What Is A Mood Board and How to Make One for Interior Design

Get to know the characteristics and uses of this interior design tool

Every creative needs inspiration, from within and from the outside world. The task is systemizing and organizing the ideas, tastes, and elements that surround our imagination.

As complicated as that might sound, it isn’t. Mood boards are the creative tool that shows this. This is what you need to know to make your own mood board for interior design.

Is a mood board necessary for interior design?

Yes. Not only does it serve as an aesthetic reference, but it allows you to play with combinations and define the textures and materials you’ll be using. Grounding your ideas in a mood board will help define the direction of your project.

DecoStudio (@decostudio) use mood boards to present and transmit the essence, concept, and style of their designs. It’s an indispensable starting point for organizing their ideas visually and explore their research and proposal.

Where to start

The mood board creation process can be as open as you like. However, these keys will help you if you’re not sure where to start.

- First: prepare to classify

If a mood board is where your idea begins, you better take it seriously. Get into the habit of looking for references. Without causing you too much stress, the act of making your board should become an organized habit that gives the first real touches to the execution of a project.

Ana Milena Hernándes of @masquespacio recommends organizing files and folders (both physical and digital) of different materials that grab your attention. For example, you can file according to spaces, kitchen, bathroom, floors, etc.

- Find the purpose and visual style

One of the keys to interior design (and of visual projects in general) is the color palette. Make sure your project is harmonious so, unless you have graphic design experience, we recommend color palette generators such as Coolors, a free app that lets you make your own chromatic ranges and try different combinations easily.

- Bring together all the images that you can

Shots from magazines, photos of accessories that could inspire your decorations, drawings, or words, anything. You can turn to any type of source: from your favorite design books to online platforms like Pinterest, Instagram, Behance, Flickr, or Designspiration.

Don’t limit yourself; the selection and filtering process will come later. It’s important to note that you don’t have to look for just images of furniture or home items. The image needs to simply provoke an emotion in you.

- Identify key concepts

Once you have the collage, analyze it carefully to identify the constants: tones, shapes, running decorations that jump out.

Try to put these constants into words and make a list of them. These will be your first main guide to filter and refine your project.

- Now the hard bit: refine

Limit your board using the concepts you’ve defined. Compare each element and keep the best and most relevant examples to represent your original idea: what makes you feel most comfortable aesthetically and creatively.

The objective is to reduce the number of images to the minimum possible to make your plan achievable.

Physical or digital?

It doesn’t matter where you make your board. However, the study of textures can be more enlightening when you experience the contrasts physically with surfaces, accessories, and other elements.

For this step, it’s good to use design programs like Illustrator or Photoshop or free platforms like Befunky, that allow you to create documents in the form of a mood board.

This video shows you how to use one of those programs:

You can use any material you like as a base at the analog stage: a piece of card on the floor or desk, a corkboard, or fabric hung on a wall.

In this video, you’ll see the technique they used for a clothes shop:

The golden rule

Technique and time matter less than the result. If you want to develop your mood board right, all you have to ask yourself is does it represent your original idea. Remember its objective is to help you present your essence, style, and personality.

You may be interested in:

- What Is a Mood Board and What Is It For?
- Books to Inspire Your Personal Projects
- 7 Tools to Spark Your Inner Creativity