Is Pinterest Worth It for Surface Pattern Designers?

Think about the last time you opened Pinterest.

Maybe you were dreaming up a paint color for the guest room. Perhaps you were planning a trip and pinning turquoise water and tiled courtyards. Maybe it was 9pm and you were three recipes deep into “cozy fall dinners” you’ll probably never make. Or you were furnishing a room in your head, pillows, rugs, that one perfect wallpaper, long before you ever furnished it in real life.

That’s the thing about Pinterest. People don’t go there to scroll mindlessly. They go there to plan. To dream. To gather ideas for a life they’re actively building: a room, a wardrobe, a party, a trip, a home.

And here’s why that matters for us: as surface pattern designers, we make the exact things people are pinning for. The wallpaper for that dream room. The fabric for that reupholstered chair. The tea towel that finally makes the kitchen feel like hers. Pinterest isn’t a place we have to convince people to want our work. It’s a place full of people already looking for it. We just have to show up there.

So, Is It Worth It?

In my experience, yes. I’ve seen wallpaper and fabric sales tick up directly from pins I created for specific designs, and more than one licensing conversation started because someone found my work through a pin, not an email pitch or a trade show. It’s slow, steady visibility, not a viral overnight thing, and that’s exactly why it works so well for a design business built for the long haul.

Unlike Instagram, where a post’s life is measured in hours, a good pin can keep bringing in traffic for months, even years, after you post it. Pinterest functions more like a visual search engine than a social feed, which means the effort you put in today keeps working for you long after you’ve moved on to your next collection.

Three Practical Ways to Put This to Work

Pin your Spoonflower shop for the sewists and makers
Think about the words a maker actually types in, not the words a designer would use. “Cottagecore floral quilting cotton,” “moody botanical upholstery fabric,” “soft sage nursery fabric,” a mood, a palette, a project they’re dreaming up. Pin individual designs with those kinds of keyword-rich, shopper-style descriptions, and let the fabric do the rest.
Create a mini holiday or seasonal collection board, and use it to open licensing conversations
A tightly curated board of 8 to 10 coordinating designs, say a small collection of pumpkin-and-plaid patterns, or a “storybook nursery wallpaper” set in dreamy watercolor animals, does double duty. It’s appealing to home shoppers and it’s an easy, low-pressure way to show a potential licensing partner exactly how a collection could look in market, without them having to imagine it themselves.
Pin your Etsy and Carriage House Printery products where people are already shopping for them
Someone searching “housewarming gift tea towel,” “farmhouse kitchen linens,” or “colors for a cozy autumn kitchen” isn’t just browsing, they’re often ready to buy. Link pins straight to your Etsy listings, or to your Carriage House Printery products, and let Pinterest do some of the selling for you.

A Bonus Tip: think seasons ahead, not seasons behind
Pinterest search behavior runs 30 to 90 days ahead of the actual season, people are pinning Christmas ideas in September and spring florals in January. Get your seasonal and holiday designs pinned early so they’re already gaining traction when the season actually arrives.

Your Turn

Pick just one collection, one shop, or one seasonal design, and create five pins for it this week. Not fifty. Five. Write descriptions the way a shopper would search, not the way a designer would describe it. Watch what happens over the next few months.

Pinterest rewards patience and consistency more than perfection. You don’t need a polished strategy to start, you just need to start.

Here’s to a slow, steady, well-pinned August.

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Pinterest for Creatives: How to Plant Seeds that Keep Growing