When you're decorating a room, it's easy to get overwhelmed by choices. You save a paint color. Then another one. You find a rug you love, but you're not sure if it works with the sofa you're considering. Before long, you've got ideas everywhere and no clear sense of where to start.
Karastan® interior designer Jennifer Shine understands that great design is about creating spaces that feel thoughtful, welcoming, and personal. With more than 14 years of experience as an interior designer and stylist, she's spent years helping people create spaces that reflect their lives and style. That's exactly what inspired our new Ask a Designer series.
In the first video, Design 101, Shine tackles one of the biggest questions homeowners face: Where do you actually begin?
If there's one idea that stood out from Shine’s advice, it's the value of a mood board. Not because it's trendy. Not because every designer says you should have one. Because it genuinely helps.
A mood board gives all those ideas floating around in your head somewhere to land. Paint colors. Flooring options. Fabric swatches. Furniture inspiration. The images you've saved and can't stop thinking about. Seeing everything together helps you understand whether the room is heading in the direction you want it to go.
Shine describes the mood board as a roadmap for your project, and it's easy to see why. Before any major purchases are made, this board allows you to step back and look at the bigger picture. Are the materials working together? Do the colors feel cohesive? Is the space telling the story you want it to tell?
Sometimes everything works beautifully together; other times, you realize the sofa you love and the paint color you love shouldn't live in the same room. That kind of clarity is exactly what makes the process easier.
Not sure where to begin? Creating a Pinterest board is an easy way to start building your mood board. Save rooms, colors, textures, and products that catch your eye, then look for common themes. You can even explore Karastan Pinterest boards for inspiration and pin your favorite ideas to create a vision that's uniquely yours.
Of course, Design 101 doesn't stop at mood boards.
Shine also shares her perspective on choosing flooring, defining spaces in open-concept homes, selecting furnishings that stand the test of time, and one of the most common decorating mistakes homeowners make when trying to pull a room together too quickly.
Ask a Designer was created to answer common design questions and make decorating feel a little less intimidating. More conversations, more inspiration, and more practical advice are still to come.
