How We Build a Mood Board: Tools, Tips & Designer Tricks

An Inside Look at How 8687 Studios Crafts High-End Interior Mood Boards Using Designer Tools, Curated Materials, and Creative Strategy

Picture this: you're standing in a future version of your home, one that hasn’t been built yet, but already feels deeply familiar. The sunlight spills in just right, bouncing off warm limestone floors. The walls are dressed in calm, chalky hues; the furniture feels both sculptural and personal. It’s effortless, intentional, as though the space always knew it was meant to look and feel this way.

At 8687 Studios, this is where the journey begins; not with plans or elevations, but with atmosphere. We start by building mood boards, a deceptively simple tool that holds the seeds of every design decision to come. For our clients; accomplished, intuitive individuals who understand the art of investment and legacy, the mood board is where vision meets clarity. It’s the visual love letter to what your space could be before a single nail is driven or material ordered.

But mood boards are far more than just pretty pictures. They are strategic, layered, and precise. At our studio, they are the first act of storytelling; and every great interior is, after all, a story well told.

Acacia Suite

Defining the Concept & The Brief

Every project at 8687 Studios begins with a conversation; not about furniture or finishes, but about you. Before a single image is pinned or a fabric sample selected, we dive into what we call a lifestyle audit. This isn’t a questionnaire with checkboxes; it’s a dialogue designed to uncover the rhythm of your daily life, your values, and the emotional atmosphere you want your space to evoke. We ask the kind of questions that go beneath the surface: How do you want your home to feel at 6 a.m. on a quiet morning? What do you crave when you return from a long trip? One client, a Johannesburg-based entrepreneur, described wanting her home to “feel like silence.” That one phrase set the tone for her entire project. We built a concept around soft acoustics, layered neutrals, and natural materials that breathed serenity into every room.

From there, we distill your responses into three to four guiding design pillars, conceptual anchors that shape every visual and material choice that follows. These might include principles like Modern Restraint, focused on clean architectural lines and a restrained palette; Organic Luxe, with tactile finishes, sculptural lighting, and richly grained sustainable woods; or Artisanal Detail, where every element is thoughtfully handmade and deeply personal. These aren’t trends; they are filters through which we make decisions. They bring consistency, clarity, and meaning to every layer of the design.

We’ve found that the most powerful design briefs often come from memory or emotion, not Pinterest. For example, a recent coastal villa project in Lamu was inspired by our client’s recollection of walking barefoot through Stone Town in Zanzibar. That memory; the texture of lime-washed walls, the patina of coral stone, the hush of air through carved wooden doors, informed the mood board and eventually the finished space. It’s these kinds of details, paired with your own personal narrative, that help us craft a visual direction with intention and soul.

To bring this phase to life, we often present visuals in an editorial style: a combination of natural-light photography of material swatches, early hand sketches laid out on timber worktables, and quotes from our clients that speak to their original inspiration. It’s less about showing options and more about shaping a story; one that begins with you, and evolves with design precision and emotional truth.

Curating the Visual Library

Once your design pillars are clearly defined, the real visual storytelling begins. This is where we start assembling what we call the visual library; a curated collection of textures, images, finishes, tones, and inspirations that give shape and substance to your concept. Think of it as the raw material of your interior’s narrative. At this stage, we aren’t selecting specific products or finishes just yet. We’re building an emotional and aesthetic vocabulary, the mood, in its purest form.

We draw from both digital and tactile worlds. Online platforms like Pinterest and Milanote are invaluable for their flexibility and visual fluidity. We often create private, curated boards tailored to each client, not just filled with random inspiration, but carefully selected imagery that aligns with your pillars. A photograph of a shadow falling across a limestone floor, the texture of rattan in a Kyoto tearoom, or the subdued elegance of an Axel Vervoordt interior; these aren’t just images, they’re moods captured mid-breath. Milanote allows us to arrange these elements with intention, creating harmony through scale, light, and material interplay. Our clients appreciate the clarity this brings, it feels less like planning and more like discovering.

But at 8687 Studios, we’re deeply material-driven, and so much of what defines a luxury interior lives in touch and texture. That’s why we also build physical libraries alongside the digital ones. On our worktables, you might find hand-loomed hemp fabrics from a Cape Town textile atelier sitting beside cool slabs of recycled terrazzo or FSC-certified white oak. We’ll source samples that speak not only to beauty but also to environmental integrity, something our clients increasingly care about. The tactile experience matters. A cool stone against your fingertips, the softness of unbleached linen, these sensations anchor the design in reality.

For example, in a recent penthouse project overlooking the Atlantic Seaboard, our client was torn between a highly polished concrete floor and a more tactile, raw terrazzo. Rather than decide in theory, we presented full-size samples, styled under the shifting daylight of the actual site. Seeing and touching those finishes in context was transformative. The final choice wasn’t just beautiful; it felt right.

To visualize this part of the process for our clients, we often present a mixed-media composition: a digital mood board flanked by a curated tray of physical elements, beautifully photographed under natural light. We may include a short time-lapse video showing the evolution of the board, from initial inspiration to a fully composed layout. These visuals help our clients engage emotionally with the materials before any design drawings are even produced.

Ultimately, curating a visual library is a process of refinement and resonance. We edit ruthlessly, selecting only those elements that serve the narrative and align with your values. In this way, each mood board becomes a distilled vision, not a suggestion, but a direction. One that feels unmistakably, undeniably yours.

Assembling & Layering the Mood Board

With the visual library in place, we move into what is arguably the most delicate phase of the process, assembling and layering the mood board. This is where intuition meets discipline. At 8687 Studios, we often say that this step is like composing music: every element has a note, and the mood board is the score. It’s here that we take the raw ingredients; the swatches, images, textures, tones, and begin arranging them into a harmonious whole.

