Where I Find the Best Decorating Inspiration for Free
See the aged black vase filled with pink hydrangeas that I clipped from my yard in the photo above?
When thinking about bringing the hydrangeas inside my house so I could enjoy them, placing them in this vase had not even entered my mind.
When I first brought the flowers in, I chose what I normally place them in, one of my white pitchers.
Once I had arranged them, I went about my day, which included some downtime to read all my favorite decorating and lifestyle magazines. Dozens of them for free! Yep for free.
It was in this reading decorating magazines session that I saw a photo of pink hydrangeas in a big black vase. It really caught my eye and I realized that I had a black vase in my attic decor stash.
The inspiring image was in a magazine devoted to modern home style, a magazine I normally wouldn’t read, but since I get it for free each month, I look through it as you never know when decorating inspiration will hit you.
How You Can Read Decorating & Lifestyle Magazines for Free
I read dozens of magazines every week and month using the Libby app. Many people use this app to get free ebooks and digital audiobooks via their local library.
But did you know you can also subscribe to magazines from your library using Libby? All you need is a library card from the local library in your town or county.
Every public library that links to Libby may offer different magazines and periodicals. When I first found out that I could read the magazines for free that I had been paying for. I jumped right in. I also liked that I was saving a few trees by reading them online. :-)
Your library brings you magazines from all over the world! The magazines are always available, with no wait list, no loan limits, and no due dates. How can your library do this?
Magazine publishers can charge more for ads when their circulation numbers go up. Advertisers want you to see their ads and magazine publishers make their money through the ads, hence offering their publications to libraries to get more eyes on the ads.
When browsing through the magazine offerings, don’t stop at just adding your favorite magazines to your Libby account, sign up for others outside your decorating style.
This is what I do, I subscribed to dozens. I may not enjoy every magazine, but I have found great ideas I could use in my style and inspiration on how to decorate with similar items I already own that I didn’t think of.
If I hadn’t browsed through the modern decor magazine, I know my hydrangeas would still be in the white pitcher. I love this pitcher and how the hydrangeas look, but it is nice to see something different every once in awhile.
Getting Started with Libby
Your magazine selection to subscribe to using Libby will vary based on your library, since each library chooses what titles and formats to offer in Libby.
I have the app installed on my iPad. I found that reading the magazines on my iPad is the best experience as the pages show up full screen and the print is easy to read.
You can also download the app and read on your phone, desktop, laptop computer, Amazon Fire devices, but not on Kindle.
You can get all the details here at the Libby website. They also have a few videos (here) to help you learn and get the most out of the app.
I told my husband that he should take a look to see if the magazines he has paid subscriptions to are offered and he found them. He now reads them for free. He likes reading them on his phone.
Finding and Keeping an Issue of a Magazine
To find magazines to subscribe to on Libby you scroll through the magazine category offerings and simply click on Subscribe when you come across one you like.
Once you subscribe, you will see all your subscriptions in your Magazine Rack.
Whenever a new issue of a magazine comes out, you can check a box when setting up the app to notify you via text or an email.
Here are a few of the magazines I picked out from from the Libby Newsstand and subscribed to. This is only a partial list as I subscribe to many more.
- Traditional Home
- Traditional Home Kitchens
- Coastal Living
- Magnolia
- Cottages & Bungalows
- The Cottage Journal
- House Beautiful
- Country Home
- Country Living
- The Pioneer Woman
- Canadian House & Home
- American Farmhouse Style
- First for Women
- Women’s World
- Good Housekeeping
- Women’s Day
- Victoria
- Canada’s Style at Home
- HGTV Magazine
- …and many more from all over the world
If you’d like more time with a kept issue, tap next to the magazine’s name and select, Keep For Another 7 Days. This option appears when the issue has less than 7 days left on your Magazine Rack. You can do this as many times as you’d like so there really isn’t a due date.
Two Things to Make Note of:
- Magazines are only kept on your current device. You’ll need to repeat the setup steps if you have multiple devices you want to keep the magazines on.
- If you want to access to a magazine when you’re offline, you’ll need to manually download it.
A Few Tips When Reading Magazines Online
Navigating through the magazines is quite easy.
When you are done reading a magazine and you want to go back to your magazine shelf, you swipe up on the page and then on the upper left corner you will see a back button. Click that and you will be taken back to your Magazine Rack.
You can also swipe up and see a filmstrip style banner with all the pages that makes finding an article or image easy.
Since you can’t clip or rip out pages of inspiring images or articles like you can with a physical copy of a magazine, I take a screenshot and send it to my email.
I add this to a file I have on my computer’s desktop that I named “Magazine Clippings”. When I want a better look at an image, I then print it out.
Another tidbit of information that I picked up when reading decorating magazines is that when you have a vase that is only decorative and not meant to hold water, you can place a smaller vase inside to hold the water.
Then arrange your flowers.
If you like reading decorating magazines or any magazine every week or month as some magazines I subscribe to come out weekly. Don’t hesitate to look into getting the Libby app on one of your devices.
If you already use the app for reading magazines, then you know how easy and nice it is to keep current on all that interests you.
