Are you planning to redecorate your home but struggling to determine your design style and color palette? An interior design mood board can be a helpful tool to organize your thoughts, visualize your ideas, and bring your vision to life. A mood board (also called a vision board) is a collection of images, fabrics, textures, and colors that reflect your personal style and taste.
Whether you’re working on a single room or an entire house, creating a mood board can be an excellent starting point for your interior design project. In this article, we’ll show you how to create an interior design mood board step-by-step, so you can create a cohesive and stylish look for your home.
What is a Mood Board?
An mood board is a visual representation of your design style, color scheme, and overall aesthetic. It’s a collection of images, fabrics, textures, and colors that work together to create a cohesive look and feel for your space. Your mood board can include anything from furniture and lighting to paint swatches and fabric samples.
Why Create a Mood Board?
Creating a mood board can help you to define your personal style, explore color schemes, and choose the perfect decor items for your home. Here are some other benefits of creating a mood board:
- Visualize your ideas: A mood board can help you to visualize your ideas and see how different elements work together in a space.
- Stay focused: With a mood board, you can stay focused on your design goals and ensure that every element in your space works together cohesively.
- Save time and money: A mood board can help you to avoid costly mistakes by allowing you to see how different elements will work together before making a purchase.
- Communicate your ideas: If you’re working with an interior designer or contractor, a mood board can help you to communicate your ideas and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
How to Create a Mood Board: Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Define Your Style and Purpose
Before you start gathering inspiration and materials, it’s important to define your style and purpose. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is my personal style?
- What is the purpose of the space I’m designing?
- What colors do I want to include?
- What mood or feeling do I want to create in the space?
Your answers to these questions will help you to stay focused and ensure that your mood board reflects your personal style and the purpose of the space.
Step 2: Gather Inspiration and Ideas
Once you’ve defined your style and purpose, it’s time to gather inspiration and ideas for your mood board. Here are some tips to get you started:
- Look for inspiration online: Pinterest, Instagram, and interior design blogs are great sources of inspiration. Create a board or folder where you can save images that appeal to you.
- Check out magazines: Interior design magazines are a great way to find inspiration and see how different elements work together in a space. Tear out pages that appeal to you and add them to your mood board.
- Take photos: If you’re visiting a friend’s home, a display house, a restaurant or public space, take photos of elements that appeal to you. You can add these to your mood board later.
Remember to ask for permission first!
Even if your intention is to create a cohesive style throughout the house, it’s best to create a separate mood board for each room you are going to design.
Step 3: Choose a Color Palette
Choosing a color palette is an important step in creating your mood board. You can use a color wheel to determine complementary colors or choose a monochromatic or neutral color scheme. Alternatively, you can take inspiration from an item that you intend to feature in the room, whether it be a piece of art, a rug, the view from a window or a treasured family heirloom. Here are some tips:
- Choose a dominant color: This will be the primary color in your space.
- Add accent colors: These are colors that complement your dominant color and add interest to your space.
- Consider neutral colors: Neutral colors like white, gray, and beige can help to balance out bold colors and add a sense of calm to your space.
Step 4: Collect Materials and Images
Now that you have your inspiration and color palette, it’s time to start collecting materials and images for your mood board. Here are some materials and images to consider:
- Paint swatches
- Fabric samples
- Wallpaper samples
- Flooring samples
- Furniture images
- Lighting images
- Artwork images
- Accessories images
There’s no set number of images you should include in your mood board, but try to keep it focused and cohesive. Too many images can make it difficult to see the overall aesthetic.
Step 5: Arrange and Edit Your Mood Board
Once you have all your materials and images, it’s time to start arranging your mood board.
Here are some tips:
- Start with your dominant color: Use your dominant color as the backdrop for your mood board.
- Add images and materials: Start adding images and materials that complement your color palette and reflect your personal style.
- Edit: Edit your mood board by removing any elements that don’t fit or clash with your overall aesthetic.
