Friday, June 1, 2012

58 A Sweet and Simple Style Tile Tutorial

An extremely frequent question I receive is how to create room Style Tiles, similar to this one:


Style Tiles are a great way to get a visual idea for a room before you begin to give your space a facelift, or even if you are starting from scratch.  And because I highly recommend going into those types of updates with some sort of a plan, I knew I wanted to address the question and answer it on the blog.  However, thinking of how long it takes me to create one Style Tile, made me realize that trying to explain it may be a twelve hour post.  Ish.

Then, I recently discovered Olioboard, and I can say with confidence that it was a huge Style Tile time and sanity saver!

I know there are probably 101 blog posts out there on the subject of Olioboard, so add another to the list, but when find something that I love, I feel that it is my duty to share.

What is Olioboard?

Very simply put, it's an online moodboard creator.  I call them Style Tiles, but same difference.  And it's FREE! 

So here is my Olioboard story and "How To"...

I have a bestest friend who has a little boy, Nash, and he is one of my most favorite people.  Nash is turning three and is getting a "big boy" bedroom, so I was asked if I would offer up some ideas to pull it all together.  She already has the bed, dresser and bedding, so that is what I had to work with as a starting off point.  And the kid LOOOOOOOOOOOVES "diggers"!  And trucks, tractors, firetrucks... you name it, if it has wheels and is loud, he is a major fan.


Everything else is pretty much a blank slate of a room. 

I typically use Photoshop to create my Style Tiles, and because I am completely self taught and not super swift with it, it takes me a really looong time to put one together.  Saving all of the images from the web, opening them, cutting and cropping them, pasting them into a board, sizing, layering, etc.... 

So, with this new project, I thought I would give the Olioboard site a try.  I had heard so much about it in blogland that I figured it must be pretty awesome.  But for some reason I was putting it off, probably because I have a fear of learning curves and the time it takes to get used to something new.  Now that I have played with it, I wish I would have tried it months ago! 

When you sign up on the site, it's as simple as clicking a button to create a new moodboard.


Once you get started, you have a blank board to work with.  On the right side of the screen there is an online catalog filled with endless amounts of items to browse and include within the board itself!


Since I already knew a few of the items being used in the room, I did a quick search for those products, but came up short.  Since I knew they were from Target, I went to the Target site and found them, and then using the Olioboard button on my Firefox toolbar {just like a Pinterest "Pin It" button}, I was able to basically pin the item to my Olioboard account.


It creates a link back to the original site too, which is great for future reference.

If you still can't find what you are looking for, you can also upload your own images to the site:

So, I started adding a few items to my board.  It was as simple as finding it in the catalog and dragging it onto the board.


Once on the board, a circle appears over the object selected.  Using your mouse, you can hold the orange lever and rotate, enlarge or shrink.  You can also click the object itself to move it around on the board, or use the menu above to flip, move from front to back, crop, etc...

I started adding the items I had already come up with in my brain {am I the only one putting rooms together while laying in bed trying to fall asleep?}


Once of my favorite features can be seen within the green lamp above.  See how it is hovering the other images, all nicely cropped around the entire lamp?  Yeah, Olioboard did that automatically.  It cuts the objects out for you so you can nicely layer them and really get a good idea of how things play with one another. 

I just kept plucking away until I had this {only minutes later!}:


So far things were going swimmingly.  As I added new items, I could easily move and size ones I already had placed.  Piece of cake!  Now, the room still was far from feeling complete, but my brain dump was done and I needed some more inspiration.  Off to shop the Olioboard gallery!

I knew I needed to find a nightstand of some sort, so I started there.  A simple search by category gave me a boatload of fabulous results and ideas! 


And because there were so many results, you can narrow things down even further if you would like, you can even search by color scheme:


Once I had my nightstand selected, Olioboard provided me with a link to the product's website, along with the cost of the item as well:


So using Olioboard's catalog, I found the remaining items, which included a pendant light fixture, fabric for DIY roman shades and some additional storage and accessories!

