, that's the pebble I picked up when I was walking on at the vineyard on dh you know what? Such and such a year or whatever city I totally I'm inspired by things even this old lander and that was hanging in a tree at the under a trellis that a vineyard and I loved the patina and that shade of green it was so much fun to think about how that is almost a spirit minute kind of green that was just really old lancer that had been weathered for years and so I'm walking around sort of in my own little world cause my family's there tasting the wine that's amazing and I'm you know, taking pictures of doors and lanterns and they're used to me now doing this strange thing but it's really where true inspiration is found because everybody else is seeing the obvious things that we're seeing and that doesn't really often become a very unique source of inspiration it's when you really look with that critical eye kind of like you're saying you even had to put your camera down to see what was really beyond on experience, the dimension of it and sometimes even things like I love this picture with the trolley in san francisco but the shape, the hazy shade it almost looks like it's a black and white photograph but it's not it's just the time of day that it was taken so really interesting things how things look even different on camera and in a photograph than they did in real life. And each of this might become a source of inspiration for you. But even just in san francisco, besides architecture, certainly going to museums and looking at hospitality like restaurants and hotels, and seeing what other people have done in cities is really inspiring and fun to me. And it depends on what city I mean, what season you're there, you can have totally different inspiration, like my mom and I love to come to san francisco and go to napa in light summer because it's heirloom tomato season, which is our favorite food on earth, and wayne, we will sometimes just dream of the taste of those tomatoes and go could be shipped some home. Is there anybody that can go to the store for us? And now I know several people I'm going to send you up to napa to be shipping me heirloom tomatoes, but there's something that's so inspirational about that and the color of even food think about you know, green and red and yellow tomatoes on a plate it can really be an inspiration for an interior may sound silly and may sound sort of like we're splitting hairs to other people but it's not it's truly what can help create a unique space or home? Yes, I just don't want o do a couple of shout outs to what people are saying and the chaplain's about where they are getting inspired my travel and pure design, interior said I found the most beautiful jellyfish at an aquarium that I visited recently the texture and the soft color palette could be used to help create an amazing space as a designer, I'm always viewing the most random of things for inspiration and mad. Lizzie says she was at the monterey bay of aquarium recently to and those iridescence and neons were gorgeous and she wants to do a bathroom how that generation people are inspired by aquarius chattering I'm not the only crazy person out there finding inspiration in the most is our places though I might add I once tried to decorate by putting a living jellyfish in one of those big cylinders in the middle of the table for dinner party gets really smelly really fast if you're serving fish they were afraid to eat because I thought that was the smooth that you were serving probably right go for beef have a jellyfish on the table I think that's a good idea. Can I ask with your inspiration? Are you also carrying a sketchbook with you? Definitely. Will you let you saw what I will in here every day? My mom makes so much fun of me. I get this from my dad. We carry just hordes of things back and forth to the car every day to drive to work, just in case we were to need anything out of those bags. But, yes, I roll around everything from my I've had my eyes on my laptop and then old fashioned sketchbooks and markers and pencils. And I'm really even inspired by that whole process of you know, yesterday we were talking about neons, and I said, I think about the little set of highlighters pins my daughter and I love to go to the craft store and buy every kind of marker and pencil possible and that's where I used them is in my sketching when I travel for sure and drawing things and making notes, and I think I should use you all a picture yesterday, briefly in passing of a plain yellow legal pad with all of my sketching for a show house. I don't know if you remember that when I see it again, but honestly sometimes when I travel to these places, I will it's relax because I get away from work and you kind of let your hair down and that's when your creative juices really start flowing. So there's mitt been many a project that I leave a place and I literally literally the minute I step on an airplane, get out a yellow legal pad or sketch pant and designed an entire project that has been feeling really force and it all just flows because of things that I've seen andi it's all a lot of its just about us got kind of going to that happy place, that place that nurtures us and let where we really you know, phil relaxed and inspired at the same time. Oh, let's, look at a few other areas that I find inspiration on these air images I took in new york city at bergdorf and bloomingdale's last year when I was looking at some color palettes look at the neon in the bags over here and this fabulous cobalt blue so exactly what we were talking about. So certainly fashion is a source of inspiration, not just shoes and not just the color, but even the finishes and the materials. And I mean the great hardware on those she's in that amazing and thinking about how you could bring that into on interior in some sort of format, whether it be a light fixture or something that's sort of obvious the candy's medal on are even using that material in some different sort of way so certainly fashion here's thie oscar day lorant exhibit that it was it was in a little rock recently at the clinton museum, so certainly oscar is a source of inspiration for these were images I took I love the embroidery, the embellishment feather zippers buttons uh draping color that perfect kind of highlighter yellow again neon short truce um and even the jewelry is a great source of inspiration. Um, you're you're in fashion tell me a little bit about where your inspiration comes from for your fashion and how maybe that would translate interiors free I mean, I think very similar to you my inspiration comes from traveling I mean truly just love to travel the world and just c fashion and color and see streets and people on streets and visit markets and remember the sense remember the smell remember how I felt pick up fruits and vegetables I've never seen before and look at them and look at the texture and how they feel and how they've grown and all that so truly I just get inspired by the world and that fun it is so much fun, I just wish I had even more time to just, you know, almost be frivolous uh looking at things that e there's so much to see everywhere you go certainly new york city and other fashion meccas have tons of things to that inspire whether you're in clothing stores or even you know all sorts of places just watching people on the street yeah I take people on the subway I snapped pictures of them in that fund and I'm always the girl my friends say in new york they're like everyone else wears black in new york and you'll walk in and like a bright red floral dress so ask stick out like a source than when I travel for a share of the southern girl in the city but it's really fun to see the melting pot of everyone that's there isn't it straight on also often inspired by art this is an artist I love out of kansas city jane booth and her color palettes and I find that artist played with color the way I play with color and so they're beautiful source of unique color combinations and mixing of material and she even does her art on a raw canvas that has this great texture almost like a drop cloth so in person it's it goes beyond just the color palettes and the patterns and the movement that even the material andan other favorite artist that's does all sorts of work for the wall and sculpture like thiss scott carroll this huge installations and gardens which were really fun to see because then you're inspired by the garden and the work this one's, a tabletop size, but just I love the movement in this, and it could easily inspire the curve of a sofa like a camel back self. It could inspire pattern and shape and form. It could inspire a light fixture there's, so many things that could translate, literally or figuratively, to a space on dh. So it's fun to see what other creative people do, particularly. I think artists are brilliant at thinking out of the box when it comes to materials and finding unique things to make to turn into something that you, you just wouldn't imagine it being used for. So that's, another really neat place to find. Cool inspiration.