How to Make a Mood Board (Without Photoshop)

To be totally honest, I never really got the hype of mood boards. It seemed like they took way too long to learn how to make a mood board for not that much reward, but I can admit now I was wrong.

The problem is I’m an incredibly indecisive person so when I design a room, I often end up with either an unfinished space because I can’t decide how to fill it or I have a random combination of furniture and art that doesn’t really fit quite right.

Anyway, while coming up with a plan for our Airbnb design, I found this hack to make creating mood boards so much quicker and easier and it’s honestly a game changer. I feel like now I have the vibe figured out in my head, it’ll be so much easier to stay on track while I’m shopping for furniture and finishes, and I have this handy little image to go back to if I’m led astray by something trendy.

Here’s the trick: Background remover websites

The thing about creating mood boards is they look so much more finished and professional when you’ve got the backgrounds removed on all the items, or else you’ve just basically made a collage of photos. But, who wants to be spending hours removing the background in software like Photoshop? Not me.

So, first save all your items for a room design to your computer, and go to this website – remove.bg – and drag and drop each file in there one by one.

Then, like goddamn magic, it identifies the main part of the image and removes the rest into a handy little file you can download without all the junk in the back.

Next trick: Canva

If you don’t already have Canva, you’re sleeping. I use it for everything: creating pins, resumes, invitations, Instagram stories, mood boards, EVERYTHING.

It’s a design website that has a ton of templates, fonts, etc. and it’s my favourite price: free. (Note: There is a pro version with a lot more options for graphics and templates but I’ve only ever used the free one).

Anyway, open up a blank page (I use a blank Pinterest template because I like the vertical design), and upload all your background-removed images into the upload section in the left toolbar.

Then it’s as easy as dragging all your images onto the blank page and messing around with them until they look how you like them. You can select images and change their position to send them behind other images or to the front, like for example I always put rugs at the very back so the more prominent stuff is laid over it.

And then you’re done (and have probably only spent a fraction of the time you would’ve spent fiddling around with legit design software, which leaves a lot more time for online shopping for the actual things in your room!)

If you enjoyed this post about how to make a mood board, sign up to our newsletter where we share all of our favorite DIY updates.