A mood board shouldn’t be a shopping list. It should be a small testing surface on which the room idea can be compared with reality before money is spent. This is especially important for people who are learning to do their own interiors, because while decor is easy to buy and easy to connect, it isn’t easy to keep in mind. It’s very easy to buy something that looks good on its own, such as a lamp, a cushion, a vase, a print, or a rug, but that doesn’t belong with the function, color, size, lighting and finishes of a specific room. So the mood board can help.
Start with a photo of the room itself, not only of other rooms in magazines or websites. The room photo will be important because it reminds you what your floor color, wall color and wall finish are, and reminds you where your windows and doors are and whether your existing furniture will be kept or replaced. Otherwise, your mood board can easily drift to another room entirely. An inspiration photo of another room can still be included, but you should treat it as a guide to what you want to be doing or where you want to be going, not a plan to follow piece for piece.
Then choose a palette of colors. The smaller the better. It can easily be a neutral, then one other color, maybe a third accent color for your first mood board. You can use real fabric and paint cards, or just take close-up photos of what you can find in stores. Colors can look different on a screen than they look when you see them next to your actual floor color. Some colors can be easy on one day and jarring the next. One color might be very warm and beige, another a cooler finish, and they can look very off when they are beside each other.
Put colors and materials or textures on the board. Look at finishes as well as colors: wood, metal, fabric, glass, ceramic, woven fibers or flooring samples can easily be put beside each other. Too many shiny or glossy things can feel too hard. Too many rough or heavy textures can make a room feel small or crowded. Too many of the same finish and the same color can look very monotonous. Usually a mix of smooth, soft, matte and lightly textured things can be very successful, but remember you also want a mood board that supports and relates to how a specific room is used.
Include furniture sizes, either on the board itself or as a note somewhere. If you don’t, the mood board is less likely to help you think about your space. Side tables can feel right for your decor, but not fit on or beside a sofa. A rug might feel right for your palette, but it doesn’t work because it is too small for the sitting room. A cabinet might look perfect in your finish, but not work where you want to put it because you need to get around it. Checking the scale can be very helpful and will prevent buying things that look right but don’t work because they are either too big or too small for your space.
Include lighting in your mood board. One beginner mistake is picking out colors and textures in a room without thinking about how these things will be seen in different types of lighting. If there is only natural light in the room, and the room is dark, the mood board can look great but things look different at night. If the sun is very strong in the room and you have shiny finishes, the mood board can look like it works well but when you see the reflection, it looks wrong. A mood board which looks at light will be more helpful for choosing decor than one that just looks at the pretty things in a room.
Finally, take out anything from your mood board that won’t solve a problem or move toward the look you are trying to reach. If you have included a photo of your room, a color palette, a few fabric or material samples, some furniture size information, some lighting references, and a direction of style or finish, that can be very helpful for making smaller decor purchases without too much uncertainty and guesswork. If you have done that work beforehand, you will not have to make mistakes because you will be able to tell why something does or doesn’t belong before you bring it home.