Improve Your Home Design Projects With A Mood Board: A Beginner’s Guide

What is a mood board and why do I need one?

The goal of a mood board is to help “try on” potential decor and furnishings for a space before investing time and money into purchasing the actual products.

Much like trying on clothes before leaving the store, making a simple mood board in Canva is a great way to see how all the foundational pieces and accessories you’re considering will fit together to create an ensemble.

Is this the look I’m going for?

You’ve probably seen a million mood boards and product collages on Pinterest, but if you’re not already a designer the technology can feel intimidating and complicated. You may never have considered making your own.

But I’m here to tell you it is easier than you think! And it’s totally worth trying.

Maybe you’ve bought home decor in the past, brought it home and hated it. Or you aren’t a super visual person, and it’s hard for you to tell if colors you are considering will go together.

It can make you feel stuck. 

Today, you’re in luck! I’m going to share a quick and easy tool that will help you conquer your tech fears, unleash your creativity and help you start designing beautiful rooms for your home- without spending a penny! 

I’ll cover the basics of creating a mood board in Canva, showing you how it works and how you can get started.

Keep reading for more details.

Mood Board Definition

A mood board aims to show you how furnishings and decor look together, play with different design options, and help you create a cohesive vision for your space. 

Designers use them in a range of ways. Sometimes a simple mood board can be a quick way to deliver a general vision for the concept of a space. Other times, mood boards are used to relay the exact products the designer is specifying for clients to purchase.

Here is an example of a mood board I made in Canva to present a living room concept for a client:

Why Is A Mood Board Important?

When I talk to women, I hear the same things over and over.

“I don’t know where to start!”

“When I go to the store, I don’t know what to buy.”

“I’m not sure what will look good together.”

The mood board helps with all that because it helps you come up with a PLAN that you can easily follow.

Most people can’t look at a room and instantly “see” the possibilities the way designers do.

If this is true for you, you will love mood boards. By creating a mood board collage, you’ll be able to have a tangible picture to help you visualize like a pro. 

This way, you will know exactly what direction your project is heading. 

Related Post: Visioning: The First Step In Building A House

Mood Board Examples

If you can see the benefits but mood boards sound overwhelming, I get it.

They look simple but where do you find the pictures to add? How do you arrange it all to make it look like a room?

I put together the examples below to break it down for you so you can get a better idea of different mood board options.

COllage Style Mood Board

This is a mood board I made to help show a client a vision for their bedroom.

This is what I call a digital collage mood board as it is made up of digital images cut and pasted, just like the collages you made in school.

First, I placed the major furnishing pieces (dresser and floor mirror).

Next, I placed coordinating accessories (including wallpaper, rugs, and textiles) to show the general feel of the space.

In this mood board there are some exact products I specified for her to purchase as well as some general representations of items intended for her to reference.

As she implemented the project, she did not purchase all of these exact items- but she was able to use this visual to check any possible future purchase against.

When considering a pillow, for example, she could compare it against this picture and ask, “Would this look good in this space?”

The mood board gives a reference point and serves as a guide.

Mock Up Mood Board

The more you practice with mood board creation, the more realistic your boards will become.

In the previous example, I showed you the simple collage-style mood board for this project (which is the easiest place to start).

Once you’ve mastered that plug and play mood board, you can start layering the elements together to create a more comprehensive design.

This is the same room (and you will notice many of the original elements from the collage).

I have simply resized and repeated the elements to represent the room and layered some things on top of each other and some beneath, which is very easy to do in Canva.

The result is a fairly realistic looking 2-D representation of the room! This type of mood board is great for playing with the actual arrangement of furniture and seeing how a specific room will look when completed.

Virtual Decorating Mood Board

Another option when creating a mood board is to use a background image of your actual space.

This allows you to “try on” different arrangements and elements and really get a feel for how they will look in your existing space.

Simply take a photo with your phone and upload it directly to Canva. Then, build the mood board the same as the other examples.

Tips for Making Mood boards With Canva

If you’re ready to get started, here are a few tips to help you start making gorgeous mood boards for your spaces.

