Mood Boards - we see them everywhere! If you are reading this and already reaching for the glue and glitter this will be right up your street! Or you may be thinking "what's the point?". Well I am here to tell you the importance of mood board s, how you can create them and how valuable they can be when preparing for your first refurb project.
Why should we consider Interior Design for our HMOs? The market is becoming more competitive, and landlords are looking to introduce quirky and unique interiors to make them stand out from the rest. This is how mood boards can come in to play: try downloading the app Pinterest on your phone and search for an interior style that you want to create in your properties. For example, take a look at Scandinavian. This style will include a clean colour palette with a lot of white and light woods with minimalistic design. As we know, HMOs need to be functional and practical but that doesn't mean they can't look amazing at the same time!
Where should you start?
Start collecting images that you like the look of and add them to your Pinterest Board. If you are out and see something you like the look of, take a photo of it and add it to your board. You will start to see a theme or a pattern come through: this will be your overall design. This may be in the form of a particular colour that starts to re-appear. For example in the image above this deep forest green was being repeated. So I decided that was going to be my main colour focus for feature walls and the colour behind choosing my soft furnishings like cushions and throws. There will also be some images in there that don't quite fit with the rest of the board which is fine. Move them to a new one and save them for your next HMO! That's the great part about Mood Boards: you can move them around and create a variety of mood boards for projects to come.
So how do we use these beautiful images and put them into practice in a mood board? By now you will have a cohesive palette of colours, prints and materials. For example in the board above I have got a repeat of white, dark green and brown. For materials I have light wood, black metal and tan coloured leather. For prints I have picked a palm print print which ties in nicely with the dark green colour. Pick out two or three of these colours and materials and focus on them. When choosing wall paints create a feature wall using the dark green colour, when searching for a sofa use a tan leather rather than a black leather. Have a look at Matalan's collection of black glass picture frames. Can you see what I am doing here? I'm referring back to these images to impact my decision process through the refurb.
Isn't this going to cost us a lot of money?
That's probably the biggest question I am faced with when I'm talking about interior design. And my answer is no, it doesn't have to. If you have a mood board and a clear theme, you have something to look to when choosing which Howden's kitchen design to go for or what colour pictures to buy on the wall. Buying one extra pot of dark green paint and maybe some funky palm print wallpaper is a small cost for the impact you will make in that space. Imagine walking into a communal space and seeing 4 magnolia walls and a black leather sofa with wooden dining set. Now imagine walking into that same space with one wall painted dark green, one wall covered in the palm print wallpaper, with a modern dining set in this light birch wood and a tan leather sofa. Add a few prints on the wall and a few faux plants and you have created an interesting, cool space that will speak to your target market.
Looking for some inspiration? Check out PPP's Pinterest board or my website.
