3 Ways to Create an Interior Design Mood Board
Hello, beautiful people! If you have downloaded my room design guide, you know that creating an interior design mood board for your design project(s) is a vital step in getting clear on your decorating goals. Mood boarding is great way to be super imaginative and pull out your inner child. This is the time to really set your intentions for your space… but before we get to the 3 ways to create an interior design mood board, let’s define mood board.
What is a Mood Board?
A mood board is a collection of images, text, colors, and materials to inspire a mood or feeling. Everyone from interior designers to event planners to graphic designers uses mood boards. They are excellent for visually communicating projects and ideas. Mood boards are also a great reference throughout a project to make sure your intended mood is being portrayed.
Alright, now that you know what a mood board is, let’s chat about three different ways to create one!
Interior Design Mood Board #1: Pinterest
If you don’t know what Pinterest is by now, then you’ve been living under a rock! I find myself pinning every day and mostly to my Interior Design tips and tricks board and my many secret boards.
Creating an Interior Design mood board on Pinterest gives you the ability to:
Organize Ideas
Find color palettes
Discover your interior design style
Save inspiring spaces
Save furniture and decor
The possibilities are endless with Pinterest. If you download the mobile app, you can even pin your own images. For example, If you are at a thrift store or a home store, you can take pictures of items you like and pin them to your board. You can also easily delete items that no longer fit the space you are trying to create.
I would even recommend creating different boards for each room in your home. Take a look at my Pinterest to see how I organize my boards.
Interior Design Mood board #2: Photoshop/Illustrator
There are many photo editing and graphic design applications out there, but I mostly use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. These applications can be super helpful in creating mood boards as they allow you to manipulate images and text. In design school, I used a combination of graphic design applications and Pinterest to create mood boards. I used Pinterest to collect images to create a cohesive mood. Then I would bring the images over to one of the applications to create a collage of text and images. Check out Corina’s amazing mood boards on her blog. Here are a bunch of mood boards people have pinned to Pinterest as well. If you don’t have access to Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign, you can try free software like Canva and Gimp.
I created a video tutorial on how to create an interior design mood board in Illustrator below! If you don’t have Illustrator, you can follow along in any program.
Interior Design Mood board #3: Magazines
Who remembers having scattered magazines all over your bedroom floor for collage making? (I definitely do) This option is all about kicking it old school and grabbing a pair of scissors, glue and a bunch of magazines to create a physical mood board. I suggest cutting a bunch of images (at least 20), sorting through them and then pasting them to construction paper or a foam board. You can also use the space I provided in the room design guide. Download it free.
Easy, right?! Whatever option you choose, make sure to keep this process fun. You want to make sure your energy is positive while you set your intentions for your home.
Image Sources: Clockwise (l to r) Tree, Hannah Bronfman, Pendant,Bathroom, Tile, Palm, Living Room, Woman