What is a moodboard? Meaning and examples

A moodboard is a board with images, colours, materials and products that together show how a room should feel. For your home, you make one before you buy or paint anything. That way you see if everything goes together.

What moodboard means

The word is simple: the mood of a room, shown on a board. Designers, photographers and fashion brands use moodboards to show an idea before it is made. It works the same way for your home. You put your choices side by side and check if they work together.

A moodboard does not show a layout. Where the sofa goes, you draw on a floor plan. The moodboard shows which sofa it will be, in which colour, next to which rug and in front of which wall.

What goes on an interior moodboard

• Photos of rooms you like, and a photo of your own room as it is now.
• Three or four colours: for the walls, for the large furniture and for small accents. With a RAL colour or the code from a paint chart, everyone knows which shade you mean.
• Materials, such as wood, linen, wool, stone and metal. A photo of a fabric or a type of wood often says more than a whole room.
• Products you are thinking about, such as the sofa, the lamp and the rug, with the shop and the price.
• A few words for the feeling, for example calm, warm and light.

Keep it to ten or twelve things. With more, the board gets busy and you no longer see what sets the mood.

What you use a moodboard for

Making choices

Furnishing a room means making a lot of separate choices. On a moodboard you see them side by side. You notice before you buy that the green sofa does not go with the red rug you already have. Anything that does not fit your words for the feeling comes off the board.

Showing others

Your partner, your builder, your painter or a stylist sees what you mean at a glance. That saves explaining. It also stops the painter from choosing a different white from the one you had in mind.

Keeping track of your budget

Put your products on the board with their prices, and you know what the room will cost before you order anything. If it is too much, swap a product for a cheaper one and see straight away if the mood stays the same.

Digital or on paper

You make a paper moodboard with photos from magazines, paint charts and samples on a piece of card. The benefit is that you can feel the materials. You put a piece of fabric next to a tile and see the real difference in colour.

A digital moodboard is easier to change and share. You move a product without cutting anything, you send a link to your builder and the prices add up on their own. On Interiorboards you paste the link to a product from an online shop. The photo, name and price appear on the board, and the total is shown below it. You can make 3 boards for free.

Many people do both: samples on the table, the board online. To find the online tool that suits you, read six moodboard tools compared.

Interior moodboard examples

These four boards are on Interiorboards. Open them, see which products are on them, and copy them to your own account to change them.

Hotel chic

Hotel Chique is a living room in beige and dark wood. It has a sofa in soft fabric, a round coffee table, a wooden pendant light and a golden yellow pouffe. On the right is a strip with four colours and types of wood. That way you see the palette apart from the furniture.

Luxury Japandi living room

Luxe Japandi Living is mostly about materials: fabric, leather, fur and two large blocks of light grey and dark wood. The furniture is simple, with a light corduroy corner sofa and a black wooden chair. At the top, the feeling is put into words: calm and serenity.

Elegant living room

Woonkamer Elegant was made for one family's living room. Each product has its brand and name, so everyone knows what to buy. Everything is light in colour: a light sofa, a marble side table, a sheepskin and cushions in pink and taupe.

Boho chic

Boho Chique keeps the boho style calm. The board has sandy tones, a stool in rough wood, vases with round shapes and a cushion in rust brown. Two samples of woven wall covering, in brown and blue-grey, give the warmth that goes with boho.

You find more examples by colour, room and style under moodboard ideas, such as boards for the living room and in Japandi style.

Make your own moodboard

Start with one room and three words for the feeling. Collect images, choose three or four colours and add the products. If you do not know yet which style you want, look at the examples by style first.