Are you stumped design-wise in your home? You visit lovely homes and are inspired to incorporate ideas you saw there, or you have seen lovely images online that resemble your true style…
But when looking at your home, overwhelm can set in. Where do you start? Everything seems okay. It is functional and not too dated (or maybe very dated), but not much is really you. How do you start adding your touch to a home that is on default?
The good news, first of all, is that you can add your own touch to your home. The next bit of good news is that the speed and the depth to which you may go in this process are completely your choice. You can invest as much, or as little effort & money as you wish.
Free Options:
- Rearrange your furniture and art.
- Recently, I created a “new-to-me” gallery wall from artwork I already had on hand. I chose to spend some money to have non-glare glass cut, but this was completely optional. Not a day passes that I don’t enjoy walking by this arrangement! Get a fresh perspective on this and ask a friend to make suggestions. We kept the buffet in the living room for years until my friend Robin suggested moving it into the dining room. This was obvious to her, but I hadn’t thought of it. And she was right, it looks fantastic!
- Remove the offender!
- Consider taking things away. Just because it’s always been there doesn’t mean it has to stay there. Again, I left the faded 1980s balloon valances in the dining room for years just because they’d always been there, and I didn’t know what else to replace them with. Just having them gone gave me the mental space to envision something else.
From the Simple Farmhouse Life podcast: “Everything was beige and off-white, and that was what I didn’t want. Even though it wasn’t what I was looking for, it had good bones; it just needed more. First of all, I do try to work with what I have. Paint is the no-brainer; always start with paint.” ~ Marian Parsons
DIY Options:
- Consider walls – paint is comparatively cheap and dramatically moves the needle in making a house feel like your home. I know you’ve heard this many, many times, but that’s because it bears repeating. Consider paint first and try not to agonize over the color. According to British interior designer Sue Jones, “The best color to use is your favorite color!” This was true for us. Paint alone transformed our kitchen ~ and green is one of my favorite colors!
- Add trim, molding, or wallpaper. These options go beyond paint and capture the personality of the person creating the home. Trim adds depth to a box-like room, and wallpaper adds wonderful personality and movement to a space.
“A lot of the rooms felt like big boxes. The other thing that is sometimes overlooked is trims and molding. Chair rail is a great place to start, and it just adds that little bit of character.” ~ Marian Parsons
Details to add Character:
- Consider swapping hardware in your kitchen, bathroom, or hallway doors. Slowly, we are replacing the doorknobs in our hallway with these vintage-inspired crystal and antique brass doorknobs. The nice thing is, we can do this one room at a time as budget and schedule allow.
- Hunt for vintage light fixtures. It could be that your light fixtures and hardware are run-of-the-mill styles from the hardware store, or what the builder chose. Over the sink in our kitchen, we found this gorgeous vintage-inspired milk glass pendant that was perfect for this space, and made a huge difference!
Everything may be “builder-grade” in your home, and I understand being in these shoes! We rented our current home for several years before we purchased it. When renting, we didn’t have the freedom to change things, and you may be in this spot. If so, this is a great time to focus on changing what you can. Focus on getting your furniture and decor to reflect you, since you can change that!
Once the house was ours, we began creating a home that reflected our style. This is a slow process (by today’s standards), that continues to evolve today. Sometimes you can get “house blind” to the way things have always been, but that’s okay. Just realizing you want to change things is the beginning of making a plan. Warning: this process is terribly fun, and I’m fairly sure, at this point, it’s a process that I don’t want to end… Until next time,
Paint that wall!
Rachel
