Creating a Whole House Moodboard for the Virginia Hill House
We officially closed on our new home in mid-October, and although we haven’t been able to move in yet, I am spending my days dreaming about settling in and making it our own. If you’ve been following along for any amount of time, you know that we are big proponents of making home slow. I love chipping away at things one project at a time, enjoying the satisfaction and joy that come from working on it ourselves. But with that said, I do like to have a general direction and plan to be working towards that can help direct some of the individual project decisions.
When you work on your home slowly, it can be easy to lose a sense of cohesion within the design. I believe that as long as you follow what you’re drawn to, your home will feel fairly cohesive. But popular trends can often distract and get you off course from what you truly love. I’m not against trends and like to experiment with them myself (so don’t take this as me saying that trends are bad), but I only say this because when you’re working on different spaces slowly over time, individual rooms can start to look like time capsules of the particular year you decorated it. No shade if you like that, but I much prefer a home design that feels timeless and authentic to us.
Enter our whole home moodboard. I love making a moodboard. But what is it? Essentially, a moodboard is a visual tool intended to represent the overall feeling (or mood!) of a space. It’s a collection of images that together give a sense of what you’re working towards with your design. It’s not intended to directly copy from, but rather give you a sense about some of the style and fixture themes you want to draw on as you work on your various spaces. Ideally, you reference your moodboard to help inform some of the decisions you make as you work on individual projects. As long as you keep your focus on the overall mood you want to create, your home will feel cohesive as you establish each room.
As you can see, I took some time to pull together various interior images I am drawn to, and once I put them together, I can easily pull out some of the themes that will inform my decisions as I work on our new home. I thought I’d share some of those themes and thoughts here, which I think will be especially fun before we start sharing any actual work on our new home. I can’t wait to come back and reference this post as our home starts to take shape.
Natural Materials
Warm wood tones and natural stones, yes and yes! I love the combinations of textures that comes with using natural materials and find they help a space feel grounded. Rightfully so when you’re using materials that are literally drawn from the earth. In particular, I like natural materials with character, like seeing the grain in wooden furniture and the beautiful natural colours and lines running through slabs of natural stone. We’ll likely be doing some fairly extensive renovations at our new home and I’m excited to have the opportunity to pick out materials that we can apply throughout the whole space. I’ll certainly be going for durability, but also appreciate being able to incorporate some unique features. Stone in particular is a whole new domain for me, but I’m excited to learn more about it and dream big with its application.
Muddy, Moody, Earthy Tones
This is not a departure from familiar territory for us, but I like desaturated, warm, moody tones. Always have and always will. Especially when you can perfectly balance them between rooms - I love a good unexpected moody moment! I’m not a huge fan of blues, but I’m looking forward to pushing myself to explore a wider variety of natural earthy tones in this house, like browns, reds, and maybe even a blue-leaning green (imagine that!). In particular, my daughter’s one request is for a purple bedroom, so I’ve already been researching how it can be done in a way that still satisfies my longing for consistency in our home design but honours her preferences. That being said, you can still expect a good dose of light and bright for some spaces in this house. The beauty of a moody tone is balance and keeping things fresh and cheerful are always a priority for me.
Texture on Texture on Print on Texture
I love a more neutral space, but appreciate when texture plays a large role in creating interest and warmth. It’s probably one of my favourite elements of design to lean into! As I mentioned, we have some fairly extensive renovations planned for this home (done over time, of course), so I’m excited to play with the texture of the finishes, like handmade tiles and interesting wall treatments. Line, contrast, and shape are all appealing to me and I look forward to seeing how those can be utilized to create more appealing combinations of texture in each room.
Beyond more permanent finishes, there is always an opportunity to play with texture through decor choices too. I’m excited to lean into cozy materials like velvet and natural materials like linen, but also introduce touches of print too. I may even get adventurous enough to try a little bit of wallpaper somewhere.
Source unknown via Pinterest
Contrast, Light & Dark
Even though I love natural layered spaces with vintage touches, the graphic designer in me is drawn to pulling in a punch of contrast through modern elements. In the past, I’ve done this through a block of colour or graphic art piece. I know I’ll bring that into our home again somehow, but one way I’d like to push myself in this regard is my selecting a finish or two that brings a surprising punch of contrast in a more committed way. Yes I love a bold painted door or a moody painted room, but in this house, I don’t want to shy away from making a bold choice on something more permanent just because it feels safer to pick something neutral. I’m eager to push myself out of my comfort zone a little bit here! I’m really drawn to dark countertops right now and I’m seriously considering embracing that look when we tackle the kitchen.
A Perfect Marriage Between Old & New
Along that same vein, I feel most at home in layered spaces that combine old with new. I think it’s near impossible to buy a layered look in one swoop, so I’m excited to continue playing with the idea of collecting over time coupled with new investment pieces. I want to preserve what we can in the existing house, reusing and adapting it to fit our family and lifestyle, while also upgrading and renovating where its needed. When we do update, I want to invest in quality materials and pieces. Growing up, my Dad renovated our family home over many years as we grew and changed and that small but completely maximized home was the most comforting space I’ve ever experienced (and still is anytime I visit). You can’t buy that. Time, persistence, adaptability, creativity, and intention create it. I’m excited to embrace that approach with our own house, as we hope to call this next place home for a very long time.
Above All, Let’s Get Personal
As much as I love seeing all these images together, I still feel the design plan falls a little flat and here’s why: these interiors are not personal to me - to us. Anytime I’ve ever entered a perfectly designed space, I absolutely admire it, but it always still feels a little cold. At the end of the day, a home is only a home to the people who live there and I strongly believe the design should feel personal. Meaningful pieces may not create a picture-perfect space, but they connect you to something much deeper. That’s what home is all about - feeling deeply connected, rooted, loved, and your own.
I can’t wait to layer in personal pieces. From artwork to family hand-me-downs, special objects and collections, furniture built by my Dad and blankets crocheted by my Mom. There will be drawings by my daughters clipped to the front of the fridge and fresh banana muffins sitting in a container atop the countertop. There will be Barbies on the edge of the bathtub and little piles of (perfectly ordinary yet) special stones piled on the bedside table.
I’ve been reflecting on this idea a lot lately as we live in a transitional phase between our homes. As I think back to some of the most impactful homes in my life, I realize that what made them feel most warm is the sense of layering they all had. They weren’t only made up of perfectly made design choices, but instead represented the people who lived in them. That’s a huge goal for me to tap into in our next home.
Only time will tell what shape our precious Virginia hill house will take and I, for one, am excited for the ride!
FYI - This post is the first time I’m talking about our new home and as you can see, I’ve affectionately nicknamed her the Virginia Hill House. I’ll share more about the house once we get to it, but for now, as you can probably guess, she sits nestled against a hillside in Virginia. Well, maybe it would be a mountainside. Either way, she looks out into the valley and the views are probably the largest factor that drew us to her. I can’t wait to share more about our move there once I can!
