Winning Ways with Pinning

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Have you heard of Pinterest and wondered what it is all about? Have you noticed other homeowners and interior designers using it to inspire and plan design schemes?

Pinterest has become the fastest growing social media platform with over 12 million active users and one of its most popular categories is home décor. Imagine a veritable treasure trove of eye candy - hundreds of pictures at your fingertips, from blogs, websites, online magazines, shops and brands to stunning homes. You name it, you’ll find it on Pinterest.

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Pinboard Pleasures Social media expert Lorna Sixsmith explains winning ways with pinning as she explores the many applications of Pinterest in aiding your interior design projects

What is Pinterest? Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. In the past, you may have cut pictures from magazines and pinned them to a notice board to provide you with inspiration for decorating a room. You can now do that online by creating a pinboard for each room or each style and pinning pictures you like to each pinboard. A pin is the name given to a picture found online and ‘pinned’ to Pinterest.

Thinking of creating a red dining room - just search for red dining rooms and you’ll find plenty of pictures to repin for your inspiration board. This will help you decide if a red dining room is right for your home or not! The same goes for any style or colour of décor you might be contemplating for your home - do the visual research on Pinterest first. Pins and boards are shareable, hence you can browse other people’s boards, search amongst various categories or use a search term e.g. animal wallpaper, to find pins you like.

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How to get started?

Go to pinterest.com and sign up for an account. Create about five boards to get started e.g. My Dream Kitchen, Boys Bedrooms, Dining Rooms, Painted Furniture and Bathrooms. Pinterest will prompt you during the initial stages.

How to Pin

Once you have set up some boards, you are ready to start pinning. Some websites will have a little ‘pin it’ button beside their product which makes it very easy. Alternatively you can position the little ‘pin it’ bookmarklet button on your bookmarks bar of your browser and every time you see a picture you would like to pin, simply click ‘pin it’ when that webpage is open, select your board and write your description.

1. Create a veritable treasure trove of eye candy in your own boards by repinning other people's photos 2. Some websites will have a 'pin it' button beside their products, making it even easier to pin and share their beautiful pictures.

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3 In the past, you may have cut pictures from magazines and pinned them to a notice board to provide you with inspiration for decorating a room.

You can now do that online by creating a pinboard for each room or each style and pinning pictures you like to each pinboard.

How to Repin

A repin is when you pin an existing pin on Pinterest. Over each picture (when you hover the cursor over it) are three little boxes - comment, like and repin. Click on the repin button, select the board you would like to pin it to (using the drop down menu), alter the description if you wish and click ‘pin it’.

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Finding the Source Sometimes it can be difficult to find a pictured product. The beauty of Pinterest is the pin is always linked to the original source so if it was pinned from an online shop, you will be brought to the source when you click on the picture and can then buy the product.

Pinterest and Copyright The success of Pinterest is people can share pictures that don‘t necessarily belong to them. Do you have to be worried about copyright? Pinterest has provided a code that website owners can use if they don’t want their images to be pinned. Some businesses (e.g photographers) are adding a watermark to their photos in order to ensure they are traceable. Do not pin images from Google images, always pin from the original website so that the pin carries the named source. If the website doesn’t have a ‘no pin’ code and you can pin the images using the bookmarklet tool or their ‘pin it‘ button, then you are pretty safe to pin away.

Use Pinterest To Find: * Inspiration for a decorating scheme * Decorating Ideas * Beautiful Interiors * Products for your home * Gift Ideas * ‘How to’ tutorials e.g How to wallpaper * DIY project ideas * Crafty Ideas

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3. Pin moodboards of accessories and styles to inform your own decorating choices AND as they are linked to their source, you'll know where to buy them!

4. Once you install the 'pin it' button on your bookmarks bar, it is easy to pin any picture you like (unless the website has a no-pin code).

5. Each board can hold numerous pins and can be a wonderful way to store inspiration for your particular interests 6. To find inspiration for bookcases, search in the top left box for 'bookcases', then select 'boards' to filter the search and find numerous boards on that topic.

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7. To find inspiration for your own dream kitchen, search in the top left box for 'kitchens', then select 'boards' to filter the search and find numerous boards on that topic. 8. Each pin will display the original source from where it was pinned. Once the pin is clicked, it will bring you to the website page where you can find more information or purchase the product. 9. Looking for some painting tips particularly for using Annie Sloan paints? Check out the multitude of Annie Sloan boards on Pinterest for inspiration and practical tips. 10. Find a brand you like and follow it on Pinterest to continually see it’s ideas and new products. Quirki Stuff specialises in painted furniture and its Pinterest board reflects everything that is fun and quirky.

Sharing boards

7 Pins and boards are shareable, hence you can browse other people’s boards, search amongst various categories or use a search term e.g. animal wallpaper, to find pins you like.

You can create a shared board and invite other pinners to contribute. An interior designer could create a shared board with a client both can submit pictures they like and check each other’s ideas. Together, they can create an inspiration board for a room or for a whole home.

The Joy of Pinning Pinterest really comes into its own when you sit down to savour all the pins in your boards and realise you have created an inspiring collection. Part of the beauty of Pinterest is you can photograph and share your own images too, enjoy seeing others like and repin them. As an extremely useful resource in helping you find the perfect wallpaper for your bedroom, the right taps for your kitchen sink, a cute rug for your daughter’s bedroom, storage ideas for your hall and Christmas decorating ideas, Pinterest is hard to beat.

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Lorna Sixsmith runs Garrendenny Lane (garrendennylane.com), an online home accessories store.

Following her long term, successful application of social media channels, she has also set up Write on Track, a social media training business with online and offline training facilities, She blogs at http://write-on-track.com and has written numerous articles on social media platforms.

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