From the moment I was invited to the website back in 2011 (remember when you had to have an invitation to join?), Pinterest has been my favorite social media platform.
This article is contributed by Summer Warner from Best Coast Marketing.
I’m a visual person, and with the rise of sites like Pinterest, Instagram, and Snapchat, the Internet is quickly becoming a visual realm.
Even Facebook now has the option to add filters and animations to photographs, while emojis reign supreme across all smartphone types. Images capture our attention and add to our interest much more than does plain text, and this trend is not likely to end anytime soon.
In fact, video content is quickly joining imagery as commonplace across all of the social media platforms, including Pinterest. All of this adds up to endless opportunities for inspiration and motivation.
There’s Something for Everyone on Pinterest
Through its focus on imagery, Pinterest lends itself to being wonderfully inspiring for people of all walks of life.
Artists can find inspiration in the Pinterest boards filled with tips, color palettes, and unique concepts.
Teachers can collaborate on lesson plans, themes, and classroom management through ideas posted by Pinterest users.
After a long day at the office, Pinterest provides relatable humor boards and motivational quotes.
And, for those looking to marry, Pinterest has no doubt provided the plans for countless weddings. Book lovers can find their next read, travelers can marvel at their next vacation spot, and chefs can find their next recipe, all on this one visual website.
If you’ve never used Pinterest, you should know that it’s different from the other social media websites in that, rather than posting news or photographs about your life, or seeing such things posted by your friends and family, Pinterest users create boards with their own specific topics, such as quotes or things that make me laugh.
They then ‘pin’ content from the site to their boards. The content comes from all over the Internet, and is pinned by other users who found the content interesting, or it can be uploaded by a user (such as a photograph of a craft project), and pinned by others.
You categorize and organize your pins using your boards, and you can refer back to the pins you’ve posted. Most importantly, just as on other social platforms, you can follow the pinners whose pins you really enjoy. You can choose to follow just a particular board, or you can follow a Pinterest user’s entire profile.
Pinners Who Inspire
Since Pinterest provides so many opportunities to feed your endeavors, it’s easy to get lost in the content when trying to choose Pinterest boards that galvanize and inspire you.
While there are seemingly limitless boards of inspiration on the platform, here are eight Pinterest users, in particular, who are sure to raise your spirits, inspire your ingenuity, and get your day on the right track:
Jane Wang
With over 7 million followers, Jane Wang’s account has inspired an extraordinary number of Pinterest users.
Displaying a simple penguin as her profile picture, Wang’s boards range from Inspired, a board filled with stunning quotes, to a board of literal push pins (aptly named push pins). Jane Wang has established a unique, fun collection of boards and pins certain to grab your attention.
One of her most popular boards is Delicious, a food lover’s paradise with an assortment of hunger-inducing food photographs and recipes.
The Back to School Supplies board is great fun for those of us who are nostalgic for our own school days, and can’t help but continue to be inspired by freshly sharpened pencils and bright stationery.
Her board, 50 Tools Everyone Should Own by Popular Mechanics, is equally fascinating, as is Happy, a board filled with pins meant to delight.
You can even find eclectic travel boards on Wang’s Pinterest page, with boards featuring Portland, Madagascar, and the Oregon Trail. If you’re looking for a mixed bag of inspiration, Jane Wang’s board makes for an ideal follow choice.
Beth Blecherman
For the technology-savvy and business-minded among us, Beth Blecherman, known in the Internet world as TechMama, is a clear choice.
Blecherman’s boards share pins on professional social media, STEM programs, career advice, and even Disneyland.
TechMama Fashion and Beauty Finds is an especially inspiring board for fashion lovers in the tech industry. Pins on this board include workwear for women, a Valentine’s Day tech gift guide, and an actual ring that tells you when your phone is ringing!
TechMama Kid Tech is a fun board for parents with pins on Star Wars lightsaber ice pops and Lego notebooks. There’s also a steady stream of geeky jokes on the Humor board, as well as a board devoted to Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. What’s not to love?
The Kitchn
Pinterest is the ideal place for new recipes, and The Kitchn certainly delivers when it comes to cooking inspiration. With over 300,000 followers, The Kitchn’s boards offer fellow pinners everything from video tutorials to edible gifts.
There are boards for daily meals, workplace lunch ideas, do-it-yourself kitchen projects, understanding ingredients, holiday foods, and even recipes from around the world.
I was drawn to the Lunar New Year board, with pins on how to make tea eggs and sweet sticky rice balls, as well as The Kitchn’s Cooking School, an incredible 20-day series of pinned lessons that teach you important cooking skills.
There are lessons in knife safety, sauces, baking, and broiling. If you work your way through each lesson, you can even print out the pinned diploma.
You’ll also be inspired by the many kitchen design ideas scattered across the boards. The Kitchn will no doubt inspire a wealth of knowledge and creativity in your own kitchen.
Pantone Color
Loved by over 110,000 followers, and completely bathed in color, Pantone’s Pinterest page is a source of inspiration for artists and visual mavens alike. Pantone’s Color of the Year board proclaims 2018 as the year of ultraviolet.
The board is a wonder for the senses, with ultraviolet looks from across the web, from nail polish to sunsets, cataloged together in one board.
