There are many things that I’ve discovered since I started posting on Instagram back in 2016. The first is that efficient phone charging is essential for a job in social media. It’s a bit like being addicted to smoking when you’ve only got two cigarettes left in the packet - the moment my phone goes below 50%, I’m rushing for the nearest plug point like a person deprived of water. Secondly, you will reach a point where your photography standards reach a peak and you’ll want to take at least 153654 photographs of one sofa angle before you deem it suitable for posting to your audience (although I have more recently discovered - by trial, in fact - that actually, Instagram doesn’t give a sh*t how long it took you to create; if you spend ten minutes stringing together a load of old photographs with some trending music and a few leading captions then they’ll send it out to all 2 billion users, everyone who knows them and their dogs. FML).
But most of all (and on a less irritated note, ha), what Instagram introduced me to was the absolute joy of being inspired to create my own interior spaces. Yes, yes, I’ve been adding to and styling my home for years, but it wasn’t until I started sharing what I was doing on the platform that I gained the confidence to really try new things. Instagram is - and always has been - brilliant for this. Not only is it a hotbed of new ideas but it’s also a place to share your OWN ideas, something that prior to the advent of social media wasn’t really a possibility unless you invited someone over for a cup of tea. An added bonus to this democratisation of design is Pinterest, an App that is much to blame for me staring at my screen for far too long before I go to sleep.
I am OBSESSED with Pinterest. Prior to social media, I had plastic folders stuffed full of ideas taken from magazines, years worth of inspiration that I still have today. Anyone who has stayed in my Airbnb, The Barn, will know that the stairs are lined with old copies of Livingetc and Elle Decoration dating back 15 years at least. It’s interesting to note that you could pick up either of those magazines from a decade ago and much of what you see within the pages would still be relevant today. Anyway, I spend MUCH time on Pinterest, not just for interior inspiration but also recipes and fashion ideas and it’s an excellent start if you’re planning a room but don’t know where to begin. Which is what we’re going to talk about today.
About six years ago, I wrote a blog called How To Moodboard (Or How To Get Buy In For Your Interior Ideas) and it is one of the most hit pages on my website. I am not an interior designer, merely someone who enjoys interiors and styling homes, but I don’t even CONSIDER planning a room without creating a moodboard. I have even been known to do this for fashion campaigns. There is nothing better than seeing all of your ideas on one page and it’s simply the ONLY way to find out if your thoughts gel together and it’s actually going to work. But where to begin? The traditional way to moodboard - bringing together fabrics, colours and texture physically - is a good start but sometimes doesn’t work as well as seeing on a screen how the room will look. I use Canva and it’s not only easy, but it’s free to use and has lots of cool stuff. Here’s how to create a moodboard so that you can start a project happy in the knowledge that you’ve nailed it, even before you start.
Pin Endlessly
Head to Pinterest and set up a board for your room. For ease, let’s say that we want to redesign a utility room - we’ll use my recently decorated one as an example for this process. Start pinning ideas. Pin randomly, indiscriminently, with abandon, with unbridled joy - designs, colours, textures, tones. Think about how you want that room to make you feel. Before long, you’ll notice repetition in what you’re pinning - that might be a wall colour, an accent tone, a style of furniture, whatevs. You’ll start to get a gist of what direction you’re going in. Keep pinning until you have around 50 pins to inspire you. The more that you pin, the more that Pinterest will serve up the goods that are aligned to what you’re looking for (it’s clever like that, hey). Whenever I do this, it’s guaranteed that before long, I will be repeatedly served a room that will be my inspiration point. This is the BEST place to start, especially when you don’t know what you’re aiming for.
Save Your Favourites
When you’ve exhausted pinning (this can take HOURS in my case as I get lost down a rabbit hole and mainly do it when I’m in bed and should be asleep - Pinterest is a canny taskmaster), pick out your favourite of the Pins that you want to add to your board and download them to your desktop. I would suggest at this point that you put them in a named file - I have lost count of the amount of times I haven’t done this and they’ve disappeared into the annals of my overloaded computer. Open the Pin, click the three dots and press Download Image.
