How making a mood board can help you create a stunning salon.
Planning to give your salon a make-over? Maybe you should consider taking a leaf out of a professional interior designer's book.
Before the big and expensive decisions are made - such as buying the furniture, mirrors, lighting and accessories - designers begin to flesh out their ideas using mood boards and look books.
These are both essentially the same thing: a way of visualising something that doesn't yet exist. It's an opportunity to experiment with the look and feel of what you're planning to do, without spending a penny. It's a chance to test what might and might not work. And it's also a great way to share your vision with colleagues - who may chip in with their own helpful suggestions when they can see what you have in mind.
How to make your mood board.
Making a great mood board is the job of gathering together sources of inspiration. This might involve colours, textures, sketches, words, pictures and even smells. Which is why I always think that the digital ways of making mood boards are often a bit disappointing.
By all means use online resources like Pinterest or Niice but if you really want to put your ideas on the table, I suggest making a big sheet of paper or card your canvas. It's cheap and much more dramatic and will take you back to your show and tell days at school.
Next, get a pile of magazines or old books. Cut out pictures that evoke the feeling you're trying to create. Arrange them on the canvas.
Let's say you're looking to create the industrial look. Find pictures of tools, metallic materials, factory interiors and so on. Add to this some colour swatches and maybe pics from magazines that have the right tonal quality. Maybe there's a really great dark blue you spotted in an image you found in Elle. Bank it on your board.
If appropriate, add materials such as fabric or thread to communicate texture. And, if there's a fragrance you have in mind or a smell that you'd like to create, squirt it on a bit of paper and make your own scratch 'n' sniff section.
Don't ignore words. If you're trying to communicate calm, maybe find the word 'Zen' or 'Meditation' in a magazine article. Or write down the words yourself using a fat marker.
Stand back and reach for the glue.
After a while you should be looking at a mood board that's almost 3-D, with overlapping imagery, colours and all kinds of inspiration.
Happy with that? Moved everything around to your satisfaction? Is the image that you feel is most important in the middle, dominating the scene? Great. Then stick everything down.
Congratulations. Now you have your big idea on paper and you can show it to anyone.
How do mood boards help you buy things?
They help a lot.
When you're looking at, say, a mirror or a light, you can now see how well it fits into the mood you're trying to create. Which can influence your choice.
Hmmm. Maybe the gold frame isn't quite right in this context. Maybe silver would be more in keeping.
This is the kind of chat you'll have with yourself. And it's all made possible thanks to mood boards.
If you'd like us to make you a mood board - free of charge - just shout.
In the meantime, here is a link to Pinterest, where you can see some really good boards - mostly non-digital.