Saturday, December 17, 2011
Using a mood board can help you help inspire you to reinventing your home’s interiors, writes Kya deLongchamps
WE’RE teetering on the brink of the year’s end, so what’s in store for your home for 2012? With the economy still in flux, it’s easy to become utterly discouraged at throwing time, energy and money at a property, but realising any dream has to start somewhere. In terms of interior design, a mood board provides a practical and inspirational way to sort and archive your ideas.
Even where the funds, or even the space is not yet available to take action on one room or an entire extension, visualisation left on show will not only keep the dream alive but can subconsciously propel you forward towards what you want.
You can find colours, shapes, designers and entire lifestyle schemes from the huge pool of free and inexpensive resources all around you. What better time to quietly distil your own high personal plans for future improvements? Starting with a board limits expensive mistakes by keeping your aspirational canvas firmly in the planning stages before you invest real money in materials and labour.
THE BOARD
You need something big enough to take lots of samples, from paper ephemera to paint splotches, but light enough to carry around from room to room (more of that later), so consider something at least A3 in heavy card-stock or a wipe board. The best way to assemble a mood-board is using horizontal layers that correspond roughly to the levels in the room, from the flooring, through the furnishings, with window treatments, lighting and accessories moving up the board, so we need something square or politely rectangular.
A glue-stick, double-sided tape, or even poster putty is fine for sticking things to the board, and keep in mind you may be moving the components around as your ideas ebb, flow and develop. The only other thing you need is a folder to keep your gathered material in, and perhaps an old ice-cream carton or something for paint sample pots or anything larger. A digital camera is useful, as you can snap not only things you see, but things you already own can be photographed and turned into images with contributing shapes and colours to add to the board.
HUNTER GATHERER
It’s time to release your inner magpie. If you find yourself drawn to the colours in anything from a favourite painting to an old rug with a compelling grouping of shade and textures, this may be the place to start. We all have a very individual eye, so whereas a whole room put together in a magazine may contribute to your fantasy, don’t ignore your response to things closer to home.
If it’s a large item or an illustration fastened into a book, try photographing it and getting the colours as close to life as possible on your PC, before printing it out in a manageable image size. If there’s a pattern, think about scale in relation to the other items on the board. Room sets, or what are termed ‘lifestyle images’ in print, online and in catalogues, can short-circuit the aesthetic safari, offering classic combinations of colours and accessories. Again, tear or photograph and print them out, keeping a copy in your folder.
There may be one thing you can build the room around, or you may be in for a more leisurely wander over weeks and even months putting together a stage all your own. Most fabric and wallpaper merchants are delighted to provide a small snip of material, and if you want a larger area of paint colour to consider, pick up a sample pot rather than squinting at a small tablet on a colour card. Online sample colours can vary according to your PC monitor, so go for real renditions rather than electronic ones where possible.
ASSEMBLING THE DREAM
Before lashing anything into place, take some of your chosen materials and using the layering technique or floor to ceiling, lay them out on a large table. Move them around. Accessory colours, such as cushions, lamps, metallics, etc., can be scattered around the collection more loosely. If there’s something that’s going to take up a lot of visual real-estate in the room, such as wall colour or a sofa fabric, physically take it to the space and consider it in the light throw on it at different times of the day. Fabrics and paint can react in surprisingly lively ways to a room’s colour temperature.
The quantity of colour one thing delivers will count to the overall finish, so we’ll put more area of sample on the board if there’s going to be more of it in the room to see how things balance. Print furniture out to a relative size to the other key ingredients using a photocopier to get the scale right. If you’re going with one wall colour, just paint the entire mood-board with the tester pot, otherwise split the board into proportionate areas to say take in a feature wall too.
Once you’ve fixed everything onto the board, you can take it to the room and leave it in place to catch daylight and artificial light over the course of the days, while your dreams percolate over the sherry and Christmas pudding. You may be pleased or disappointed, and if there may be still more diminutive lifting and shifting to do, but guess what? You haven’t spent more than a few euros and the promise of a whole New Year lies ahead to get it completely fabulous.
DIY TIPS
Make your own jam-jar snow globes for festive season
With the children climbing the walls on their school holidays, defuse the tension with this family craft project to make your own snow globes out of old jars. Ensure the jars are watertight! A collection in different sizes will look wonderful backlit by a lamp or on a windowsill.
WHAT YOU NEED:
Some medium to large wide mouthed glass jars with screw lids
Distilled water (ask the local chemist)
A drop of glycerine (no more, it’s just to slow the glitter)
Clear drying epoxy crafting style glue
Some seasonal plastic figures used for cake decorations, trees, houses, snowmen etc. Metal ones will rust
Packets of glitter
A little enamel paint
1 Cover the table before you start as this can be messy.
2 Paint the outside of the lids white, red or green to keep in the Christmas theme. Allow to dry.
3 Give the inside of the lid a little sand with paper or an emery board for a ‘key’ .
4 Using your epoxy glue fix the figures onto inside face of the lid.
5 Fill the jar with distilled water and add a drop of glycerine.
6 Pour in some glitter.
7 Screw on the lid and invert. Check for leaks.
Q&A
Q. Is there any computer planning tool I can use to virtually move my furniture around on a plan before actually lifting and shifting it in real life?
A. The one I would recommend for starters would be Arrange-A-Room, provided by Better Homes & Gardens (BHG). It allows you to pick a room size close to your own, and choose from a huge gallery of furniture and accessories. Ensure you duck the email updates if you don’t want them by clicking on the form. www.bhg.com/decorating/arrange-a-room.
Q. Can I design my own extension using PC software?
A. Well, you can start, but I would suggest using any computer aided design (CAD) as an introduction to working with your architect. Their software will be more sophisticated and their ideas based on professional experience. For sketching out your thoughts try www.floorplanner.com for a free introductory tool.
Q. I’m having trouble selecting the right colour for my dining room walls. I have a rug I want to take a scheme from. Ideas?
A Try Dulux’s Colour Click. Order a ‘frame’ online, place it over an area of the rug and take a digital image including the whole frame. Upload it and the team at Dulux will suggest the closest matches from their ranges. http://www.dulux.co.uk/colours/colourclick
Have a wonderful Christmas — Kya.
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