Interior designers use design boards to show clients what items will go into spaces, depicting ideas and what they can expect. You can use the same technique to design a bedroom you love and enjoy spending time in.
What is a design board? A design board includes all key design elements for your final bedroom design. It isn’t an inspiration board because the items you stick to it have been decided. They are items you will use.
The usefulness of design boards is they bring clarity and organisation to interior design, filtering out the maybes and the yeses. This article will reveal how to create a design board for your bedroom in five easy steps. Let’s jump in!
* Rattan Light * IKEA BED * Rabbit * Hanging Plant * Sun Burst Clock * Fox Art Work * Ladder Bookcase * Fox Wallpaper * *Orange Clock * Rattan Basket * Wall Hanging * Wooden Desk * Fox Light * Hanging Bulb Light * Animal Duvet
Step 1 – Decide on digital or print
You can create a design board by printing out images and sticking them to a board or by doing it all in software. Both formats have their place; digital boards are easier to make and can be printed anyway, so we’d go down that route.
Here are some tools you can use:
- NET (free)
- PowerPoint
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Picasa
If you go down the physical design board route, you’ll need an A3 board at least, and A2 is better. We like cork noticeboards because they are recyclable, and you can move pictures on the board with a pin, but you could use cardboard and glue.
Step 2 – Decide on a format
There are three ways to make a design board:
- Curate design elements and stick them anywhere, leaving order and placement to your imagination.
- Curate design elements to replicate your bedroom, so the size and layout of your bedroom are depicted on the board.
The first format is the easiest since you don’t need to worry about replicating your bedroom layout. However, the second format is better because it provides a better visual idea of your new bedroom design.
We recommend the second format because you can put your double bed or king-size bed where it lives and build elements around it.
Step 3 – Get images
You’ll need lots of high-quality images for your board. Ideally, images should be a high resolution to ensure good visual impact.
Here are the best image sources for interior design:
- Google Images – home to billions of pictures that you can download easily
- Pinterest – an incredible platform for finding images of anything
- Instagram – save or screenshot images of products you love
- Retailer websites – save images of the products you’re going to buy
- Magazines – take photos of products in magazines or cut them out
- Any image on your computer that can’t be saved or is in a strange format – use a snipping tool to snip the image and save it to your desktop
You might also need to edit image size and rotation. Most smartphone and computer photo gallery apps (such as Google Photos and Microsoft Photos) let you do this in the gallery. If you need more features on a computer, we recommend Paint.NET.
Step 4 – Make your design board
Once you start saving images, you can stick them to your board. Only use the best pictures you have of the items you’ll use in your bedroom.
As you make your board, you may find that some of the best ideas in your head don’t work all that well in real life. Don’t be afraid to move things around and substitute products available in different colours to make things work.
Step 5 – Save your board and action it!
Save your bedroom design board in a few places on your computer (or better yet, in the cloud), so you always have it. If you’ve made a physical design board, store it somewhere safe and take a photo of it so that you can view it anywhere.
The most exciting stage is actioning your bedroom design board – in other words, buying things and bringing all your best ideas to life!
Designing a bedroom you love is easy with a design board as your guide, but make sure you compare product prices to stay on budget.
How did you get on?
Let us know by commenting below!