How to Create Stunning Mood Boards and Flat Lays
Creating mood boards and flat lays are fun and effective ways to visualize a design project before bringing all the elements together in your home. Whether you’re designing a kitchen, laundry room, office, or mudroom, a mood board allows you to gather selections such as cabinetry, countertops, hardware, tile, wallpaper, paint colors, and more to see how they work together.
They’re also a great way to communicate your design vision and help your designer understand the look and feel you’re hoping to achieve.
Creating a Mood Board
A collage mood board is a collection of images, colors, materials, and inspiration that helps define your overall design style and direction. This could be created using Pinterest, Canva, a digital document, or even a good ole paper collage put together by photos you’ve gathered over time. Don’t overthink it at the beginning! Start by collecting things you naturally gravitate toward, eventually you should notice some patterns within the images you have saved. Your mood board is also a great tool to share with your designer. It helps convey what you’re looking for, even when you don’t quite have the words to describe your style.
Tips for Making a Flat Lay
A flat lay is a style of photography where objects are arranged on a flat service and shot from directly above. We often create flay lays in our showroom as it is a great way for us to challenge ourselves by selecting one main element and coming up with a palette that works with it. Start by selecting one main focal point, maybe it’s a fun wallpaper or a new cabinet finish that’s been released. The next step would be the gather support items that match the theme, countertops, tile, hardware, etc. After finalizing your selections head to a well-lit area, preferably with natural light, select a clean/neutral background and start layering your items. This is where you can get really creative, but there are a few best practices to make your photo feel balanced and pleasing to the eye:
- Leave empty negative space so the photo does not look cluttered
- Position your main item slightly off-center or use the rule of thirds for visual interest
- Mix large, dark, or heavy items with smaller, lighter pieces to balance the layout
- If you can, use materials that are different shapes and sizes to add variation in the image.
- Position your phone or camera completely parallel to the surface, looking straight down. Use a tripod or stand for stability
Most importantly, take your time and have fun with it! There’s no need to get everything right on the first try. Creating a mood board or flat lay is all about experimenting, playing with ideas, and discovering what feels right to you. It often takes some time to play around with samples, take a step back, do you like what you see and how does it make you feel? Great! If not, tweak your ideas and swap in and out other ideas, furniture, colors etc. until it works the way you want it to.
The goal isn’t simply to create something that looks good. It’s to create a space that feels like you!