Past annual colors are remembered on their own board, with colors such as greenery (2017), radiant orchid (2014), blue iris (2008), and aqua sky (2003) all on display. Pantone also highlights paint chip art, wedding palettes, fashion, interior design, and, well, every color you can imagine.
As a fan of purple, I adore Pantone’s Purple Rain board (as well as their color of the year choice). It’s amazing how color affects our moods, and the various color boards provide just the right dose of inspiration.
If you’re looking to add color to your Pinterest feed, Pantone is unequivocally the way to go.
100 Places to Visit Before You Die
Travel is one of the greatest sources of inspiration, and 100 Places to Visit Before You Die easily fills you with wanderlust.
With boards devoted to innumerable cities and locations, you’ll spend hours browsing the gorgeous photographs and travel tips. There are even pins about the best wardrobe selections for each destination, as well as quotes about traveling that will make it hard to stay in one place for too long.
The World’s Most Dangerous Treks, Hikes, and Walks is a board that will fill you with a sense of adventure, as will Scary Sky-High Observation Decks. Edible Art will teach you how to make Eiffel Tower cookie sundaes, and the Animal Love board will make you smile.
100 Places to Visit Before You Die is also a great Pinterest page to follow for someone doing research on a particular location, with parts of the world both big and small represented.
This is a collection of boards and pins that will make you dream.
Natural Beach Living
Natural Beach Living is a personal favorite of mine, and with over 40,000 followers, it is clearly a favorite of many other pinners, as well.
If you’re a teacher, a parent, or anyone who spends time with children, Natural Beach Living is hugely inspirational for your feed.
Homeschool topics abound on this page, with boards such as Early Elementary, Reading Nooks, and Outdoor Learning. What I especially love about Natural Beach Living is how there are boards for specific themes and holidays.
There are boards devoted entirely to Earth Day and Valentine’s Day, as well as an under the sea board.
There’s even an All Things Slime board! As the title implies, the boards are largely focused on natural living, which leads to inspiring boards that encourage learning through play and boundless creativity.
Multiple teaching styles are represented, with ideas for fans of both Montessori and Reggio Emilia.
There are also boards focused on activities for individuals with sensory processing disorders. This is a truly comprehensive Pinterest page that is sure to inspire!
Goodreads
A social media platform all on its own, Goodreads also exists in the world of Pinterest. Goodreads has boards detailing the newest releases in various book genres, but the platform also uses its Pinterest to simply share the joy of reading.
I love their #WhyIRead board, a catalog of quotes, infographics, and art pieces proclaiming the beauty and benefit of reading.
Writers will enjoy their Advice on Writing board, and all bibliophiles will adore their Libraries in Art collection, a board of beautiful works of art based around books.
On the Book Style board, readers can marvel at the various book-themed fashions and home accent pieces, such as Nancy Drew pillows, and clutches made to resemble books.
Goodreads is the quintessential literary Pinterest page, and a great choice to enhance your feed.
Flow
Another personal favorite, Flow releases an elegant magazine six times a year, along with posters and specialized books, and the publisher’s Pinterest page is no less inspiring. Based in The Netherlands, Flow focuses on topics such as mindfulness, art, letter writing, and celebrating the beauty of life.
One of the most enjoyable things about their Pinterest page is how each month brings with it a new board entitled, Friends of Flow, to which an illustrator, writer, or another creative person will pin whatever they are finding inspiring throughout the month.
This makes Flow’s boards filled with exciting content that makes it difficult to stop browsing. I also love the simple quotes board.
Each quote posted to the board is completed by stunning visuals, and not one of the quotes are cliché or trite. Flow is absolute inspiration from board to board.
Making Mood and Inspiration Boards
You may choose to use some of the projects you come across on Pinterest to make your own virtual mood board.
You can create your own board and focus on a theme, like a collection of red images, or you could choose another topic that inspires you. Just like Instagram and Twitter, Pinterest uses not only regular terms, but hashtags to help pinners search for ideas.
If you prefer tangible inspiration, you can even use Pinterest to see examples of vision and inspiration boards, collages of inspirational words and photos that are glued to a poster board or similar item.
This, in particular, is a growing trend for couples planning a wedding, or families planning a vacation, but a vision board can also be used to inspire any goal setter.
An inspiration board, be it virtual or hanging on your wall, can serve as an encouraging, daily visual reminder of your goals.
Continued Inspiration
Inspiration comes in a variety of ways, from the foods we eat, to the books on our shelves, to the wonders of the world around us.
Whether you’d like a splash of color from Pantone, a cooking lesson from The Kitchn, or literary goodness from Goodreads, these eight pinners are the perfect start to your goal of adding inspiration to your Pinterest feed.
Remember, though, that there are countless others. After you’ve followed these inspirational pinners, use Pinterest’s search box to seek out other sources of inspiration on topics that spur your passion and interest.
You can also use the pins of the pinners listed here to connect you to additional boards and topics. There is so much on Pinterest to motivate and inspire.
About the Author:
Summer Warner is a writer for Best Coast Marketing, as well as a fiction writer, and actress. When she isn’t working on her creative pursuits, she relishes the time she spends in her classroom, teaching preschoolers everything from the joy of reading to how to be a good person.
