If you feel like you’re constantly staring at a blank page, wandering around for more inspiration but can never get it, here’s a secret little 1-ingredient recipe that I’ve found:

Your home is a catalyst for your inspiration.

That doesn’t mean you need to be an interior designer. It means you need to be comfy extending your natural creativity into your home environment.

Think about your home as your studio. An art studio, recording studio, Etsy shop studio, needs to ooze inspiration and creativity. It needs to give you space to create and breathe and experiment and be inspired. That’s what I want you to start with, and from there, your home is your oyster for creative inspiration.

The Start of Your Creative Inspiration: Turning Your Home Into Your Studio

Start with a Color Palette

This is the first step to designing your “studio” as a non-designer — start with a color palette. You can find these by typing in “[insert your favorite descriptive word here/inspiration] color palette” into Pinterest.

This became my go-to method for creating color palettes after asking a friend (whose a professional designer) how she found her color palettes. Receipt below:

When choosing a color palette for your home, think about what inspires you personally.

Is it candy? Spas? Clouds? Faeries? Gardens? Flowers? The ocean? The stars?

Use this as a starter point to put into your Pinterest prompt. I.e., “Cloud color palette,” “Flower color palette,” etc. These colors should evoke what you feel most you. Because when you give yourself permission to unapologetically you, you’ll have more ability to create.

This color palette should inspire everything in your home:

• The paint
• Furniture (hello thrift flips!)
• Artwork
• Bedding and couchscapes
• Curtains
• Rugs
• Decor
• Lighting
• Hardware

Your unique color palette will be great for inspiring creative approaches for the rest of your “studio” — and your creativity as a whole.

Create a Mood Board

Don’t click out of Pinterest just yet. Because once you have your color palette, it’s time to get creative inspiration from your mood board.

A mood board will help you gather various elements like colors, designs, and quotes in one place, allowing you to see how they interact and inspire each other. They are especially useful for visualizing projects, setting goals, and maintaining a coherent aesthetic vision.

The two important parts of mood boards:

• Know what you love about each image. You might pin an image just because of one small part of it, like the colors, or the way the curtain is flowing, or the pattern of the flooring, or the way table decor is arranged.
• Look for the common themes intertwined between each image. As much as each image should have something unique, you should be able to see the patterns in all of them. This will help you draw conclusions about your design style and preferences. For instance, you might see that you love a hygge style, or have a few images with large windows.

Thrift & Curate

You might be pinning these images of amazing, glorious homes and wonder — “how can I make my ‘studio’ feel like this on a limited budget?’”

Good news — you can. And, you can find creative inspirations from thrifting just like you can from your art. Find a Habitat for Humanity Restore or a Goodwill near you and just start browsing.

This is how you can turn those Pinterest inspo images into something wonderful and beautiful without having to break the bank on factory furniture. I love thrifting because it’s also tickles your creativity.

Some say they’re just a person decorating their studio.

But for us? We’re artists curating our studios.

Ritualize Your Home Studio

Now that you know this simple little technique to create a beautiful studio, it’s time to ritualize your life so you can make your studio spark to life.

Holistic Practices

Your goals for being an inspirational creative can only go as far as how you treat your first home — your body! Think about the ingredients you put in, on, and around your body, from the foods you eat to the clothes you wear to the furniture you purchase.

Here’s how I’ve changed my life and surroundings to nurture my body:

• Plant-based eating (dairy-free, vegetarian) — my current favorite grocery service is Hungry Root (use my code 0QM0P1HQ to get $50 off!)
• Natural skincare
• Recycled and refurbished furniture (thrift store, Sabai couch)

Daily, Weekly, Monthly Rituals

Routines (or what I love to call rituals) play a crucial role in fostering a creative lifestyle or mindset for your “studio.” Here are some that I’ve implemented (some every day, some just when I need it):

• Daily: Greens first thing in the morning (I use Laird Greens)
• Weekly: Yoga
• Monthly: Massages, acupuncture

Rituals are just as much a part of your “studio” as the design is. What’s your home worth if you don’t romanticize your time in it? Rituals do just that — romanticize your space, reminding you to slow down and remember the beauty that you’ve created.

Start a Business with Coziness

Your comfort doesn’t just have to stop at your “studio.” After all, you curated and designed it for a reason!

This is where I want to give you permission to approach your business with a sense of intentionality and calmness. While there’s always a little bit of a hustle needed when starting a business (at least, for a specific season of your business), it doesn’t always need to be the goal.

You can absolutely have a business that sustains you and that doesn’t run you completely dry. If you do it right, you can make income while sleeping in without an alarm, bop around cute coffee shops or stay cozy at home, take breaks, and not feel emotionally drained.

Growing a creative business likely won’t start out all sunshine, rainbows and calmness, but it’s something to keep in mind when thinking of a goal in the journey.

If you want to learn more about to soft & intentional income, I have a video below all about it 👇

Follow My YouTube For More Creative Inspiration

Get creativity inspiration to achieve the beautiful creative lifestyle you’ve always wanted through my YouTube channel. I love sharing my quest to becoming a full-time artist, my discoverings in finding creativity all around me, and my musings over being an artist overall. I would love to see you there. 🍭