My March Mood Board – Moody Mood Board

There is some exciting news to share today. I have teamed up with at{mine}, the online community for home and design lovers, where members do the sharing. If you are interested in seeing how they live, where the products are from they buy and love a well designed digital platform, you should join us straight away.

I have just signed up myself (you can follow me here if you fancy seeing a bunch of mood boards I have created so far) and guess what category we have initiated? Well, right, MOOD BOARDS, perfect for today’s moody mood board.

During the upcoming three months, I will share a different mood board topic on their platform with tips&tricks explaining how I create them and the different techniques I use during the process of gaining clarity.

And you can win today the online course I have produced on How To Create A Well Structured Mood Board. Please read the conditions at the end of the post. Don’t miss out, it comes with a couple of extra bonus!

Today we are kicking off with a common request on the platform. It’s all about this moody mood board to kick-off.

How do I get right the popular moody look&feel in a bedroom?

The first question probably is: what colors to use and how to avoid a rather dark and uninviting atmosphere. After all, the bedroom is one of the main spaces in our home that should give us comfort.

This is my ‘system’ when I want to gain clarity:

1// Keyword Research – The Analysis

I first note down my keywords thinking about what I want to express, the outcome I want to achieve, the general look&feel. In a second step, I translate those keywords into materials. My keywords here have been:

Bedroom makeover, moody blue walls, warm wood, grey fabrics, pops of brass, cozy atmosphere, plants, elegance, tone-on-tone palette, uncluttered space.

2// Gathering of Materials – The Quantity Process or Creative Chaos

The more, the better! It’s not about filtering yet. I call it a Creative Chaos. Books, images I have pinned and printed, accessories for metal colors, color chips, fabric swatches, wood samples. It’s a quantity process of the beginning. It’s about gathering many elements but without selecting much. However, all these materials are already a direct translation of my keywords and therefore have gone through a certain filter.

3// Filtering – The Quality Process

Now, let’s get hands-on with our final selective process.  Mood boards when cluttered, often lose their communicative power. To prevent unnecessary elements, here go a few techniques:

A// Double images or materials

Do I need all the images I printed? Is the book of any use still? Out of the six fabric colors, how many do I really need? If I feel, this is already covered, it goes out.

B// Focus or weight

I am putting now all elements together starting from the center. Is there an image I want to focus on? A focus can be enhanced by a) the size of the image or b) a color chosen (imagine for a moment a pic with red shades on the board).

My focus was on the largest image I have added at the end though it’s very balanced in between all the other elements. It doesn’t show up in my first photograph but I thought I needed something that would stand out and talk colors. So I got an image from Hans Blomquist‘s book In Detail which I highly recommend if you search for some moody inspiration.

C// Overlapping

I have been overlapping fabrics and wallpaper, color chips and wood samples to create depth and interest. Plants are talking about that vivid extra touch I absolutely want to have in a mood bedroom.

And there are a couple of other techniques but I really want to leave some room for the two upcoming posts on April, 01 and May, 02.

And this is the end result:

Images via TFAD Architects | Hotel Henriette | Hans Blomquist | Gubi | Sanna Tranlöv . Wood samples: BOEN | Color chips: Jotun

Combining warmer elements with your darker wall color, helps clearly to make your bedroom look restful and comfy. I would go for a white ceiling, walnut flooring and pops of clearer colors on your frames, cushions, lighting. I feel grey bed linen would look gorgeous here as well brass elements such as a vase, planter, light shade or candle holders.

NOW: We have a lovely treat for you if you got curious about mood board techniques. You can win an ecourse where I explain much more during 20 clips. And I have a BONUS for you I have not given so far!

• All you have to do is participate in the March #StyleAtMine Challenge by contributing your own mood board to the new at{mine} mood board category. There is no defined topic – you can pick any. We want you to have FUN!

• The winning mood board contribution to the challenge will receive an ecourse (courtesy of at{mine}, without expiry date) AND (drum roll!) a personal written one-on-one tips&tricks assessment on the winning mood board given by me. Since we can’t get together in an on-site workshop, I’d like to share a few tips with you, and we thought this extra bonus would be pretty special.

• The winner of #StyleAtMine challenge will be announced on the 31^st of March. The written tips&tricks report will be sent by me one week later on April, 07 per email.

If you weren’t lucky this time, please stay tuned, we have more surprises for you to come on April, 1st and May 2nd.

UPDATE: Have you seen that we are now on Instagram with a new account of the Mood Board Academy? I am sharing mood board techniques, impressions from our masterclass in Barcelona, and student work.