“Vision Boarding” Will Be Your New Favorite Home Planning Tool

Stephanie Nguyen
·5 min read
Young brunette woman creating her Feng Shui wish map using scissors
Credit: Dasha Petrenko / Shutterstock Credit: Dasha Petrenko / Shutterstock

Apartment Therapy’s January Cure is a free 18-day program that’ll help you reset your home for the year ahead. Sign up here and get all assignments delivered to your inbox.

Whenever a new year begins, I feel a boost of motivation to get things done at home, and now that we are a few days into 2024, I’m ready to take action. If you’re feeling as inspired as I am, but don’t know where to start, we have just the thing for you: Apartment Therapy’s January Cure, which kicks off today! 

The January Cure is an entirely free program that’ll help you get a cleaner, more organized, and totally refreshed home. From January 3 until January 26 (excluding weekends), we’ll be taking you on a journey to reset your place for the year ahead.

There’s a total of 18 assignments, all uniquely designed to help you achieve your home goals, whether that’s a project you want to work on, some cleaning and organizing tasks that need to be done, or general decorating to liven up your abode.

The program is led by me, Apartment Therapy’s Cleaning and Organizing Editor, and we’ll be having some very special guests popping in along the way to treat us with their expert advice.

Even though the program officially starts now, it’s not too late to sign up, so check out the email signup box below or you can sign up right here to have every single assignment delivered straight to your inbox.

Without further ado, let’s kick off this amazing program with an incredibly fun and inspiring task that’ll provide you with a vision of what you want in 2024.

Day 1: Make a vision board for your home.

For today’s assignment, we’ll be taking the concept of vision boarding, which is a great tool to use for visualizing your goals, and applying it to our home and what we want it to look like in 2024 and beyond.

Consider this your time to get inspired and throw together all the things that’ll provide meaning to your home, whether you want to highlight style references, color ideas, or actual things you want in your rooms or projects you want to do.

Your home’s vision board can be as small or large as you want it to be. In 2024, are you envisioning a cozy book nook? A shower sanctuary? Or maybe a full kitchen remodel? Dream as big as you like — whatever you want goes when it comes to crafting a vision board for your home! To go about creating a vision board, you can do one of two things: Make a physical board or a digital one.

How to make a physical vision board for your home

  • Step 1: Gather your supplies. For the “vision,” you’ll need magazines. Use what you have on hand, ask friends and family for some, visit a thrift store to purchase old ones, hunt for some on Craigslist or your local Buy Nothing group, or get new ones at the store. You can also print out images of styles, items, and other things online. Head to your local hardware store for free paint swatches as your color inspiration. For the “board,” you can use a cork or project board you have lying around or purchase a new one. (This option on Amazon is both stylish and affordable!)

  • Step 2: Put together your vision. Once you’ve gathered all your supplies, sit down and take the time to map out your vision board. Cut out images from your magazine and printouts and lay things out. How this comes together is totally up to you! Whether you want to arrange things based on sections, for instance, your bathroom vision is at the top left and you print out the words “bathroom” to accompany all images related to it, or you want to keep things more general and aesthetically laid out all over the place. Secure everything by pinning it up or using tape.

  • Step 3: Display your board. With your images secured and the board put together, you can now display your vision! I love the idea of hanging it up somewhere you typically do projects or a spot you frequent so you’ll always catch a glimpse of it.

How to make a digital vision board for your home

  • Step 1: Decide on your digital tool. I highly recommend Apartment Therapy’s own vision board tool, which allows you to gather images from our site all in one spot and divide them based on boards. (You could have a vision board for each space!) You’ll also be able to see the article it was referenced in, as well as the paint palette of the photo. To save something to your vision board, simply click the heart button on the lower left corner of the image and then save it to the board of your choice. Additionally, you can save products found on the site to your “Wish Lists” for an easy shopping list. You could also use Pinterest or Canva to create a board labeled “2024 Home Vision Board.”

  • Step 2: Create your vision board. Once you’ve decided on the tool to use, spend some time, perhaps an hour, breezing through sites and saving your inspirations.

  • Step 3: Bookmark it to your browser. Once you’re done, make sure you bookmark the page to your web browser to easily access it whenever you want to remind yourself of it, take a look at how you’ve been progressing, and continue adding to it.

Now that you have a vision board, you can, well, envision what your dream home will be like in 2024 (and beyond). We’ll be referencing this throughout the program. We’ll see you tomorrow for one of our most beloved cure tasks: decluttering a drawer (and setting up your outbox)!

PRO TIP: You can (and should) continue to add to your vision board, so don’t expect to have it completely full from this first session! Any time you find something inspiring, be sure to clip it so you can add it to your board later. 

Tell us what’s on your vision board in the comments below.

More ways to participate in the January Cure:

The Cure Program is a tradition here at Apartment Therapy — it happens every January, April, and September. Click here to learn more about the year-round program and when to sign up.