I also like that along the way, Olioboard was reminding me to save my project so I wouldn't lose any of my work.  And once I was done, it was simple to save, publish, share and even create an image file of the project!


So when all was said and done, I was able to take this:


To this:

{product sources can be found here}

Pretty sweet eh?  And now I can pop over an image to my pal Erin and see what she thinks!  Easy peasy!

If she doesn't love something, it's super simple to access the project, make a switch and re-save it.  But lets just hope that she adores it...

So there you have it, my super exciting, fun, free, easy, time saving find.  I know I have already mentioned about 2,467 reasons why I love it, but one of the best features is that you don't need any special or expensive program to do this {cough cough, Photoshop}.  Just the internet since it's all web based.  And I am quite positive there are all sorts of other cool features that I haven't found yet, but I can't wait to dig in more and keep learning. 

Writing this got me wondering, what one thing have you or did you put off, just because you thought it would take too long to learn?  Who else has fallen hard for Olioboard?  Feel free to leave a comment linking to your favorite Olioboard projects, I would love to see what you all are coming up with!


Pssst!  I wasn't paid or swayed to write up this post.  In fact, Olioboard has zero clue who I am.  I just wanted to share something awesome with you fine friends!

58 comments:

  1. You are so down to earth, thank you for making this so easy! I have an obsession with creating treasuries on Etsy, this will be similar :) Thanks!

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  2. Thanks Jen, I did not know about this site.

    Sue

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  3. I never tried it because I didn't know about it! Love to try it! Thanks for telling about it!

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  4. I LOVE Olioboard! A tip I have for the paint color (I use those exact sample pics for my boards), is to crop it down to rectangle that excludes the little paint can, then enlarge it so that it covers your entire viewing area (layer it in the very back of course). Then you a get a better feel for it as paint rather than a swatch.

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  5. Olioboard is truly fabulous, but I'm stil faithfull to my Photoshop...don't know why. I know it could save me lots of time. and when I see what some of the Olioboard professionals create, wow!
    Maybe I'm scared to learn something new, and it's hard to admit it

    great post and room design, btw
    have a nice weekend

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  6. This is wonderful, thanks so much for sharing! You asked what tasks we put off and I'm a bit of a procrastinator so I tend to put off as much as I can until I'm scrambling at the last minute. Reading your blog though has really inspired me to focus on a few small things at a time and go from there. This week alone, I've accomplished more than I have in the past month!

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    1. This makes me smile so big! :) Congrats on all you have accomplished, it must feel fab!

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  7. You are not alone! I am constantly putting rooms together while I am trying to fall asleep... or about a million other times throughout the day! It's like my brain never turns off. I also can't go into someone else's house without thinking of how I would design it. - Heather K

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    1. Haha, glad I am not the only one who does that! If you ever figure out how to get your brain to sleep {so you can!}, I would love to know the secret!

      xoxo,
      Jen

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    2. I try to keep a pad of paper or notebook in my bedside table.....that way when i have ideas floating (consuming) my mind i can jot them down quick. And i always tell myself "you wont be able to get anything done at 11:45pm" hahaha - doesn't always work but sure helps!
      ~Amanda P. :)

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  8. I agree that Olioboard is a fantastic time saver and I use it to put mood boards together on a regular basis. It really isn't difficult to use on a basic level, but I'd like to learn how to use some of the other more advanced features. Love the style tile you put together!

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  9. I swear, it is like you read my mind! I need to do a mood board for a huge decorating project in our house and had no idea where to start. I found something just this week you might love. ColorSnap app from Sherwin Williams. You take a photo and it will find paint that matches the colors in your photo! How cool is that?!

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    1. That sounds awesome! I will have to check it out, thanks so much for sharing!

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  10. This is awesome Jen! I, too, am self-taught on Photoshop and struggle with it all the time, so I'm looking forward to trying out Olioboard as I give our master bedroom a facelift in the coming weeks!

    www.livinginthesaltbox.blogspot.com

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  11. Thank you! I had not heard about it, but would love to check it out. I get intimidated by new things and put them off as well, but this looks simple enough. Looking forward to trying it out! Have a wonderful weekend.