Add The Extra Stuff
At this point, you also want to save photographs of items that you want to bring into your room - this could be a piece of furniture you already own, a picture you’ve seen on Instagram, a lamp that you’re desperate for, artwork you intend to bring in or paint colours (top tip - you can Google the paint colour that you are keen on and it will bring up nice round pictures of it that work nicely on boards to screen shot and save). Save all of these to your named file.
Remove The Background
So this is an additional step that isn’t essential but as someone who creates a lot of moodboards, this is one I find quite satisfying. You can remove the background of the individual photos by going to RemoveBG. I did a step by step Reel showing you how to do this, I’ll link here. You can also do this using your iPhone but if I’m on my desktop (which I almost always am), I find this much easier. It’s very handy if you’re adding furniture and lamps to your board as you can then overlap them. Once you’ve removed the background via the App, save again to your named file.
Use An App That Does The Work For You
Next head to Canva. This is a free App/website that you can also use on your mobile - you can also use Powerpoint of course, but Canva has lots of excellent additions that will add to your work. It does pretty much everything, tbf. You can create banners, Instagram posts, cool Story slides, all the fun stuff. Again, like Pinterest it’s easy to waste many hours playing. Anyway, set up an account and it’s all there for the taking. Unless you want to upgrade to extra special font stuff, then it’s free of charge and therefore a no brainer.
Get Started
Okay, so you’re ready to create your moodboard. Tap the CREATE A DESIGN tab at the top right and scroll to PRESENTATION. This will give you a nice blank landscape screen with a list of actions stacked on the left hand side. Press the UPLOADS button and it will give you the option to bring in your Pin downloads and photographs that you saved earlier. Pick out the ones you want to add, upload and they’ll appear on the left hand side of your screen, ready to go.
Bring It All In
To add the item to your mood board, click on it. It will immediately appear in the centre of your screen. If you are happy with the picture in it's entirety, you can adjust the size by using the edges. If you want to crop the picture, use the side sliders to change. Keep adding your pictures until you feel that you want to stop. They're not static - you can move them around until they all fit nicely. I tend to put in one or two full room shots of inspirational photographs so that it gives me a really good idea of what I'm trying to achieve.
Add Some Cool Stuff
You've got all your photos in place, now you want to add in the detail. Go to the left hand side bar and click ELEMENTS. This will give you a great selection of extras that you can add to your mood board. Go to the top and search. I use arrows on my board but it's got loads of fun stuff. All the basic stuff is free but you can pay if you want something super flash. Click and they will appear on your presentation. You can shrink them by using the side arrows and change the colour by clicking the multi coloured square on the tab above your presentation.
Label It Up
Now you can add your text. Click the TEXT button on the left hand menu and again, it will give you a multitude of options. I try and keep it simple in the same font every time but it's entirely up to you. Again, when you click it will give you a text box that you can then shrink to fit.I put the name of the mood board on the top left hand side (I like a bit of left margin justification). I use mini header words to add substance to the board - for example, 'colour palette' - and then move the arrows around to point in the right direction. Couldn’t be easier, in fact. You can also change the colour background by highlighting the presentation itself and clicking the multi coloured square for options.
Job Done
Finished? Give your moodboard a name by clicking the word next to your log in photograph and adding a title. Go to the top margin where it says SHAREand click - press DOWNLOAD - choose how you want to save it. I usually share as a PDF but you can also save as a JPEG.
And that's it. One super fabulous mood board and the finished result. Tick. This is by no means rocket science but in my experience, it’s the absolute BEST way to bring your ideas into one cohesive place so that you’re not just randomly slapping paint colours on the wall and making impulse furniture buys when your partner isn’t looking in the hope it will ‘all come together in the end’. And if you do give it a go, make sure you tag me so that I can see the results of your endeavours. Happy moodboarding!
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