How to Create a Digital Design Board (for free!)

Have you ever wondered how to make a digital design board for a project?

Well maybe I should back up.

Have you ever used an inspiration board? Not just for decorating a room or designing a makeover. A design board can be used to plan a party, a wedding or a wardrobe too.

We are going to focus on using a digital design board for decorating.

If you’ve never used a design board, or a mood board, when you’re decorating then it’s definitely time to try one out!

Have you ever stood in a room and wondered where to even start?

The design board is your inspiration.

Have you ever decorated a room and wondered why you weren’t happy with it?

Well the design board can help you with that too.

I’m going to show you an easy way to create a digital design board – and the bonus is it’s FREE! You don’t need any special skills for this project. Once you’ve mastered making a design board you’re going to love decorating even more!

What is a Digital Design Board?

A digital design board has all of your inspiration images for a project on it. It’s a digital scrapbook of all of your ideas.

If you’ve ever clipped magazine articles and pictures of rooms or outfits for inspiration then you’ve already got the idea.

Your mood board will turn your inspiration into a decorating plan.

If you haven’t collected your ideas before you should definitely check out How to Use Pinterest to Decorate Your Home. It’s a crash course on collecting your ideas for future use.

Our Dining Room digital design board MySimpaticoLife.com — Design board for Dining Area

Why Should I use a Digital Design Board?

First I need to say that you don’t have to use a digital design board. You can use a scrapbook. You can use Pinterest. You can use a poster board and glue pictures onto it.

The method for making a design board isn’t as important as how it will help you.

Most people can’t visualize how a room will look when it’s finished or how all their ideas will fit together.

Don’t feel bad. I am big on moving my furniture and art repeatedly to get it “just right” even when I use a mood board for the design.

By gathering all of your inspiration together into one space, it can help you see how your paint colors look with your throw pillows. You can visualize how your furniture will coordinate with all your decor.

A digital design board is easy to download, store and share. That’s one of the reasons that I’m recommending it.

How to Get Started

The first thing that you have to do is gather all of your inspiration.

This is where Pinterest can come in handy since you can save all your ideas onto a board. You can even save photo’s when you’re shopping so that they’re all in one place.

Be sure to designate a specific board in Pinterest or a folder on your computer for Inspiration.

When you’re gathering inspiration don’t think about whether something “works” or it’s in your budget. Inspiration is about saving things that inspire you and make you feel good.

So many times, when you’ve gathered a lot of inspiration you’ll be able to see a common theme in what you’ve collected. It might be that you’re leaning toward curves and organic materials, or it could be a color that’s threaded through your inspiration.

Next, you’ll need to make a few decisions about your space:

What will this space be primarily used for?
How do I want this space to feel?
What is my budget for this space?

If your space is going to be used as a bedroom then a bed will be the focal point of the space. If you’re designing a workspace then you’ll probably need a desk and some task lighting.

Spend some time determining the needs and feel of the space before you start designing.

Now it’s time to put all that inspiration together and create your inspiration board.

How to Create Your Digital Design Board

We’re going to make this easy for you by using a free program called Canva.

Canva makes it easy to save photo’s and paste them onto a digital space so that you can create your own design board.

We use Canva to make all kinds of fun things and once you start using it you’re going to find a lot of uses for it too.

But for now we’re going to stick to designing a mood board.

Step 1: Go to Canva.com and create an account (if you don’t have one already).

Step 2: Once you’ve logged in, click the “choose a design” button and pick rectangle. I usually like to use a piece of paper as my background because it seems like a natural size to use but you could also choose a square and share it on your social media when you’re finished!

Canva home screen for designing MySimpaticoLife.com

Step 3: Upload the photo’s that you’ve been saving into your Canva account.

You can drag the photo’s from your computer into the upload area (bottom left) of your Canva account.

How to Arrange Your Board

Once your photo’s have uploaded you can easily drag them onto your rectangle, which is now your design board.

You’ll want to drag your images one at a time and once your images are on your design board you can just grab the corner of the image and resize it to your liking.

If you have multiple fabric or curtain options you can create different boards to mix and match them. You can hit the plus sign and add another page directly under the one you’re working on, or you can copy the design you’re working on and move the item on and off the board.

You can switch out products quickly on your design board MySimpaticoLife.com

I like to create multiple boards with ideas until I feel like I’ve gotten the feel of the design down.

Just drag the items around and resize them until they all fit on your board and you’re happy with your design.

Once you love your design you can download it and keep it on your phone or your computer for reference! Or you can share it with your friends and see what they love about it.

Be sure to follow me on Instagram, TikTok and Pinterest for more inspiration!