How to Make a Design Board in PowerPoint

WHEN IT CAME TO DESIGNING A ROOM, I USED TO JUST WING IT AND FIGURE IT OUT ALONG THE WAY. WHAT I QUICKLY REALIZED WAS THAT, WHILE I KNEW WHAT I LIKED, I ALWAYS ENDED UP CHANGING DIRECTIONS (AND WASTING MONEY) SEVERAL TIMES OVER.

Who wants to waste money and be unhappy with the final project?? Uhh not me. I’ve been there, done that though. If you’re struggling with that, there’s hope. I promise you there is.

I am 100% not a planner by nature, but this is one (of the few) areas that I’ve had to force myself to be. Without a plan, I’m really just wandering in every direction hoping it works out how I want. But how is it going to work out like I want it to, if I have no idea what I want? It sounds funny, I think, but it’s a real predicament. At least for me it is.

I’m going to show you a really easy way to create an overall idea of where you’re headed with your space, so that you don’t waste time or money. Because let’s be real, some of us have a limited quality of both of those things. *raises hand*

What you’ll need:

• A computer
• PowerPoint

Sounds easy enough, right?? It really is. Follow along as I walk you through it.

First – Find the Right Image

You’ll either need to find pictures of stuff you want to buy, or pictures of furniture similar to what you already have and are planning on using.

I love to keep Google open during this process.

You’ll want to find a picture with a plain white background. It’s just the easiest to work with in PowerPoint. So below, you’ll see that I found my IKEA Ektorp sectional with a white background.

Next – Copy Image

You’ll right click on the picture that you want to use and “copy image”.

Then – Paste Image in PP

Head to PowerPoint and open a new document. Right click and paste your first picture on the new PowerPoint slide.

Remove the Background

Double click the image and on the top left part of the tool bar, click “Remove Background”.

You’ll see the image become a bright purple/pink color, with a moveable box around it. Move the box so that the entire part of the image that you want showing is the original color. Click “Enter” or “Return” and there you have it. A couch without a background.

You can crop the image, by double clicking, so there isn’t a whole bunch of empty space around the couch. You can find the crop tool right next to the “Remove Background” tool.

Arranging the Images to Show Dimension

If you “right click” on your image, you will see “Arrange”. Hover over that and (this is for a rug), click “Send to Back”. I highly recommend “Arranging” your images as you go. It’s much less overwhelming to do it this way, then to try to catch up at the end.

Continue the Process

Now you’ll continue to find the rest of the images to fill your space. Whether it’s a rug, lamps, side tables, curtains, coffee tables. I even like to find the paint color that I plan on using. I enlarge it to use it as the background.

Just a Few Tips

• Don’t be afraid to get specific in your Google Search. Even something like “beige couch with white background” works sometimes.
• If for some reason you can’t “copy” the image, try a “screenshot” of the item. Mac users can hold “Command, Shift, 4” and then move the box to screenshot a specific part of the screen.
• Get creative with it, think “outside of the box” in order to make it what you want.
• Last, don’t spend too much time looking for any one specific item for the sake of the picture. Something that you like that is similar to what you want works just fine. When you start purchasing/finding pieces for the room, you can be pickier, since that’s the part that counts anyway.

I hope this helps you when designing your next space. Thanks for reading!

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