Since we moved into our house 4 months ago, there have been many home projects I want to do but have gotten stuck in the designing phase. I question my decisions and I know I can’t afford to re-do something if it doesn’t end up looking like I thought it would. Enter Designer in a Binder. This is like a physical binder of all your Pinterest ideas organized together so you can take it into a store and know what to buy and how to put it all together.
After buying the pdf for the book, I went off to my nearest Dollar Tree to get the supplies I would need. You will need a binder, a zipper pouch and some tab dividers. You will probably want as many tabs as you have rooms to keep it all organized. I am starting with 5 dividers because I can always just add another set of 5 behind these and I don’t want to get overwhelmed with too much at once. My Dollar Tree had a lot of different options for the zipper pouch and I landed on a pink polka-dotted one because, pink polka-dots are 100% my style.
I chose a binder that was plain white but had a clear pocket for the front and back cover, and I’m going to use the cover of the Designer in a Binder book as my front cover. I will take a picture of my house this summer and use a picture of my house as the front cover for the future.
When you buy the pdf, it comes with a cute video which tells you how to put it together, so I won’t re-hash that out here you can just watch the video.
I am starting with my dividers labeled as “Master Bedroom”, “Master Bathroom”, “Living Room”, “Office”, and “Dining Room”. I will eventually add other important rooms like Nursery, Kitchen and Guest Room, but those five are my primary focus right now.
You don’t have to keep the front “book” section in your binder, but until mine gets fuller I’m going to leave it in there. I really like all the tips and insights in the book and I know I’ll refer back to sections of it so I want it to be available in my binder.
For the Master Bedroom tab, first I am creating a page on Canva that has the designs and colors currently in the room. I don’t have fabric samples for the curtains or duvet cover, but I can make do with a printed pdf of the patterns and colors.
Then, I am creating a page with pictures I have saved from Pinterest. I think it’s still useful to keep the Pinterest board so you have the links to tutorials for DIYs and to purchase certain items; but having a copy of your favorite looks printed out is helpful in the store too.
My last “custom” page I am making is a page of before pictures. Actual pictures of my space and the stuff in it so I can try to better visualize how something will look in the store. There is a page in the worksheets where you layout the furniture pieces to see how it will al fit together, but I think having pictures will help too.
Designer in a Binder is such an essential product to have as a homeowner – I don’t know how people would do it without this and I’m glad I don’t have to! When you get it, be sure to let me know what you think!