Mood boards are an essential part of the design process. They give both the client and designer a visual presentation of how the final design will look. The mood board is intended to give the client a sense of what furniture and decor items work together and what don’t, the colour scheme that best expresses the mood, and how the whole room will come together to give the most cohesive design.
Here at G.S. Studios, we love putting together client mood boards that speak to our creativity and imagination of what your space could become. Want to know the behind the scenes of how we create your mood boards? Let’s take a look!
The first step we take is getting to know the client we are designing for. This is arguably the most important step. Everyone has their own unique design style, wants and needs, and it is our job, as the designers, to pull all of these factors together in order to create the best possible design for our client. Having an indepth chat with our client at the very beginning of the design process gives us an idea of what items we need to include, what colours they like and dislike, what elements we need to include for functionality, and which areas the client is open to having us add in our unique creative input.
First off we start with sourcing the big pieces that will set the tone for our mood board; the furniture and/or cabinetry. Many times the client will have existing furniture pieces they want to include into their space, such as antique furniture, items with sentimental value, or functional pieces that they use daily. We love being able to incorporate existing furniture pieces that are near and dear to our clients heart with new pieces that we carefully hand select for the space. The furniture we source will come from some of our favourite retailers such as Rove Concepts, Crate and Barrel, CB2, and Urban Barn (just to name a few). We also love being introduced to new retailers and are happy to source from our clients requested stores to make sure they are getting exactly what they want.
Once we have selected all of the base furniture pieces and major finishes, we then layer in other elements to start building our mood board. It is important to showcase the dominant items in the room, such as the flooring, large furniture pieces, and paint. These will have a major impact on the room so they should play a large part in the mood board. Placing the items in the general locations that they will be in the space helps to visualize; such as the flooring on the bottom of the board, the paint swatch near the middle or top, and the furniture laid out in the orientation they will be in. Once these major items are placed, we add in the accent pieces such as smaller furniture pieces and decor, drapery, lamps, throw pillows, and area rugs.
It is important to understand the science behind putting all the pieces together in a mood board. There are design principles such as contrast, balance, proportion, colour, and scale that must be considered. Contrast and balance can be created through placing a dark toned item beside a light toned item, or a bright colourful item beside a neutral item. Proportion and scale come in to play when placing a throw pillow on a sofa, or a dining chair beside a dining table. It is important to make sure that the throw pillow is the correct scale on the sofa as it would be in real life, or that the dining chair is correctly proportioned to the dining table. The principle of colour is where you will see complimentary and analogous colour schemes introduced. Complimentary colours are hues that are opposite each other on the colour wheel so, when used together, they appear very lively and vibrant. Analogous colour schemes are hues that are beside each other on the wheel, so they will always look good together because they have the same background tone. Using these design principles in a thoughtful way will be sure to create pops of visual interest throughout the entire mood board.
We are passionate about bringing our clients design dreams to life, and mood boards are one of our favourite ways to do this. Whether you’re interested in a whole house mood board or a one-room mood board, we are excited to work alongside you and create the perfect visual for your future space.
Contact us now to get started!