Composition is everything. We approach the mood board not as a flat collection of ideas, but as a dynamic narrative. Balance, rhythm, and contrast play pivotal roles. There must be a clear focal point, a hero material or palette that quietly anchors the rest. Negative space is just as vital as the visual content. We often begin by placing a large, defining texture; say, a bleached oak veneer or raw travertine, then build outward, layering fabric tones, lighting concepts, and spatial cues with measured intention. The result isn’t crowded; it breathes.

We explore both digital and physical formats during this stage, depending on the nature of the project and our client’s preference. Digital boards, crafted in platforms like Milanote or InDesign, offer fluidity; allowing us to test pairings, reorder elements, and iterate swiftly. Physical boards, on the other hand, create a tactile experience that many of our clients deeply enjoy. There’s something grounding about feeling the weave of a bouclé textile or the cool weight of bronze hardware in hand. In some projects, we blend both approaches, a digital mood board accompanied by a custom sample box, elegantly packaged and couriered directly to the client’s home.

A project we recently completed in the Constantia Winelands is a perfect illustration. The client, a collector of abstract African art, wanted a space that felt contemporary but rooted in place. We began with a subdued foundation; natural stone, matte brass, weathered walnut; then introduced curated bursts of ochre, charcoal, and deep blue, drawn from her art collection. These accents weren’t just color matches; they were cultural echoes. On the final board, we layered imagery of gallery-style wall treatments, sculptural lighting, and woven textures that referenced traditional craftsmanship. When she saw the completed board, her response was simple: “It already feels like home.”

To bring this stage to life for our clients, we often produce a short video walkthrough, a hands-on tour of the board, narrated by one of our designers, explaining the logic and emotion behind each choice. We’ll also photograph the board in soft daylight, styled with care to reflect the elegance of the final space. These presentation details matter; they signal craftsmanship and curation, values that resonate deeply with our clientele.

Layering a mood board is more than just aesthetics. It’s a precision tool; one that reveals how each element interacts, how textures speak to one another, and how light will move through the space. Done well, it’s both inspiring and strategic, a visual manifesto that says: this is the world we’re about to build, together.

Refinement, Feedback & Finalizing the Direction

A mood board is not a fixed blueprint; it’s a living composition, open to refinement. At 8687 Studios, we view this stage not as a revision process, but as a fine-tuning, the final polish that ensures the vision we’ve crafted truly aligns with your sensibilities. While we trust our design intuition, your feedback is the catalyst that brings intimacy and precision to the work.

After presenting the initial mood board, often accompanied by a physical sample set or a filmed walkthrough, we invite you into a dialogue. This is where we listen, closely. We’re not simply asking whether you “like” the board; we’re observing your reactions, your silences, and your sparks of curiosity. Often, the most meaningful direction comes from a seemingly offhand remark: “I love this, but I wonder how it would feel with a cooler palette,” or, “The texture here reminds me of a villa I stayed in near Lake Como.” These reflections help us recalibrate, not toward trends or generic luxury, but toward you.

It’s during this phase that subtle shifts make all the difference. A fabric might be swapped for something softer, a metal finish warmed to complement the natural light in your space, or a lighting reference adjusted to reflect a more sculptural aesthetic. These aren’t compromises, they’re enhancements, guided by the clarity that only collaboration can bring.

A particularly memorable moment came during the final stages of a Parkhurst townhouse project. The client, a discreet art investor, was reviewing the board when he paused on a particular textile: a hand-dyed mohair in soft graphite. “It’s beautiful,” he said, “but it doesn’t speak to the optimism I want to feel when I come home.” That single insight led us to introduce a pale sage green with subtle iridescence, which shifted the mood of the entire scheme. The final result retained the project’s sculptural elegance, but with a renewed sense of calm and light.

This final review stage is where design becomes personal. For clients unable to meet in person, we offer digital presentations supported by couriered sample kits and virtual consultations. We’ll even stage a miniature vignette, a styled flat lay of core materials photographed in different lighting conditions, to give a tangible sense of how the space will feel across the day.

Visual storytelling remains key here. We may present a refined mood board alongside 3D spatial concept sketches or short-form animations that simulate light and material in motion. These immersive tools help you not only see the direction, but feel it.

By the end of this phase, we’ve arrived at something more than a mood board. We’ve defined the emotional architecture of your space. It’s the compass that will guide every design decision to follow; tailored, thoughtful, and deeply aligned with your lifestyle and vision.

Kameeldoring Estate

At 8687 Studios, building a mood board is never about decorating; it’s about distilling identity, memory, and aspiration into a design language that feels inevitable. This process, from intimate conversations and conceptual distillation to curating materials and refining the visual story, is how we translate your lifestyle into a spatial experience. It’s where emotion meets architecture, and vision becomes form.

For our clients, many of whom lead globally mobile, high-performance lives, time is the greatest luxury. The mood board is our way of making the design journey both efficient and deeply personal, a visual and tactile shorthand that keeps you connected to the process without becoming overwhelmed by it. Whether you’re commissioning a minimalist retreat in the Karoo, a London pied-à-terre, or a wine estate in Stellenbosch, the mood board becomes the first architectural gesture, the moment we begin to design your world, your way.

And while every detail is shaped by our professional expertise, the heart of it is always you; your pace, your preferences, your idea of home. That’s the difference. That’s what makes it 8687.

We invite you to experience this creative process for yourself. Whether you’re considering a future project or simply curious about how our approach might translate to your space, we offer a bespoke Mood Board Discovery Session, a one-on-one consultation where we explore your inspirations, lifestyle, and design vision.