Written by Catherine Seagrave

How to easily gather your design ideas, figure out your style and avoid making costly mistakes

Getting creative can be a useful distraction right now. As we’re all spending much more time in our homes, we need it to be our happy place. We might know we want to decorate and change things up, but it can feel overwhelming to know where to start. There are so many images on Pinterest and Instagram that the positive feelings of change quickly turn to panic. Where do I start? How do I know what I want? And what even is my style??! Help!!!

This is where a moodboard can really help. In essence a moodboard is a collection of images, samples and things that you love. It can be digital, using something like Pinterest to store your collection of images, or it can be physical, using samples you can touch and feel. It’s main purpose is to help you work out your style on paper before you commit to your decorating plans. Often it’s hard to know what your interior style is, or if you even have one. Rest assured that you do! It’s just a matter of pinning it down, and helping you express your ideas better. Moodboards act as that visual tool, to help you see the common thread that runs through your ideas, and to give you the confidence to move forward with your plans.

Why make a moodboard? Are they useful?

Aside from it being a fun way to spend an afternoon, a moodboard can prove to be a very useful tool. As professionals we use them all the time to gather inspiration, thrash out ideas, and communicate with our customers. But you don’t need to be a professional to have a go. It’s a simple process, and as it’s all about you and what you like, you should find it quite an enjoyable task!

It can be very difficult to hold your ideas in your head and imagine how they work together in your room. If you need to focus your ideas, and define a look, a moodboard can be your best friend. They give you the opportunity to see if everything does come together as you imagined and be clear about what you want. And it’s very handy to keep a photo of it with you to refer back to when you have to make quick decisions. Once you start browsing shops or the internet (late at night!) it stops you getting distracted and buying random things, only to find they don't really work together.

How to get started

First of all remember that there are no rules here - just some guidelines to help you. There is no right or wrong.

Think of it as telling your story. Think about your home, the holidays you’ve loved, fashion, your pets, favourite restaurants. What do you love? This all helps you work out your lifestyle and personal style. Don’t try to look for a definite style early on, let it come naturally. Find a stack of magazines and start ripping things out until you have a pile of images. There’s something nice about real things you can touch and feel, fabric swatches, wallpaper samples and paint. Request samples online from retailers - most provide them for free, including carpet and tiles. Look for anything you find inspiring. 

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If you’re feeling stuck try looking in your wardrobe for ideas. People are usually drawn towards a certain colour palette and you can see this in the clothes they wear. Colours, patterns and textures are all there in your wardrobe! 

You could also try brainstorming or searching certain keywords like Scandi, industrial, rattan, concrete, tropical, or navy to see what images come up.

For items you already own and want to keep, take a photo of them and print them out. It might sound odd as you already know what it looks like, but you want to see everything together, side by side. 

Next you need to start putting your collection together. A large piece of cardboard is ideal, but you could also use washi tape to add bits to the wall, or a cork board and pins - whatever you have to hand. Don’t worry if it’s messy and sprawling. It’s just ideas at this point, and you want it to be easy to swap things in and out. Don’t aim to be neat or perfect, keep it loose, rather than fixed down.

Try to find one thing you love to build the rest around, a hero image - it could be a wallpaper, a colour, a painting, furniture you already own. Think about what you love; is it the colour, the texture, the pattern, the style? Look to see if there is a colour palette you can pull from it, maybe 6 or so colours that you can narrow down later. Add things around this image, layer it, try a different colour alongside it - it might just surprise you. There’s no right or wrong at this stage, no commitment, just play around and experiment.

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Look for a common colour, texture or pattern coming through, a harmonious thread in your images. Is there one dominant colour, and an accent colour? Try to keep some elements that are original or unexpected. 

Now leave it somewhere you can see it and keep coming back to it. How do you feel about it? What are you drawn to? What seems to jar and not find a place?

Start to cull the images. Anything that’s unnecessary or not practical take it away. You might even end up removing the image you started with! Keep honing your ideas until you are happy. And make sure to get real samples of your final choices so you can feel the fabrics and textures, and make sure the colours are right in reality.

Now that you know your style, and you can see how your room can come to life, you should feel more confident about making choices for everything else for your room. It will help you minimise your mistakes - if it doesn’t work with the moodboard, it’s not right, even if you do like it! Money and time won’t be wasted further down the line. You’ll be able to have the clarity to make quicker decisions, knowing that you’re staying on style.

If you are unsure of your style, make use of our affordable design service to give you all the help you need. We are available to chat instantly on our website, so ask us a question! We’re a friendly bunch and we’d be happy to help.