Mood Board 1 Low Res
Mood Board 1 St James Whitting

MOOD BOARDS

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What are mood boards and how can you create one for your own interior scheme?

In interior design and decorating, mood boards refer to a curated arrangement of ideas for furniture, furnishings, fabrics, lighting and all the other items that go into creating a style, concept or mood, for your scheme. In my business, the mood board is an important tool to use when working up a scheme for a client, which will convey ideas that are easy to understand. You’ll find it a very useful tool too.

By creating a mood board, you will learn to clarify your thoughts and distil your ideas and, hopefully, it will give you a blueprint for your project. If using an interior designer or decorator to help you with your interiors, this mood board may help them to understand your thoughts and give them an idea of your style.

There are many ways in which you can create a mood board. From using Pinterest, SampleBoard or other online platform, through to creating a physical board that you can touch and feel from materials you’ve collected and cuttings you’ve taken from magazines and newspapers. I suggest not cutting up books – take colour photo copies instead and keep the original on the shelf for future reference and inspiration.  If you’re adept at using design tools, you may also find a program such as Indesign a fabulous way to arrange your ideas.

The best way to start is to gather your samples or images and curate them into rooms.  Too many ideas on one mood board can be confusing so keep to the less is more rule, without having too few. Look for materials and images that evoke emotions for you and convey your inner-decorator.  Be brave and try bold colours and patterns – you can always cull them later if they are not doing it for you.  Try to be consistent without being bland or predictable; interior decorating should be about you and the way to live, not what’s on trend.

Take photos when you’re out looking for inspiration. You may find the colours in your garden or the local landscape will inspire you with colour and texture. Pick up some charts from your paint store to get inspired with paint colours; and check for wallpaper books too.  You may not have thought of wallpaper or wall murals and they can be a beautiful adjunct to your interior scheme.  These can be simple and inexpensive through to more complex materials, colours and designs.

When looking for inspiration, artwork or fabrics can also be a great place to start. A favourite painting may hold the key to your colour scheme with the artist already having created a palette for you.

Consider textures and layering for interest and find shapes that appeal to you. Head to the beach or the countryside and see what secrets nature reveals to you in both colour and texture. Then see how you can apply these elements to your material choices in fabrics, tiles and accessories.

Once you have all your ideas and materials sorted, place them on your mood board. Be aware of scale and proportion and colour combinations.  If colour is difficult for you, pick up a colour wheel at your local art shop; this may help you to understand how colours relate to each other. If you’re feeling adventurous, get some paint pots in different colours and paint small areas of your home to see how they look in real time or buy a piece of board, paint with an undercoat and then apply your chosen colours.  But remember, colours will look different depending on the substrate, time of day, time of year and lighting available, as well as the type of paint finish you choose (flat, satin, semi-gloss, gloss).

Once you have all your ideas together and you’re happy with the result, it’s then time to put them into motion and start the fun part of your project; putting it all together at home.

Mooboard 1: Inspiration for a bedroom in Tasmania, using local handcrafted materials and original fabric designs.

Moodboard 2: Inspiration for the refurbishment of a residential apartment foyer evoking a classic international look.

#stjameswhitting #moodboards #interiordesign