How to Create A Design Concept

So you’re ready to start designing your room, but you’re unsure what to start.

The first step to any interior design project is to come up with a design concept. A design concept is a central idea that will tie your project together – it can take the form a color story, a theme, a particular material you want to champion, even a feeling you want to create.

No matter what this central idea is, it will run through your entire project – from the colors you choose to the furniture, upholstery, and other design elements.

The design concept will serve as your touch-point throughout your project, keeping you from getting side-tracked from your vision for the room. 

How do I create a design concept?

There are usually two ways of creating a design concept:

• A physical mood board

• A virtual design board, using an online tool like Pintrest

The first step to creating a design concept is to decide on your central idea. Here are a few thoughts you can consider:

• Colour: Is there a color-story that you particularly like? There are usually two main colors in any color-story – the primary and secondary ones, with accenting colors. Some popular color themes include black and white, white, greys, and a combination of blues.

• Style: This is a general theme that ties together all the elements in your room. Some classic styles that you can consider are rustic, coastal, French country, and industrial.

• Pattern: Similar to a color-story, if there’s a particular wallpaper or fabric pattern that has caught your eye, you can design your room to emphasize and highlight that patten. One way to do it is to stay away from patterns with the rest of the room, so your chosen pattern is the focus.

I know what my central idea should be. What should I do next?

Once you have an idea of what you will be centering your design around, you can get started on creating a mood board or a design board.

The mood board allows you to keep all your ideas together in a single place, serving as a reference point as you plan your design. It also allows you to see how your ideas work when combined in a single space – whether they go together harmoniously, or whether there’s something that you need to change. 

Essentially, a mood board allows you to spend time on your project without potentially wasting your budget on items that may not end up working well together, or that you may end up changing your mind on.

There are two common and easy ways to create a mood board:

1.     Physical Mood Board: When creating a physical mood board, start with a cork or foam board for ease of pinning samples. Collect photo inspirations, fabric samples, tile samples, paint swatches – everything that you think you will need. 

Make sure that you only add items you love to prevent your board from becoming overcrowded. You should also arrange samples in terms of their relationship with each other – a wallpaper sample would be placed beside a paint swatch for the walls, for example. Once you’ve finished arranging your board, you can take a photograph for permanent record and make it easy to refer back.

Physical mood boards have the advantage of being able to include item samples, not just images.

2.     Pintrest Mood Board: Pintrest is the easiest way to create an online mood board because of how easy it is to access and use. It allows you to easily access and play with images to create a design concept. 

Start by looking for elements that you know you plan on having in your room – do you want your sofa to be a particular color, for example? Try and find furniture images with a plain white background so that you’re not distracted by the way the rest of the room is staged. 

You should also include other elements like windows, flooring, tiling, and anything else that would go into your room. Pintrest’s biggest advantage is how easy and convenient it is to use – you can access and edit your mood board at any time and anywhere, and do so easily, without having to physically collect images and materials. 

 Once you have your mood board prepared and are happy with it, you are ready to start working on your room!