A moodboard is collection of ideas in the form of photos, color and material swatches, and images of furniture and decorative elements that are gathered together in the form of a collage. Interior designers use moodboards as a tool to create cohesive and harmonious design schemes that let you see how your overall design will look before investing in the real thing. There are various types of moodboards, from inspiration boards to generate ideas to sample boards where you can gather together real materials. Use these easy steps see how fun and useful creating your own moodboards can be.

Think outside the box with an inspiration moodboard

Redesigning a room in your house and not sure where to start? Use an inspiration moodboard to get your creativity flowing. At this point, don’t worry too much about the final result, just start searching for images, objects, materials, and even words and phrases that inspire and attract you – magazines (online or print) are great places to start. Think about things you love, and experiment with what looks good side by side. Check out this flexible board full of ideas:

Define your style by editing your ideas to create an interior design board

Take a look at all the images you’ve gathered together, and get editing. Try to give yourself a few limits now – select maybe just two or three colors, and one main style, then think about your board in terms of the actual space that you are going to decorate. This moodboard for a yellow and grey scheme in a contemporary style is a great example:

Collect materials, textures, and colors on a sample board

Now it’s time to find some real samples for your interior. Collect samples of flooring, paint colors, curtain and upholstery fabrics, etc., to create your own materials board where you can see how all of the elements will look together. Here is a great example for a natural style interior with greens and beiges:

Make final decisions about furniture and locations with a layout board

Now that you’ve decided on the general look and style of your space, you can start to choose your furniture pieces and work out how they can be arranged. This layout board gives you a very good idea of how the room might look beforehand, allowing you to swap different items in or out until you get it just right.

Mood board for a Tuscan Style Interior by Design Folly on flickr [CC BY-SA 2.0]