How to Create Effective Mood Boards for Interior Design Projects

By Jennita Wagner

Let's chat about mood boards, something I see as an under-utilized design tool!

What is a Mood board?

If you're not familiar with what a mood board is, here is an example:

I created this mood board for our kitchen renovation and it saved the day on many occasions! Not only did it help me in finalizing decisions, confident that everything flowed together cohesively, it enabled me to discuss my mental vision with my husband and allow him to fully envision it. It was also useful for showing contractors when sourcing materials, or during the installation processes, so that they understood the goal clearly.

How and where to use a mood board?

As a content creator on IG, I use mood boards constantly when pitching brands for partnership, to show them how I intend to showcase their product. I used the kitchen mood board when pitching brands to collaborate on a range hood, faucet, sink, etc. for the kitchen renovation. Brands love seeing the vision, and it helps you stand out to as a creator when you include mood boards with your proposals. Mood boards can be as detailed as the one above, or as simple as the one below:

I created this one to showcase items I was using in my kitchen from a specific store. I've used Canva to upload items in a room and adjust the coloring, so I can reference it while sourcing materials and gathering samples. I've even uploaded photos of curtains to my mood board, to compare which set would compliment my other design choices in the room.

Mood boards are essential if you provide design help to others virtually or in person. Here are two examples of mood boards I created for clients, to help them envision what we could do with their space:

How to create a mood board?

So, understanding what a mood board is, and how useful they can be, how do we create one? I'm going to share my two favorite tools for creating them.

1. The first is the Canva app.

You can make an account and use the free version (which is what I do) or sign up for Premium and access even more tools and options. To start, I just search for "IG post 4:5" in the template section search bar, and chose the Create Blank button. This will give you a good size board to work on, and is correctly sized for posting on social media if you want to share your creation. Canva is so versatile and offers so much creative ability, it may appear overwhelming at first. I recommend Googling tutorials for specific things you want to do within the app, if you feel lost. You can adjust which item comes to the front when overlaying two items, adjust the color and transparency, add text and frames, the customization is endless. I also use Canva to create logos, business cards, photo collages, blog headers, media kits, resumes, everything and anything.

2. The second free app I use is bg.remover for removing backgrounds from items.

Simply google the item you want to add to your board, screenshot it, cropping as closely as possible around the object, then upload to the bg.remover app and let it do it's magic. You can use the edit tools to add or remove if the app makes errors. There is also a paid version of the app for higher quality downloads. Once you're ready, just tap the download button and choose your photo gallery to save it to. From there you can upload it to your Canva design.

So have fun creating and designing. You don't need to be highly skilled to turn out fabulous mood boards that are a great aid in design choices!

*All Photographs Credit: Jennita Wagner

ABOUT WRITER