How To Use Pinterest To Plan Your Website Redesign

Pinterest might feel like the place you go to collect recipes you’ll never cook or bathrooms you’ll never build, but for photographers and creative business owners, it’s one of the most powerful tools you can use to plan your brand and website. Every project begins with a feeling. Are you going for editorial and elegant? Minimal and modern? Earthy and organic?

Instead of staring at a blank screen wondering which font or colour palette to choose, Pinterest gives you a way to see your style taking shape — and to communicate that vision clearly with your designer (or keep yourself on track if you’re DIY-ing).

But there’s a catch: you need a plan. Because without one, Pinterest will happily suck you into three hours of pinning sourdough hacks, dream holidays, and kitten videos.

Let’s talk about how to avoid the time warp and create a Pinterest workflow that actually moves your creative project forward.

And if you prefer to watch a video, scroll down to the bottom to watch my walkthrough of the Pinterest & Mood Board process.

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Why Pinterest Works for Creatives

• Visual clarity: Seeing your ideas side by side makes it easier to spot what’s working and what’s not.
• Client communication: If you’re a photographer working with a designer, boards make it simple to show your preferences without having to find the words.
• Creative confidence: Instead of jumping on the latest font trend or Instagram colour palette, you’re building a design direction that’s grounded in your own visual style.

Getting Started: Organising Your Pinterest Board

When tackling any creative project, a professional designer will work methodically through key design areas, so it makes sense to pre-organise your inspo into groups that you, or your designer, can easily make sense of.

On Pinterest, start a fresh board and organise it into sections as follows:

• Style & Inspiration
• Color
• Typography
• Design Elements & Layout

Below you can see the sections of the board we created when designing our Lumiere template.

🔗 Link to board on Pinterest

1. Style & Inspiration – capture the vibe

This is where I like to start – by pinning images that capture the overall vibe. These don’t have to be logos or websites yet. Think: photography you admire, fashion editorials, interiors, or even textures you’re drawn to. In this section, you also want to upload your own images or portfolio pieces to make sure that your new brand of website aligns with your actual work.

At this stage, pin anything that catches your eye and let one pin lead you to another.

🔗 Link to section on Pinterest

Here’s the Style & Inspiration section of my board:

2. Curate Your Color Palette

Once you’ve captured the mood, move on to colour. Pinterest has a neat trick: just type a colour name into the search bar and it will serve up swatches and palettes you can pin.

Look for:

• Colours that already appear in your photography.
• Palettes that match the emotion you want your brand to evoke (calm, luxury, bold, playful).
• Combinations you’d actually enjoy working with long-term — because you’ll see them everywhere across your brand.

At this stage, don’t worry if your pins are leading you in two different color directions. You can choose and refine later on. For now, just go with it. In the example below, you’ll see I’m considering two colorways.

🔗 Link to section on Pinterest

Here’s the Color section of my board:

3. Explore Typography

Fonts are where brands can win or lose. The mistake most people make is choosing a single trendy font right away. That only limits you.

Instead, pin examples of typography you love — ideally in pairs or trios. Then look for patterns:

• Do you love sleek sans serifs with wide spacing?
• Do delicate serifs feel more your style?
• Would a handwritten brush font add the personal touch you’re after?

What matters is not the exact font name, but the style. A designer can then select professional fonts that match the mood without being overused or dated. In this section, I’d also expect to see logo examples and/or monograms.

🔗 Link to section on Pinterest

Here’s the Typography section of my board:

4. Design Elements & Layout

This step often gets overlooked, but it’s essential. Shapes, patterns, textures and layout combinations communicate mood as much as colour does. Search terms like “minimal web design” or “editorial website layouts” will give you endless options.

Ask yourself:

• Do you prefer strong, clean lines or soft, organic shapes?
• Are you drawn to geometric patterns or minimal empty space?
• Are there textures from your everyday life (fabrics, ceramics, nature) that could inspire your brand’s visual language?
• Do I like the navigation, spacing or structure?

Don’t overthink it. The goal isn’t to copy but to recognise your visual preferences so your designer (or your future self) can use them consistently. Think of it like curating a list of features or elements to play with when you get to the design stage.

🔗 Link to section on Pinterest

Here’s the Design Elements & Layout section of my board:

From Pinterest Board to Mood Board

Once you’ve finished your initial pinning spree, it’s worth going back through each section and deleting anything that now doesn’t fit with your vision. Now, when viewing your whole board, you should get a strong feel for how your project is going to progress. If you don’t, keep pinning!

You might find that you feel confident enough to jump into the brand creation / web design stage of your project, but I like to add a ‘Mood Board’ step, which is more highly curated and is perfect for showing a client progression from the Pinterest Board.

Download some key pins from your board sections, create some color swatches and play with fonts and design elements. At this stage, you’ll be gently exploring font combinations and logo ideas.

Here’s the mood board for Lumiere. Notice how all of the board sections are incorporated – from colour to layout ideas.

The Finished Design

Obviously, between Mood Board and final project, there is a lot of work that goes into crafting logos, brand elements, typography suites and layouts.

But the above process is an accurate representation of how professional designers use a methodical approach to take a project from a ‘vibe’ to a polished piece of design.

So how did our Lumiere theme turn out after going through our Pinterest / Mood Board process? I hope you can see the evolution from Pinterest board to finished product.

Ready to Put Pinterest to Work?

Try this workflow on your next project – brand, website, or even your dream office. And if you’d like to see how we at StyleCloud turn Pinterest boards into finished WordPress themes and templates, come and explore our collection.

Your next website might just start with your next pin. Watch my walkthrough below of the Pinterest & Mood Board process for more tips.