Olioboard to the Rescue!

I'm awesome at decorating... in my head. You know, making the perfect picture only to not really have anything exist in real life or be able to communicate my ideas sufficiently to my husband.

Enter Olioboard. I discovered this site a few years ago, and it's pretty amazing. You can use the site for fun or for practical purposes. It's the designing/decorating site you've always wanted and needed! Oh, and it's free!


This is how it works.

• You can design rooms using preloaded backgrounds and items just for fun or to complete challenges.
• You can upload a photo of your room (preferably empty), and decorate with preloaded items or items you load into the program that you already have or currently at a store.
• Sometimes you have to kind of piece things together on the program, but this tool is really good at giving you direction when shopping for your home pieces.

I've used it to design multiple rooms! This was the Olioboard I did for our covered patio:

I uploaded a picture of our patio, uploaded a picture of a similar couch to ours, chairs I wanted from Target, and then decorated. Then I decorated in real life! I bought the chairs and then tackled the fireplace. 

I hated how the top of our fireplace was the same color as our house, and I knew I wanted something to warm up the dark stacked stone. I used the preexisting white frame-out as a template, measured and had the staff at Home Depot cut boards for me. Then, a coat of stain and nails down each side and the center, and it was done! here's the inspiration again, and the mostly finished project.

I never made it around to getting a coffee table or other decor before we decided to sell, but I was really pleased with how well I was able to bring the Olioboard to life!

Here is the living room wall Olioboard design and result:

Living Room wall - mostly just size & placement ideas

Real life - I loved the end result! (Rocking chair typically sat in the same place as in the idea board)

And I never got around to the mater bedroom in real life, but I'm thinking it should be easy enough to transfer to our next house.

I have a different gold mirror that was my grandma's, so the idea one is just an example.
And I thought it might be fun to have his & hers chairs, like in the movie Up!

Hopefully you find the resource helpful! I know that I will be using it MUCH MORE as we move on to our next house!