How I use Canva to create mood boards
Whether you’re starting from scratch or just looking to freshen up an area of your home it can be hard to know where to start. Budget, space, and time are all key factors but once you have the practical things out of the way, how do you know where to go with your design?
Having a roadmap of how you want your home to feel is key. The best way to do this is to pull things like furniture, objects, art, paint color into one place that you can continually reference as you make decisions about your home. This is where Canva comes in. You can create organize design inspo or mood board picks and get a sense of how a space will come together. It’s not the best tool for mapping our floor plans or big reno projects but it’s great for seeing how existing pieces will mix with new ones. My favorite feature is the remove background button. Cutting out the background of an image has always been such a pain but a necessary evil because it makes for such a crisp and clean reference board - and now you can do it with zero photoshop skills.
The goal of the board is to create a design guide, sort of like pinning on Pinterest but instead of saving completed designs, you’re pulling in one piece at a time, new or existing. Having design guides for your unique space helps curb impulse purchasing and help you make smarter investments in your home. When you’re out shopping or on your phone or computer you can flip over to your reference board to see if the object fits your design goals and needs. Also if you frequent Facebook marketplace like me, a reference board helps you refine your search terms and get the creative juices flowing for furniture flips.
Here are a couple steps to get you started:
I opted for the paid subscription because I knew I’d be using Canva for a lot of different things but I don’t think it’s necessary if you’re only using it to create reference boards.
I use the presentation template for my boards and create one slide per project.
Start your board by pulling in one element that really inspires you or excites you. It could be a lamp, pillow, rug, art piece - anything that brings you joy.
Take a few days to create your board. It’s really helpful to come back with fresh eyes.
Download and save your slides in a few places, maybe your desktop, email, and camera roll so you can pull it out when you're shopping online or IRL.
Don’t be afraid to make it aspirational. This is the time to pull in those dream pieces because it can help you drill down into exactly what you love about them or how they support your overall design. A lot of times this helps you decide if you need that exact piece for if a less expensive alternative does the trick. This is also meant to be fun and guide you along the way, you don’t have to buy the exact everything or even anything you put on your board.