In this post I’m walking you through how to create a design plan for your home. From where to gather inspiration, to using Canva to create a design mood board, I’m giving you the step by steps of my design planning process. I’m also sharing my plans for my grandmillennial bedroom makeover.
Have you ever wanted to makeover a room, and couldn’t figure out where to start? Or maybe you have some ideas, but get stuck along the way. Having a mood board can prove helpful for creating a plan for the room and keeping you on track.
But how do you create a mood board? Well, first you need to start with inspiration.
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Gather inspiration
The easiest way to start gathering ideas for your space is to turn to Pinterest. There is so much content from professional designers, bloggers, and home decor magazines right at your fingertips.
If you have an idea of the style you are going for, start by searching that. For instance, I want to makeover my bedroom and I know I want it to be grandmillennial style. So I would start by searching that.
Don’t feel you have to limit yourself to just the type of room you are designing. If you look at my Bedroom Plans board, you’ll see bedrooms but also living and dining rooms. It’s about taking elements you enjoy, so if a dining room has chairs in a color you love, pin it! My actual first inspiration for my bedroom came from a couple of unlikely sources – a hotel room (The Graduate Nashville) and a movie (Emma).
Along with Pinterest, I love the save feature on Instagram and how you can categorize everything into folders. For this I either save photos that I love from people I follow or look through hashtags related to what I’m looking for. It may take a bit more time to find inspiration on Instagram because the search feature isn’t quite as advanced as Pinterest, but it’s still worth a try.
Don’t forget about non-digital sources! I love perusing design coffee table books and magazines for inspiration as well.
Start making your mood board
After you’ve gathered inspiration, it’s time to start forming your mood board. Don’t feel like you have to get it perfect the first time. Part of the fun of a mood board is trying out different items before you have a set plan.
I like to use Canva to create mood boards and collages. I know others like to use PowerPoint or Google Slides. The main takeaway is just to have a blank canvas that you can layer photos on.
With Canva I always start with a blank template. If you are making a mood board collage you can use a vertical or horizontal template. However, if you want this to be more of a room mock-up use a horizontal template.
Canva is free but I use the paid Canva pro version because I use it a lot for blogging. One of the nice features of the paid version is the background remover tool. However, this isn’t totally necessary, and you can still get an idea of the look you are going for without it. In this case I would recommend cropping your images as close as possible so there are not a lot of unnecessary backgrounds in your images.
Collect screenshots of furniture, fabrics, accessories, really anything you plan to add to the room. If you have items already that you want to keep, look for similar items online to help you envision your pieces with the new items. You could even take a photo of the piece yourself, and upload it into your design mood board! You don’t have to find a full rooms worth of furniture and accessories. Just enough to really get a feel for the look you want in your room.
When it comes to creating a design mood board, have fun! Think of it like making a collage. Look for colors and patterns that you like and see what looks good together! If something doesn’t work, delete it and find another option!
Here is the mood board I have to get started on redesigning my bedroom.
Coral Pillow | Floral Pillow | Blue and White Floral Sheet Set | Ginger Jar | Rattan Tray | Navy Chair (set of 2) | Rug
I already have the rug and the sheets that I’ve placed on this design board. I also have a similar rattan tray and lots of ginger jars. The pillows are splurge items and more there to bring in the blush and coral tones that I would like to incorporate more of with all of the blue. I have most of the furniture already for the space, but I do need a desk chair. I like the navy option so I plan to purchase it, or something similar to it.
Here you can see my mood board is a somewhat tentative plan but it helps me know what direction to go in. I know I want the room to have a grandmillennial style with chintz prints and chinoiserie items. I know I want the color scheme to be blue, white, blush, and coral. Also, I know I want my bed and workspace (my desk) to be priorities for this room.
As I mentioned, creating a mood board should be fun! Take this time to really get creative and maybe you’ll surprise yourself with your design plan!
Let me know if you have any design questions. I’d be happy to help!
