How to create a free mood board (with clickable product images). Learn how to create a DIGITAL interior design mood board using free online tools that will also allow you to link to the products you’ve found.
We’re currently in the build stage of our forever home renovation project and originally had a spreadsheet with links to products/paints plus a visual moodboard, but I found it annoying that I didn’t know which pictures correlated with the actual product…until I discovered a way to combine both!
Previously I’ve shared 5 Steps to Define Your Home Style to help if you’re struggling to move forward with a style in your own home. I’d recommend reading this first as it’ll help you to create a harmonious scheme on your mood board that truly reflects YOU. That way you’ll know what colour tones and style of products and images you’re searching for.
If you’re embarking on a design journey, whether it be a simple one-room redecoration or full scale remodel, I’m going to tell you how I’ve created mood boards for our forever home renovation project and show you the steps needed to link each image – for free!
You could of course apply this to fashion, life or wedding mood boards too.
Why create a mood board?
You may think that mood boards are just for professionals, but it’s so helpful for anyone embarking on a design journey no matter how big or small. They house all the elements in one place, allowing you to create a scheme that’s balanced, harmonious and reflective of the look you want to achieve.
Things to include could be paint colours, flooring, panelling or other wall detailing, lighting, furniture, soft furnishings, rugs, artwork and accessories such as vases, faux flowers, ornaments, trays and candles. My own homeware collection of unique timeless pieces could be included too!
Personally, I’ve been creating digital mood boards for our house first then once I’m happy with it, pulling physical boards together using fabric samples, flooring pieces, paint swatches and small accessories to get a better sense of the tones and textures together.
Point to note: mood boards don’t account for spacial planning. You’d need a to-scale floor plan for this.
Preparation
Before getting into How to Create a Free Moodboard (with clickable product images!) you’ll need to do some preparation:
- Gather inspiration for your space. Reading 5 Steps to Define Your Home Style gives advice on how to do this such as using Pinterest and spotting a trend to help define your style to know what to search for.
- Save images on your PC (I created a folder on my desktop). You can download images directly from Pinterest by clicking the three dots then ‘download’, right clicking and saving from images online, or taking a screenshot (on my MacBook it’s shift, command, 4). Think about paint colour and flooring as well as furniture.
- Have your product web pages open so you’re ready to copy the weblinks
How to Create Your Mood Board
I discovered that by using a Google Slides Presentation you can have a slide per room AND create clickable images to product pages.
- Open drive.google.com, New File, Google Slides
- Start adding images by selecting Insert, Image, Upload from Computer. You can crop the images and arrange the order (i.e. for flooring you’d want to ‘Send to Back’) by selecting Arrange, Order.
- Next is the bit that excited me the most because it removed the need for a separate products website… linking to the products I want to consider buying. You can do this by clicking on the image, then Insert, Link and pasting the URL.
Here are some mood boards I’ve created for our home:
I hope this has inspired you to give your own moodboards a go!
If you’re interested in seeing these moodboards come to life you can follow our renovation journey by signing up to become an OSK Insider here on ohsokel.com or by following @ohsokel on Instagram.
Until next time,
Kel