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    1. Have fun with it! It's super easy, I think you will love it!

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  12. I am a huge fan as well. My sister and I share a library of items so we can both use them. I LOVE moodboard as well but if lacks the library feature which is so so awesome. Trying to figure out if I should do the advanced features. Hmmm.

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  13. WOW! I am so glad that you shared this! In a couple of months we will be moving into our first apartment (right before we get married) and will be decorating from scratch. This will be an amazing way to help us picture what we might like before we actually start working on it!

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  14. Wow!!! I have always loved creating potential looks for my friends and family and never knew how. I have always made collages, but to be honest it's super time consuming plus searching for products and prices. This is a sweet tip, thank you very much.
    Xoxo
    Claudia

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  15. Thanks for the tip. I have been wanting to try my own mood boards for a while now and knowing that I can share them with my sister way up in Alaska is even better!

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  16. Okay, it still needs work, but I read your blog this morning and had to try Oilioboard. Here is what I came up with! Thank you so much, again!
    www.limezinniasdesign.blogspot.com

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    1. I think it looks amazing! Your artwork is absolutely incredible! Love all of the colors!!

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  17. I could just kiss you! This is awesome. I have been trying to use pinterest to gather ideas but I hate that I can't see everything on one page.

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    1. That is exactly what I was thinking! This is great! :]

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  18. Awesome!!! What a great idea. I Love Pinterest, but for designing this is great. Now I REALLY want to get going on my kitchen. Darn that tax bill!!! :-(

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  19. I had been using Polyvore to do this but I'm loving the way Olioboard looks!

    By the way, my middle son is named Nash (He's almost 4) and I have never known anyone else by that name-tell your friend she has great taste!!

    Take care,

    Melissa@TheHappierHomemaker

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  20. Wow! I can't wait to try this! Now I can put all of those ideas in my head onto the screen! Thanks for sharing such an amazing site!

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  21. Thanks for the post; I wondered how people/bloggers were doing this but did not know how to even research it. I have our new house interiors to put together so that is what I am working on to start with; thanks again!

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  22. This is amazing! I am not a home owner, and won't be one anytime soon (I am still an undergrad), and have always wanted to keep some kind of catalogue of all the cool home decorating ideas that I find or even start (just for fun) planning out my future rooms! Let me tell you...that if I didn't procrastinate enough already, I will now that I have this to play around with! I can live out my much anticipated dream of designing my own house via Olioboard! I guess for now I can redesign my dorm room...

    Haha! Thanks for sharing Jen! :]

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  23. You. Are. Awesome.

    I have a newfound timewaster thanks to you! ;)

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  24. Thank you for this quick and easy tutorial!

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  25. Hey Jenn,

    This is great! So glad you introduced me to it. I'd been experimenting with Polyvore but had some troubles getting it to work with my site (and because I'm still new to the blogging scene, I haven't quite figured out Photoshop yet). I do have a question for you though - does Olioboard work only for Inspiration Boarsd related to the home or can it do fashion as well?

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  26. Hi Jenn, this is an amazing tool! Thanks for sharing it! Now, if I may make a grandmotherly suggestion- please be sure that Nash's parents anchor that dresser to the wall. It looks very top heavy and I think he's at prime climbing age! Love your site- I always find fresh inspiration here.

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  27. Thanks for the great tip on the site. I had not heard of this before - going to check it out right now.

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  28. Think I'll give this a try. As you might have guessed, there's no easy way of setting up stuff like this in Photoshop, so these kinds of sites definitely come in handy. :)

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  29. No, you're not the only one who thinks of room designs as they try to fall asleep. Usually my mind starts swimming with ideas and it makes falling asleep even harder! lol. I discovered Olioboard recently myself. Love it! It certainly brings all of those room ideas to life. Great tutorial.

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  30. I am so glad you posted this. I am now obsessed with olioboard. And you featured my prints from my shop!! Thank you!

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  31. I love Olioboard and have used it for a while for my posts... Great post!

