How to Create a Design Board in PicMonkey

It’s great to be with you today as we share How to Create a Design Board in PicMonkey with the fabulous ladies of the Back to Basics Series. We have covered so many fun things in this series from organizational projects to furniture painting to creating centerpieces to food and entertaining. You can see all the posts related to this series here.

Creating a design board is so much fun because it’s an almost instant visual representation of the decorating and design thoughts you probably have in your head already! I use this same process with all of my clients no matter if we’re working on one room together or an entire house. We do this with all of the projects we create at our own home too. You can read all about the master bedroom makeover here.

I totally get the process of collecting and gathering information can be overwhelming at times, especially if you like several different decorating styles. Having a design board can not only help you stay on track but it can also serve as a daily reminder of the goals related to each room or project you’re working towards.

Here’s a step by step guide on how we put together our design boards in PicMonkey…

Step 1: Gather images of products you want to use on your design board and room before starting this process and save them to your laptop and/or desktop. Please keep in mind, images are copyrighted information so you will only be using these for inspiration and to help you track what products you have, need to make or plan to buy.

Step 2: Go to https://picmonkey.com. You should be able to use the trial version of PicMonkey for free or you can purchase a monthly or yearly subscription. We use PicMonkey for everything from labels to signs to design boards and have the paid subscription.

Step 3: Choose the tab that says Design and click the tab that says Custom Size

Step 4: Type in 850 x 1100 for the standard size of a sheet paper, then click the “Make it” tab

Step 5: Choose the color background you want for your design board. We like a clean board so we’re choose white. Once you have the color you want, choose “Apply.”

Step 6: On the left side of the screen, you’ll see an icon of a butterfly which is for “Overlays.” This is where you can put in all sorts of stuff from shiplap to wallpaper!

Step 7: At the top of the Overlay column, you’ll see a drop-down menu titled “Add Your Own” and select “My Computer,” this will take you to the file of products/images you’ve been collecting related to your design inspiration.

Step 8: Begin placing product images on your design board by selecting each image/file one at a time until you’ve completed the inspiration board. I usually start at one end of the room and work my way to the opposite end of the room or I start with the largest pieces of furniture first and arrange smaller items around a specific concept.

Step 9: You can make the image bigger or smaller by using the circles and/or arrows to expand or

shrink your image.

Step 10: After you have the design board set up like you want it, don’t forget to save your work by using the “Export” tab.

Once the design board is completed and has been finalized by the client I send a copy to each person on the project team. I can’t even tell you how many times it’s helped to keep everyone on the same page especially if a client is out shopping on their own or we’re working with a vendor that has trouble finding something we’re look for like antique hardware. This is a board I worked on for a bedroom in January.

Even if you’re creating design boards in PicMonkey for personal projects or dreaming up spaces for your next home, it’s a great option to help you create a cohesive look. I recently recreated this design board for the laundry room makeover we’re working on at Loblolly Manor. You can find all the details of that project here.

I hope these step by step directions have helped! Don’t forget to check out the rest of the fabulous ladies in the Back to Basics Series. I learn something new from them each month!

See you guys back here tomorrow. I’ll share a milk paint to chalk paint makeover we just gave two of the chairs in the living room! It’s an easy change you won’t want to miss. Until next time, I’ll see you on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest.

Many blessings,

CoCo