Your home is a place to put your stamp on it. Yes, guests come to visit, and you may have friends and family stay over, and they may all have different tastes. However, when it comes to actually living in your home, you’re the one who’s living in it for most of the time. So it has to suit you and your personality. Our house is quite minimal, we’re not ones for clutter and ornaments, but we have made a few changes to make it more, err, us.
Here are some tips to make your home more personal to you.
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Add Photo Frames
Photos are very personal items, and different ones will emote a certain feeling. Some might be painful, but some may also be very happy memories to look back on. You want to get all those positive ones, even if they bring a little sadness, out on display. That’s what photos are for. Think about the story you want to tell with your pictures. It might be a collection on one wall that reflects your journey as a couple or a family wall that grows each time someone new comes along. We have wedding pictures, festivals, days out together. Don’t be afraid to crop, resize or edit your photos for the frames – sometimes a black and white picture can really jump out, you know! Whatever you feel is going to show off your pictures in the best light, do it.
Pick Colours You Love
Colours are so good for lifting your mood, and therefore, when it comes to your home, you want to create a colour palette that’s comforting to you and brings you joy. Everyone is different, so the colours you go for, might not be the colours others would pick. However, again, this is your home, and therefore you can do whatever you want with it! Be careful with what you apply to your wall as that may be a little too much on the space, so pick wisely depending on the colour. Instead, you could always keep the walls neutral and then incorporate your favourite shades in soft furnishings or home decor pieces that you place around the room. Less is certainly more in some cases, and that might be said for your favourite colour, or quite the opposite. Be aware of where your light is coming from – our lounge has a long window along the back wall, which means the light in the room is incredibly natural and bright . We’ve always been fans of crisp, clean, white walls, so this helps, but we’re also fans of colour, we’ve recently redecorated Graysons room, in a teal and mustard combo.
We also both love the light given off by Fairy lights at night time, so we have these around the house in various places, mainly, wrapped around the bannister (hint: Use glue dots to hold the cables in place!)
Display Artwork
Artwork is a true reflection of your personality, and when it comes to selecting pieces that inspire you and make you feel good, it’s different for everyone. Displaying artwork around the home can add more depth to your home and can also add to that colour palette that you’ve already created. It’s also a nice conversation starter for guests who find your choice of artwork interesting or unique to look at. Don’t be afraid to be daring or bold when it comes to picking out artwork because there’s really no right or wrong choice. Just as long as you make sure it fits in with the rest of the style of your home. We have some prints in our bedroom just to break the colour up too.
Incorporate Some Nature
Nature is wonderful, and it’s a great mood booster to have indoor plants scattered around the home. You should try and incorporate as much nature as you can, whether that be a small selection of herbs in your kitchen (I killed these quite quickly!), spider plants and ivy in your bathroom or flowers to sit on your dining room table (we can’t do this, though, as the Cat eats them. Another tip: Don’t get a cat!).
There should be plenty around, and there’s no limit to how much you can have in your home. Be prepared to do plenty of watering though if you’re going to have lots of them (and don’t water the fake ones, we went away on holiday once and came back to see someone had kindly watered the plastic plants for us, too. At least they look real!)
Create Something Handmade
We all have a creative streak in us, and no matter how much you think you lack it, there’s always things that you could include around the home that are handmade. Handmade items have more sentimental value and can hold so many memories, particularly if it’s something you made with a friend, family member, or your own child, for example. So if you’ve made a blanket or your own piece of pottery, put it out on display and make it part of the home decor. Having handmade items in your home is one simple way of transforming what might look like a house, feel more like a home. We’re lucky to have an amazingly talented friend who is currently making a cross-stitch for Graysons room, after she and her husband made us one for our wedding.
Keep It Tidy
It’s all about cleanliness when it comes to your home, and if it isn’t clean, then it won’t feel like your own home. Keep everything tidy and have a regular declutter in order to get rid of all the rubbish that is clogging up your home. Try to organise everything so that it’s more accessible for you and that everything can be found and it’s not all in hard to reach places. Having a toddler means lots of toys around, so we clear these out every now and again to ensure he only has a few to play with that keep his interest. If he hasn’t used a toy for a while, or doesn’t seem interested in it anymore, then we’ll move it to his bedroom, or pass it on to the charity shop for someone else to enjoy.
Have A Home Fragrance
Walking into a room that smells good is a much nicer feeling than going into somewhere that smells awful or of the food you’ve just had for dinner. So change that and get a home fragrance that’s specific to your home. This can be something that you use on a daily basis and just enjoy the smell of it. Transform this scent into your candles, into any incense you might burn, find a similar scent for spraying onto your fabrics. Go overboard with the scent so that it spreads all over the home and lingers in the air for a while. We’re suckers for Yankee candles, so we have a few burners around the house to keep things smelling fresh!
Making your home personal to you is something everyone should be doing to help bring more happiness and comfort into their home. Use these tips to bring some of your own personality into the property and don’t forget to enjoy your space as much as you can.