Although I adore Pinterest, and have spent many a cold winter afternoon “pinning” photos of amazing interiors, I find that the best way to design my own cohesive space is with a “mood board” or presentation board.
Although photographs and Ipad apps are great for overall visual, nothing comes close to actually feeling the fabric textures and metallic finishes and seeing the colors with your own eyes. A large foam core board is the perfect backdrop for taping and glueing bits of photos, fabrics and trims. 
First, of course, you need measurements and a room layout- this Online Room Planner from Urban Barn is fantastic! You plug in your room dimensions, then add in your pieces of furniture and accessories, lighting, structural points and just like that- you have a printable plan!
If you are starting with a clean slate, then you will need to begin with an inspiration- whether its a paint chip, a fabric swatch or photograph of a piece of furniture. In this case, its a gold antique velvet settee that will become the focal point of a victorian parlor.
That will become your “jumping off” point from which you can then design the rest of the space. For wall and trim colors, I head to my local bigbox hardware store, where they literally have thousands of paint chips to choose from. As you can see, I have accumulated quite a pile of chips- but I never toss them once a project is done- they could just be the very color I need for my next board!
There I can create a palette that is going to work in the room- and those are free for the taking! One of my favorite tasks is choosing fabrics-walking through my local Joann’s or Zimmans is for most people, I assume, akin to walking into a Godiva chocolatier-yummy!!
I could spend hours (and sometimes I do) wandering the aisles, poking through the clearance section, searching for the perfect look and feel of the fabulous fabrics I will be using to create drapes or bedcoverings or toss pillows. And they will happily provide you with swatches of your chosen fabrics that you can take home and add to your board, prior to purchasing an entire bolt. Once you have your pieces, you literally just start glueing in place, and it will soon become clear if everything will work in harmony,
or if you will need to edit, either by addition or subtraction. It’s fun, it’s so functional, and it will help you clearly define your new space before you put it in place! Hope your mood is a good one today-after all, it’s almost the weekend! Susan
Country Design Home 
We LOVE Feedback !! Comment please : )