Interior Design Mood Board Ideas
Posted by Alison Johnson on
Are you thinking about starting an interior design project, but just don’t know where to start? Sometimes the best thing to do is to start collating some ideas. Whether you have some colours in mind, some theme ideas, just get some things down on paper. Or alternatively, Pinterest is a great place to start putting together digital collages.
What is a mood board?
A mood board (sometimes known as an inspiration board), is a physical or digital collage of ideas. This collage can be constructed of colour charts, drawings, photos, anything that you can draw inspiration from. Pinterest makes it easy to gather ideas quickly in one place, in the comfort of your own home, but physical boards can provide a stronger base to let your interior design skills loose!
Rather than just diving straight into an interior design project, a mood board will help you to gather some ideas and speed up the process. Imagine if in your mind two colours work perfectly together, but when it comes to applying the paint you realise they aren’t that well suited? If you had simply included some colour swatches in your mood board you could have saved all of that time and hassle.
Where do I start?
Don’t try and be too organised with your mood board. The idea is that it looks messy and creative. Start by picking one piece that you have been thinking about including in your project for a while. Once you are sure of that piece (for example a wallpaper sample or a colour scheme), you will find the rest of the mood board is easy to build up around it. It will be much easier to see what accessories would match the style of your room this way, such as a tissue box cover.
If you are opting for a digital mood board, begin by looking through similar boards on your Pinterest account, adding ideas that you like to your board as you go along. For a physical mood board, it is always good to use a cork board so you can easily pin fabric swatches to it. Be sure to look through interior design magazines too and cut out pieces that you like.
Creating a successful mood board
A mood board is a very personal creation, and therefore there is no real ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way of putting together your ideas. However, sometimes it is easy to go off track and get distracted. Here are a few tips that should help:
- If you aren’t sure about an item, don’t add it on. As we wrote about in our how interior design affects our lives blog post, if an item doesn’t bring you joy then you don’t need it in your life.
- Start by focusing on one room at a time to keep your mood board focused.
- Arrange clippings in groups that work - for example, if you have seen a kettle that you like the colour of, pair it with a marble countertop sample that you like so you can see how they will look together.
- Smaller is better. Whilst you may have some large cuttings of wallpapers and fabric samples, just add a small amount to your board otherwise your attention will be focused on that one item.
- Try starting with a flooring sample and building up the accessories to match it around that.
We hope this has given you some inspiration on how to get started with creating your interior design mood board. We would love to see your finished designs, please feel free to contact us to email them over, or tag us on your social media pages.