Canva is an AMAZING design tool for beginners. It’s free to start (yay!) and it is so intuitive. They have a ton of free templates for almost anything you want to make, which makes it easy to create professional looking graphics and documents.

Note:

I have a pro account, so there may be some things that look a little bit different in mine during the videos, but you can definitely do this with what’s available in the free version and you don’t have to pay for it!

First, Choose a Template

Once you’ve signed up for an account, head to the home screen. You’re going to see a search bar at the top and it says “Search your content or Canva’s”.

Type in the words “mood board“. A lot of different options for mood boards will pop up. You can scroll through and pick anything you like.

It doesn’t matter which one you pick.

Click the one you like and then you can customize your template. You’ll see this is already populated with just some stock images, but we’re going to customize it now and make it our own.

You can also use mine by clicking the link below to save time!

Next, Gather Some Images

Think window shopping- but the digital variety.

In other words, you need to spend some time gathering the images you will add to your mood board.

There are two ways to save your images:

Phone

It’s really easy to do on your phone.

Browse your favorite sites or your saved images in Pinterest.

You can include:

• Furnishings
• Decor, Art, Pillows and other Accessories
• Inspo Images
• Flooring, Paint, Tile Samples

Once you find something you’d like to include in your mood board, take a screenshot using your cell phone.

If you have an Iphone, hold down the top volume button and the right side power button simultaneously. If you have an Android… I can’t help you and you’ll need to Google it. Haha, sorry.

This will save the image from your screen to your photo library.

Desktop

You can also take screenshots on your computer.

For Apple:

• Command + Shift + 3: Takes a photo of the entire screen
• Command + Shift + 4: Captures only what you choose
• If you click Command-Shift-4, you’ll get a crosshair pointer:
  1. Press the mouse or trackpad button in the top left corner of the area you’d like to capture
  2. Drag over the area you want to capture ( I move over to the top right then down to the bottom right)
  3. Release the mouse or trackpad button
  4. You will see an image appear on your screen, and the image will be added to your desktop files.

For Windows:

Here’s a blog post with several tips for capturing images on a PC.

Once you are done collecting images and taking screenshots, you will have a collection of images to work with in your photos folder (phone) or on your desktop (computer).

Example of product screenshots for a recent project mood board

Import your Images into Canva

Again, you can either do this on your desktop computer OR on your iphone.

On a computer you can utilize the drag and drop feature to drag your screenshots directly to the uploads area

On your phone, you can bulk upload by navigating to the “Uploads Area.”

Drop Images Into Mood Board

Finally, the time has come to see your vision come to life! If the idea of putting it all together makes you feel nervous, remember: 

This for your eyes only and you have permission to change things over and over again until you love it. It’s SO much easier to change things now, virtually than it would be if you were dealing with big, bulky furniture, paint, and other expensive home decor items.

If you don’t try some outside of the box ideas here, you’re missing out on your chance to have fun and experiment a little!

Instructions

• Go back to to the mood board template you chose in the first step.
• Click the uploads tab on the lefthand side to see the images you have imported.
• Drag the image over until it is on top of the image you want to replace and let go.
• Voila! You have added your image to the mood board!

---

If you would like to add an image in a blank area, simply click the image one time in the uploads folder and it will add it to the top, and you can drag it around until you like the position.

---

You can adjust layers using the position button in the top tool bar.

---

A final tip is that there are already interior design elements such as walls and floors, that you can choose from in the Canva library. Click on “Elements”, then choose photos to see the options!

If you’d like more help, you can watch an entire walk through tutorial below.

Now it’s Time To See Your Vision Come To Life

I hope this guide on creating mood boards has been helpful.  If you take anything away from this guide, remember that this is meant to be FUN, so don’t stress out if it doesn’t turn out perfectly the first time. 

The best way to move toward achieving your home decorating goals is to start with a vision. That way you can set yourself up for success and have a plan in your hands that will help you make the best possible decisions.

Still feeling like you need a little more help? I’ve got you!

Make a mood board? I’d love to see what you created! Send it to me at suzette@suzettegebhardt.com so I can cheer you on.

xoxo,