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  32. OMG!!! I am so glad you posted this. I have trying the old school way cutting and pasting on paper (LOL) don't laugh to hard. Now I have a new way to do it. AWESOME!!!

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  33. I love Olio Boards and have done a few of them. Here is the one I did for an inspiration for my master bedroom. I don't have Photoshop yet so I was glad to have this program.

    http://katspurrfectboutique.blogspot.com/2011/09/master-bedroom-mood-boards.html

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  34. Olioboard looks awesome...I've been using Polyvore, but it's not really great for room design.

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  35. HI Jen, I love using Olioboard. I've been using it for a while now. In fact I purchased the pro tool to gain access to the fonts and color chips. I actually also enjoy competing in their sponsored contests. In fact I was lucky enough to place 2nd in the one sponsored by Poshtots which opened a lot of other opportunities for me. Here is the link for the one that placed

    http://olioboard.com/boards/61693-visions-of-versailles

    I also use a widget on my blog to showcase my designs and my mom's designs. We call it Design Decks http://chaoticallycreative.com/design/olioboarddesigndeck/
    Thanks for letting us leave links. Lesley

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  36. Awesome!! Thanks for the step-by-step! Nate Berkus just talked about olioboard!

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  37. Jen, Thank you sooooo much for such a detailed and helpful post on how to use Olioboard. We are very appreciative of those who spend time to introduce others to our moodboard creator.

    We are adding a new library of empty room images and textures to help create more in depth and detailed moodboard designs very shortly. Keep your eyes open for the new feature and let us know what you think!

    Fantastic blog btw :)

    Thanks again - Sheilah

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  38. Omgoodness! I think I just fell in love. Thank you for posting this. What a cool site :)

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  39. Wow!! Olioboard is me new addiction!! Thank you so much for introducing me to it!

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  40. Thank you so much! I have been wondering for a while how the mood boards were created. This is so handy, I love it!!

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  41. Thanks so much for sharing this! I don't have photoshop and always struggle to put together inspiration boards in a quick, efficient manner. I can't wait to try this out.

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  42. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your find, and for the step-by-step instructions. I've actually been putting off starting my own blog b/c I figured it would be complicated. But I finally jumped in a few weeks ago! I have no Photoshop skills, so I've been wondering how I could easily compile images, so it's perfect timing that you posted about Olioboard.
    Thanks for the inspiration!

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  43. Thank you so much for sharing! There are so many things like this I want to do, but just don't know how! As always your blog is amazing & full of inspiration :)

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  44. I am so in live with the "style tile" at the beginning of this post! Is that board anywhere else in your blog? Would love to know the sources :) Thanks!!

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    1. Hi Becca!

      I haven't posted on the Style Tile since I did it personally for a client, however, if you are looking for an item in particular, I would love to try and track down the source for you. Unfortunately, quite a few of the items have since been discontinued.

      xoxo,
      Jen

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  45. Love... Thanks auto correct!

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  46. Thanks you so much for recommending olio board! I've just started completely renovating my home and I'm using it to design the rooms and to add to my blog posts. It really helps people (not least my husband!) see where I'm coming from design wise. Yours are just so much better though :) You really have a good eye for colour and pattern.

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  47. You should definitely put this under your FAQ file. I remembered you mentioning what program you use for this but I couldn't remember what it was called or many details. After a little searching, I found it! Thanks for the post.

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  48. Thanks for introducing me to Olioboard! I have Photoshop but this is such a timesaver especially b/c it has the list of products with links to purchase built right in. I love the products you feature (especially from Target) too and am excited that Target is opening soon in the Great White North (aka Canada) and just steps from my front door;) Oh - here's my first crack at it: http://dilettantedesign.blogspot.ca/2013/01/nautical-nursery-inspiration.html

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  49. Hi Jen. I have been making these for awhile. I save pictures of items i want from sites like pottery barn. I save them to my computer and then i open up Word and insert all the pics. I arrange and can add art and it makes a nice wish board. It does not take long. I want to try Olioboard too. Cant wait.

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