In celebration of the launch of her new book "Decorate" Holly Becker of the blog Decor8 is giving a series of workshops at Anthropologie on how to create a mood board. While pinterest and similar sites lead many of us to work solely online when seeking out inspiration, her explanation on how and why you would want to create a traditional mood board had me happily clipping images from my stash of magazines once I got back home.
According to Holly, your mood board should serve as a source of inspiration, having everything in front of you helps you to find common elements and develop a sense of your personal style. Creating mood boards is a good way to "train your eye".
A few of her tips:
1. Be your own client. What is your budget and how do you need the room to function? Be honest.
2. Gather inspiration. Get a binder and pull images you like from magazines. Create tags so you remember what you liked about it. Paint chips and fabric swatches are good to work from to.
3. Evaluate your budget. Figure out what is most important for you to spend on and where you can save.
4. Draw a floor plan. Put in doorways and windows so you can figure out how things fit into the room.
Once you've assembled some clippings, pick something to serve as your jumping off point and set the tone for the room. Once you get going a theme will usually start to emerge.
After you've completed your board it can be useful to make a mini book to take shopping with swatches and measurements that you can refer back to.
Images: Kim Lucian