How to create a room moodboard using Microsoft Word

Have you ever wanted to redecorate a room but not known where to start? If you answered yes to that question then hopefully after reading this post you will have a bit more of an idea. Moodboarding is a great way to visualise an idea and lots of fun too.

Here are 5 steps to help guide you through the moodboarding process:

Step 1 - Decide on a colour scheme

The best place to start is to look online at different colours and paint brands. I also search for the colour as a hashtag on Instagram to see the colour in real homes. For example #red03.

Another way to decide on a colour scheme is to base it on some artwork that is already in the room. This is what I decided to do for this room makeover. I added the print to Word then used the colour picker on Word for Mac and added the colours to shapes on the page. If you don’t have this feature on your Word you can use photoshop or a website like this one https://imagecolorpicker.com/ to pick the colours from an image.

Step 2 - Decide what items to keep in the room

Next step is to think about what furniture or decor you want to keep in the room (if any). For this room I had a few bits that I wanted to keep that fitted in with the new colour scheme. Take photos of these bits, these will come in handy for your mood board.

Step 3 - Get on Pinterest

Create a new board on Pinterest and get pinning. Search for everything: furniture, décor, artwork, bedding, lighting and extra bits until you are happy you have your vision. Here is a link to my Pinterest board for our latest project, the guest room.

Step 4 – Bring all your ideas together

Traditionally, this step is done by cutting out all your inspo and adding it to a physical board, but I haven't got time for that. What I like to do is very simple…open up a Word doc and add all your images to a page. I find this a really good way to be able to visualise everything together. I add the colours to the page and keep referring to them to make sure I am including a good balance of all the colours.

Here is an example of my moodboard for our guest room.

Step 5 - Make your moodboard a reality

So there we have it, a quick guide to room moodboarding. I hope you find this blog useful.

Thank you for reading.

Kath :)

Nature Inspired Master bedroom - Completed makeover

Let’s take a trip down memory lane to see where we started. This was the room just before we painted.

The end goal

To create a calming and relaxing space inspired by nature.

The paint

With nature in mind, green was the obvious choice but we needed a green that complimented our current furniture and doors as I didn’t want to replace any furniture just yet. We searched for a couple of months for the perfect green. Researching on pinterest and Instagram mainly looking for inspiration. Lick had come up on Instagram so thought I would order a sample of one of their light greens – green01. I was so impressed by Lick, from their paint sample accuracy to their customer service everything was great. Even their paint pots are beautiful and have actually found a permanent home on our bedroom shelf. The paint was so thick and went on really smoothly.

The Furniture

We kept all of our current furniture to keep costs down and it is only 2 years old. We have the Tarva chest of drawers and bedside tables. Have a look at this blog post on how we upcycled our Tarva units.

The bedding

This was a hot topic. I really wanted to have linen bedding but linen bedding is very expensive. We shopped around and did find some cheaper options that then I saw the khaki green bedding in La Redoute and nothing really compared to it. La Redoute do have sales quite often so I waited till there was 30% off when I ordered my set. I have to say, it is actually worth the price. The linen bed set is so luxurious and heavier than a normal duvet cover. So, I think linen is worth the investment.

Here are some options we looked at when I was researching nature inspired bedding. I found linen and non-linen options:

I needed another set but after spending a small fortune on linen I didn’t want to go crazy on the second bedding set. So I decided to dye old bedding. Have a look at this blog post about dying bedding to avoid the mistakes I made.

Ps sorry if my lack of ironing offends you. I ain't got time for ironing.

The Lighting

We kept our concrete block bedside lamps because I felt they still fitted the vibe being a natural material. But we needed a new lampshade. I knew which one I wanted, the SINNERLIG. Let me give you a word of warning if you are thinking about purchasing it though, it is huge! Lovely, but huge. So it is very much a feature of our bedroom now.

The Scent

We don't really light candles in the house so our diffuser is a great way to add scents to our home. We have a rainforest fragrance oil which is a great addition to our nature inspired bedroom.

The extra bits

I loved researching the decor for our nature inspired bedroom and I'm really happy with all the extra bits we have for this room.

Here are links to some of the new bits I bought:

• Ring tray from Louis Hall ceramics

• Tree branch hooks from Charm wood shop on Esty

• Observer books from ebay

• Dressing gowns from The White Company (check for discount codes before you purchase)

• Plants from Lidl

We are so happy with the end result, now I just need to make some cushions to finish it all off. Watch this space.

How to dye your bedding...and learn from my mistakes

We've recently redecorated our bedroom and I needed a new duvet cover. After spending a small fortune on a linen bed set there wasn't much of a budget for a second bed set. I then decided to try and dye an old bed set to match the new colour scheme.

It has taken me a few attempts to get the bedding right so thought I would share my mistakes that I made so hopefully you won’t make them too.

The dye

There are a few dye makes out there but for this project I used the Dylon washing machine dye in olive green. As the bedding is so big it was the easiest way for me to ensure all the bedding got dyed as I didn’t have a big enough bucket to use the sachets of dye I would normally use.

The bedding

Before you dye it’s really important to look at what your bedding set is made up of. If your bedding is 100% cotton you should be fine with the Dylon dye. If your bedding is made up of polyester and cotton then you could try using a synthetic dye. I haven't tried this before and Dylon don’t seem to have that type of dye but Rit have a range of colours to choose from that will dye that type of material.

The mistakes

The first mistake I made was trying to dye polyester and cotton fabric with normal dye. This kinda worked but turned the bedding a very light green. Which was nice but a little too similar to our walls and definitely not olive green.

Here we have the 52% Polyester and 48% Cotton bedding set in the olive green.

Here is a comparison of the 3 types of pillow cases. The higher the cotton % the darker the colour.

Top tip: find out what materials you are working with before you dye

I then dug out an old brushed cotton white bedding set which was 100% cotton.

Here comes the second mistake. I’m not even sure how it happened but the bedding came out really patchy. I think this was because before dying the first bedding set I soaked the bedding in the bath in water. For the second one I just put the duvet in a quick 15 minute spin. I’m wondering if this didn’t evenly wet the bedding because when I tried to dye this bedding it was very patchy and some bits were even navy coloured.

Top tip: make sure the entire bedding set is wet before putting it in the washing machine

I resolved this by re-dying the bedding and it has corrected the errors. You can still see a few patches but as we always say, it’s adds character. Dying it twice actually made the colour deeper too so would recommend dying a second time if you aren't happy with the colour after the first dye.

Top tip: Be prepared to by dye the bedding twice

Hope this had been useful :).

Kath