How to Create a Mood Board for Your New Home

"Where words fail miserably, mood boards strive."

Picture this: You’ve just bought a new home or apartment and you’re walking through the spacious rooms pondering how you’re going to decorate. Plenty of ideas cross your mind; the wall color, curtain styles, the perfect sofa, the art, etc. Naturally, you get excited and want to bring your ideas to life. And that’s when your mood board comes into play!

For those that don’t know, a mood board is a visual way of collecting different creative information in preparation for a new project. In other words, a mood board is a digital collage of ideas. Mood boards are valuable resources because they help keep the style and aesthetic of a project consistent and are great for refining a style before diving into the actual design process. Creating mood boards allows you to collect ideas, color schemes, and moods all in one place.

Mood boards are especially essential for interior designers who are trying to convey their ideas to clients. It is through a mood board that designers make ultimate decisions regarding color choice, fabric choice, object choice, art choice, etc.

"So, where do I start?"

1. First things first, if you don’t already have one, I highly recommend creating a Pinterest account.

2. Choose the direction for the creation of your first Pinterest board. Will it be a specific room? A color scheme? A board of accessories?

3. Organize your boards room by room and topic by topic.

4. Keep the following interior design mood board elements in mind: the overall mood in the room, art, rugs, curtains, furniture, wall color or wall paper, paint swatches, flooring, plants, lamps, and all other decor pieces that come to mind.

5. Start pinning!

6. Pin as much as you can to each board. Remember, you can just delete whatever you don’t like later.

7. Once you’re done pinning, go over each board. Make sure each board is exactly what you want it to be. Get rid of the things you don’t need, add the things you do. Experiment with different options. (Take time doing this. Give yourself a minimum of 24 hrs to look at your mood board with fresh eyes.)

8. Once you’ve marinated on the ideas in your boards, you’re ready to bring it to life.

9. You can bring in to life in two ways: the first being the traditional way where you print out every image and tape it onto a giant poster board. The second is to use the free “GoFullPage” screen capture that google chrome offers. You basically screenshot your entire Pinterest board and print it onto a page. I guess it comes down to how much time and energy you want to put into your mood board and how big you want it to be.

*Pinterest is not the only platform you can use to create mood boards, it’s just the platform I find it easiest to do so on. Other options include: Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Canva, Indesign, Procreate, Morpholio Board, and Milanote.*

Tips for Creating an Awesome Mood Board

1. Start with your non negotiables. For example, if there is flooring or windows that you know will not be changing in the space, add those to the board first.

2. Pick a key image, or a focal point for each room. For example, a sofa or media console when brainstorming the media room.

3. For furniture images, try to find an image with a white background (this can usually be found on the retailers website) or trim the background off in photoshop, using the lasso tool. Having a white background/removing the background makes it easier to see how that particular piece of furniture will fit into the rest of the space.

4. Try to get the same angle for each piece. For example, all front facing, or angled to the right or left.

5. Place things next to each other on the mood board as they are supposed to be in real life. For example, a nightstand next to a bed or a lamp on top of side table next to a sofa. This goes for your plants too! You’ll have a better idea of what the space will ultimately look like.

5. You can use paint swatches, fabrics or decor objects to establish a color scheme.

6. Don’t forget about textures! Textures add richness to any room.

7. Also don’t forget about mirrors.

8. Lastly, TAKE YOUR TIME! This is not supposed to be a fast process and you’ll notice how much will change as you’re going through it, and as your taste evolves. Enjoy it every step of the way. 🙂