How to Create A Mood Board (No Photoshop Required)

Way back when pre-blogging (circa 2014) I created my first mood board…and then my whole design and decor world opened up.  There is something so magical about seeing a space virtually with furniture, paint colors, and accents that is otherwise not possible without them. After showing a sweet friend of mine the ropes on how to create her very own I thought you all may be interested in how to build one too!  So, to share the love, I’ve decided to give you a step by step tutorial on how to create your own mood board so you can plan and decorate to your hearts desire!

Not photoshop savvy? No worries! This is a no-photoshop-required tutorial!

So, how do I create these without Photoshop or fancy tech skills? POLYVORE my friends is the answer! So first thing you’ll want to do is head over there and set up an account if you don’t already have one. No worries, it’s 100% FREE and I never get emails from them.

Once you’ve created your login – before we do anything else – you’re going to add a button to your browser called the ‘clipper’. This is the trickiest part of the whole tutorial (and psssst it’s not hard I promise). Click here and follow the instructions to drag and drop the button into your browser. Once you have completed that, this ‘P’ button should show up in your browser bar.

This is what you’ll use to ‘clip’ items you want to put on your mood board from other websites. More on that in a minute.

So now that that you have your account set up and the clipper button in your browser it’s time to get started!

Head to the home page and click on “create”.

This will bring you to a screen that looks like this.

This is where we are going to create our mood board and drag and drop our items. Using the search bar allows you to search via free text for anything you’d want to put on your board i.e.; couch will pull up all the couches available.

Using the search bar is a great option if you want to add an item to give an idea of the look you want to create without regard to price or availability. Many of the items that pull from the search bar are all over the place price point or overseas or even unavailable.  This is also a great option to add decor and accessories to your board like pillows, potted pants, or faux flowers.

But let’s say you have specific items in mind with regard to budget and look. To re-create your room on this board as close to possible as the real deal this is where the clipper is going to come in handy.

So for this demonstration I have my eye on a couch from Ikea.  I’m going to open an new tab and go to ikea.com and find the couch I’m looking for. Once I am on the page with the item (couch) I am going to hit that little ‘P’ on my task bar we added earlier.

Once you click that this image pops up. There you are offered an option of different options that the clipper button pulls from the site. Select the one you want and hit the ‘Like’ button. This will put the image in your list of items on your polyvore mood board page in the ‘my items’ tab.

Now you can simply drag that item onto your board.

 

Once highlighted there are a few things you can do! If this item had say a grey background and you wanted to remove it you would use those three little boxes on the side. This allows you to remove the background, keep it the same, or custom crop your image.  The buttons at the top allow you to clone the image, flip it(the couch would then rotate the other angle), or flop it (turns it upside down). A really important feature is the forwards/backwards button. Here’s how we to start to layer.

I added a rug to the board that I want to show underneath the couch. So I dragged and dropped the rug onto the board and placed it on the couch. Once it’s highlighted I simply hit the backwards button to place it behind to get the layered effect. Easy Peasy.

Now I’m just going to fill in the rest of my items on the board with a combination of using the search bar and the clipper.

The awesome part about this mood board is that all the images are clickable and will take you directly to their site to purchase.  By highlighting the item on the board I link will pop up. So you can literally ‘shop’ your mood board!

Now that we have our items in place we can jazz it up a bit. Under the ‘home’ tab you’ll find options to add text, colors, arrows, etc to your board.

So I used the text feature to name my board. Once I’m happy with the way it’s all looking I’m going to hit ‘Publish’. This saves our board! Hooray!

Want to promote your new board?! (of course you do) Use these buttons to share your board and/or email it to yourself.  Want to change anything after you publish? No problem! Simply go to your saved board under ‘sets’ and move things around as much as you like and then re-publish. Voila!

I’ve literally spent hundreds of hours creating these virtual spaces to better plan, budget, and visualize spaces in our home and for others. It’s been a proven method for us time and time again. I hope this was helpful for you and you’re ready to tackle your own mood board. I’d love to see what you create! Leave me a link to one your boards so I can come congratulate you!

Here’s a last look at how my mood board inspired my ORC Living Room.

Pretty spot on huh? Love when that happens! Have a great day friends!