A little over a year ago, we moved from a townhome community to a single-family home in the country. Kyle and I had been praying for the right home to come along, and we must’ve been praying too hard because not only did the property of our dreams become available, I also got pregnant. Ha! With our second baby on the way and a move in the imminent future, I was in a bit of a panic. Our offer for the new house we were moving to was accepted in May, we closed in early July, and our sellers rented back until the end of August. Needless to say, I had a LOT of time on my hands to think about what I wanted to do once I got my hands on that new house.
Have you ever heard of the nesting instinct? It’s that inescapable urge of a pregnant woman to prep her home for the arrival of a new baby. Well, let me just tell you that nesting while you’re trying to pack up a whole house and move is...kind of the opposite of what I wanted to do. All I wanted was to make where I was feel cozy and homey, but instead I was forced to turn our townhouse upside down - packing, organizing, purging. There were boxes everywhere and things out of place or just missing because they were in transition to the new place.
In an effort to keep myself sane so we could make the new house feel like home before the new baby came in November, I went to work. I created individual slides with a photo of each room of the new house per slide and went to town “decorating” and planning each space virtually.
For each room, I found images of similar items to what I already had as well as new items I planned to buy and incorporate into the decor. I used the photos from the listing as a frame of reference since I couldn’t actually be in the house while I was doing this, and I imagined how I would decorate each room. I’d never done this before, but it was SO incredibly helpful! I even chose the paint colors in advance. Once we moved in, we followed the plan for each room and had our home up and running in record time. Was it perfect? No. But it felt like home, and that is what we needed before the disruption of a new baby in our family.
Creating mood boards for each room you plan to decorate not only helps you get a better idea for what works together and looks good but also how much it is going to cost. I made a “cost breakdown” for each mood board so Kyle could see that I wasn’t just going on some deluded pregnant shopping spree, and he could have a little input before the plan was executed. Mood boards have changed the way I approach home decor and have given me confidence in my plans. They also prevented me from buying random items on a whim at Homegoods and Target and focus my investments on the things I really loved for our home. So not only can a mood board save you money, it can save your marriage! (Ha, kidding!!)
I used Google Slides to make my mood boards, but I do plan to dabble in Pic Monkey soon. You don’t have to be an expert in Photoshop to make an awesome plan for your house. Heck, go print pictures, cut them out, and glue them to a piece of computer paper! Whatever inspires you and makes you feel confident in your home. Or get pregnant and let that trusty nesting instinct take over...
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