3 Ways To Do A Google Reverse Image Search When Sourcing Home Decor

Learn how to find exact and alternative home decor pieces online using one of these Google Reverse Image Search methods.

Earlier this month I shared my bedroom remodel reveal, and when I mentioned I based all my furniture and decor choices on pricey pieces but sourced out dupes for a third of the price, my DM inbox went crazy! I shared all my tips for finding budget-friendly alternatives to your favorite decor items in this post, but so many people asked for a tutorial on my reverse image search method. So today I put together a super quick rundown of how you can snag my secret.

When And Why To Use Google Reverse Image Search For Home Decor Shopping

Google Reverse Image Search is basically doing a Google search using a photo instead of typing in the words in the search bar. I typically do it if I see a photo on Pinterest that has something I love, but the link goes to a dead page or some scammy sales thing. All you have to do is screenshot the photo of what you want to find out about, crop it down to mostly just the thing you’re looking for, and save that image to your phone or computer.

After you do the reverse image search, you’ll probably find the exact match to what you’re looking for. If that’s the thing you want to buy, then ta-da! You’re done! But if you reverse image search a pink velvet chair and you find out that specific one is $4,000, don’t worry. Now that you know what the item is called and who sells it, you can do a new search for the item by name and find alternatives in the Shopping tab of Google.

This is also a super helpful way to track down a blogger or Instagram account from an image you’ve found on Pinterest. If the pin’s link doesn’t trace back to its original owner, you can screenshot the whole image, crop out the surrounding text, and reverse image search. If it belongs to a blogger, you’ll likely see the original source pop up in your results. Now you know exactly who to follow for more design inspo.

How To Google Reverse Image Search For Decor And Design Sources

1. Using Your Desktop Computer

On a desktop or laptop using Google Chrome or another desktop-based browser (Apple Safari won’t work), go to Google.com and click on the word “Images” in the top right corner. A new Google search page will open, similar to before, but there will be a little camera icon in the search bar. Click that camera, then either add the photo’s link or upload the product photo if you saved it to your desktop. Click search, then you’ll get your results.

2. Using Your iPhone Via Google Photos App

There’s a long, drawn-out method for accessing the Google desktop site on your iPhone to do a Google Image Search, but it’s too many steps for me to bother with. So I use this workaround instead. I use the Google Photos app as a backup for my camera roll, so I just save the image I want to Reverse-Search onto my phone, open the Google Photos App, and click on the photo I just saved. Click the square-ish button on the bottom menu. Some little dots pop all around your image and ta-day, similar images magically appear.

3. Using An Android

An Android phone has the easiest-possible way to reverse image search. I don’t have an Android so I can’t show you a screenshot of this one, but it’s really simple to do. Just open up your Chrome browser on your phone and go to the webpage that has the image you want to search for. Tap and hold on the image and a menu will come up. Just choose the “Search Google For This Image” and you’ll get your results. If you have the image saved on your phone instead of from a website, you can do this same process by tapping and holding your saved image.