apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

How To...Use Your iPod to Decorate Your Home

Ok, we don't mean literally! When we decide to redesign a room, there is a lot of information that we need to think about. What inspires us, what we want to buy, the dimensions of our room and information to help us make informed purchases. With a little bit of planning, the iPod allows us to store all of this information in one place, and take it with us when we are out shopping.

Here are some suggestions on how to use your iPod as your portable design computer.

• Create a portable Style Tray.
We have seen lots of you using Flickr to save your sources of inspiration for your Cure redecorations. Why not take it one step further and put all of these photos onto your iPod? You can include photos of your rooms, products you see online, or rooms you really admire.

Step 1. Either create an album with iPhoto or a Style folder on your computer.

• Add notes with important information.
From your window dimensions to ideas about what you want in your space, adding notes to your iPod allows you to take your thoughts with you.

• Keep all of your home-related contacts in one place.
This may be a Mac-only feature, but you can easily synchronize your Address Book with your iPod as well. We created a group labeled "Decorating" and put all of our home-related contacts, stores, and ER (just in case!) onto our iPod.

• Playlist of inspirational songs to get you in the decorating mood.
Part of designing your new space is being able to visualize how you want it to feel. What better way than to create a playlist of songs that communicate how you want to feel while in your apartment? Listen to it while you are out shopping for that added source of inspiration. We also think this could be a great space for inspirational sound clips from Maxwell telling us to "fill up that outbox!" or "don't forget to buy your fresh flowers this week!"

• A great place to keep all of those How-To videos you find around the web.
If you have a video iPod, you could cull together some of the great videos you've found and have them on hand when you are actually implementing them. No more running back to the computer to see how it was done, just pull out the iPod and get that refresher course.

Did we inspire you? Let us know if you have any other creative iPod decorating ideas in the comments.

(Thanks purpin for the photo!)