Finding the Look and the Look for Less

Source: Kate Marker Interiors

Have you ever seen a room in a magazine and thought, “I would love that room,” but you don’t know where to start in finding the pieces or worry that it will cost too much. I am here to show you how you can have the look or the look for less when you have an inspiration photo that you want to replicate.

First, you need to find the inspiration photo and for that, some great sources are design books, furniture catalogs, and blogs. If you find a look in a furniture catalog, you probably will not have much trouble replicating it. But if you want to replicate it for less, or your inspiration is not a catalog, you can use the Pinterest virtual search to find the exact or similar items.

To search, just open a picture in Pinterest and scroll down for similar items. The experience may vary depending on the device and browser you are using.

On my PC using the Chrome browser, there is a “View Similar Items” in the bottom left of the image, and when clicked, Pinterest breaks the items down into component parts (i.e. dining table, chair, art) as shown in the first picture below, allowing you to search for one specific item.

On my iPad or mobile phone, I see the Pinterest lens on the bottom right which allows you to zoom in on a specific area of the photo as shown in the 2^nd picture below.

I am recreating a look for less of this beautiful coastal dining room for a client. Below is a breakdown of some of the original pieces as well as the look for less items that I was able to find using Pinterest visual search.

The cost for this look ranges from around $12k with all most expensive pieces down to around $3k with the lowest priced pieces (excluding wallpaper) so there are some great opportunities to get the look for less. Just click on the image for more details. My client is splurging on some things and saving on others which generally results in the best value.

If you want to see another look for less, check out the look for less that I put together on my living room.

How about you? What look would you like to recreate? Let me know how I can help. I love a good challenge.