Ready for a new design addiction? Welcome to Olioboard. Combined with Houzz and Pinterest, Olioboard forms a perfect design-it-yourself trifecta. This free site allows you to create inspiration boards of all your favorite items that you find on the 'net or have stored on your computer (e.g., the picture of that vintage desk that you snapped with your iPhone). But even better, it has a super-simple way to take your items and actually place them in a room—resize things, rotate things, stack things, and crop things. It also keeps a library of said things so you can link right to them to make a purchase. At anytime during your design process, the click of a button will send you a .jpg of your inspiration board, like this:
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| My first stab at an Olioboard |
I just created an account on Olioboard this morning (in the precious quiet before my own four kids and their two sleepover guests wake up). Sign-up time = 2 minutes. Board creation = 25 minutes—and that includes the time I took searching on Overstock, West Elm, Crate & Barrel etc. to find what's pictured. We're working on our front room (just put up a high enameled white wainscot and in the midst of getting the walls and ceiling painted), and this inspiration board is a serious boon when it comes to envisioning the final space. Those two tufted Overstock chairs? Seeing them in the context of what else is going on makes me confident enough to buy them. That fun Etsy stencil that will go above the wainscot? Done! The Benjamin Moore Conventry Gray paint? Yep. You'll almost feel like Sarah Richardson. Only without the killer shoes (does she really rip up carpet wearing those things?) and bespectacled sidekick.
I'd love to spend another hour playing with Olioboard, but I hear the waking-up rumblings of three hungry 10-year-old boys upstairs. Time to start the pancakes.