Whilst laying out a physical mood board will help you to get an appreciation for the cohesiveness of textures, colours and patterns, there are several online tools that make the process of creating and sharing your design vision much easier. Such tools include Pinterest, Canva, Morpholio, Roomstyler and Sampleboard which I’ll cover below:
Sourcing online inspiration from Pinterest
Pinterest is a great platform to create an interior design mood board. It allows you to collect and organize images from all over the web and create a visual representation of your design ideas. With millions of images to choose from, you’re sure to find plenty of ideas to spark your creativity.
Here’s how you can use Pinterest to create an interior design mood board.
Step 1: Create a Pinterest Board
The first step is to create a Pinterest board dedicated to your interior design mood board. You can name it something like “Interior Design Inspiration” or “My Dream Home.”
Step 2: Start Pinning
Now it’s time to start pinning! You can search for interior design ideas on Pinterest or browse through boards created by other users. When you find an image you like, simply click on the “Save” button and select your interior design mood board as the destination. You can pin images from any website on the internet. You can use the Pinterest browser extension to easily save images from other websites.
Step 3: Organize Your Pins
Once you have a collection of pins, you can start organizing them on your interior design mood board. You can move the pins around, group them by category or color, and add notes to each pin.
Step 4: Share Your Mood Board
You can share your interior design mood board with others by making your board public. This allows other Pinterest users to see and follow your board, which can be helpful if you’re collaborating with a designer or sharing ideas with friends and family. You can also invite other Pinterest users to collaborate on your board. This allows multiple people to add and organize pins on the same board.
How to use Canva to create an interior design mood board
Using Canva to create an interior design mood board is a fun and easy way to bring your design ideas to life. Canva is a free graphic design platform that provides a variety of customisable templates, images, and design tools to help you create a professional-looking mood board. With Canva you can adjust the colors, fonts, and layout of your mood board. You can also add text to label your images and materials. There is also a paid version that provides additional features.
Step 1: Sign up for Canva
The first step to creating a mood board in Canva is to sign up for an account. Simply go to the Canva website and sign up using your email or social media account.
Step 2: Choose a Template
Canva offers a variety of mood board templates to choose from. Simply search for “interior design mood board” in the search bar and select the template that best fits your vision.
Step 3: Add Your Images and Materials
Now that you have your template, it’s time to start adding your images and materials. Canva offers a variety of design elements to choose from, including photos, illustrations, and icons. You can also upload your own images and materials.
Step 4: Customize Your Mood Board
Once you have your images and materials added, it’s time to start customizing your mood board. Canva offers a variety of design tools to help you adjust the colors, fonts, and layout of your mood board. You can also add text to label your images and materials.
Step 5: Save and Share Your Mood Board
Once you’re happy with your mood board, it’s time to save and share it. Canva allows you to download your mood board as a PDF or image file, or share it directly on social media or via email.
Other online tools to create and share interior design mood boards
In addition to Pinterest and Canva, there are several other online tools that have been popular for creating and sharing interior design mood boards:
Morpholio
Morpholio pairs perfectly with iPhone, Mac and iPad to merge your inspiration, decor and furniture library with powerful mood board and collage tools. Whether you’re choosing colour schemes, re-designing a living space or simply collating your style inspiration from Pinterest, Morpholio is a really useful interior design tool. It was called “addictive” by ELLE DÉCOR and was awarded “Best Apps” for interior design and architecture.
Roomstyler
Roomstyler is a 3D interior design tool that allows users to create virtual rooms and interior design mood boards. Users can choose from a library of furniture, decor, and flooring options to create their designs, and they can also upload their own images. Roomstyler has a community feature that allows users to share their designs and get feedback from others.
SampleBoard
SampleBoard is a cloud-based interior design tool that allows users to create digital mood boards. It has a library of images and textures that users can use to create their designs, and it also allows users to upload their own images. SampleBoard has a collaboration feature that allows users to work together on their designs, making it a great tool for interior designers and their clients. After a limited trial, SampleBoard requires a monthly or annual subscription fee.
Creating and sharing interior design mood boards has never been easier thanks to these online tools. Whether you’re a professional interior designer or just someone looking to decorate their home, these tools can help you bring your design ideas to life. So why not give them a try and see how they can help you create the perfect interior design mood board!
Header image by Freepik