Little touches and being able to display aspects of your personality are what helps make a house a home. You can walk by a dozen houses in an estate and not be able to tell the difference between them. It’s what going on inside that matters.
Making your home feel welcoming and familiar doesn’t mean having to go all out plastering interests on every wall and having loud rooms that give guests sensory overload. It’s possible to add some personality to your space by adding little touches which can blend in but won’t go unnoticed.
Here are some ways to do it in your home.
Choose colours wisely
Love the colour red? Is your favourite thing to have on food ketchup? Well, you wouldn’t want to have ketchup red as the colour of your walls in your kitchen. Your home needs to be inviting and relaxing space; that’s why it helps to avoid going for loud colours (which can be garish) and keep your rooms a neutral tone.
Light greys, greens and blues create calmer rooms where you can inject colour through ornaments, personal objects and art.
Keep furniture neutral
You’ll want to make sure furniture compliments the room as well, and it similarly toned. Doing this can make individual items, stand out much more. For example, if your family has passed down a quilted blanket over generations, it’ll look nicer on a grey chair rather than a brown or red leather couch.
Highlight your interests (sneakily)
Much like starting a conversation with someone new, you don’t want guests to walk in your home and think you’re over-enthusiastic with your interests. Horror movie fans shouldn’t have full-size replicas of Freddie Kruger on display, while someone who looks to cook shouldn’t have curtains with images of whisks and measuring cups on them.
You want to show the things you like subtlety. Looking at some popular interests, you can do something like this:
Music
Have a favourite band or genre of music? If you have an old concert ticket sitting in a drawer, get it in a small frame and put it up for an instant memory maker. Etsy is also an excellent place to find decorations and artwork made by fans that are much better than tour posters or needing to have all your vinyl out on display.
Film
Are you an avid movie fan and feel that having your collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays out on display might make the place look a little uncool or untidy? Find original and vintage styled posters of your favourite movies and hang them up. You can also have a rummage through old boxes to see if there is one small toy you can display.
Cars
Love cars but can’t see yourself turning the living area into a garage or showroom? Get yourself some model car kits of your favourite vehicles, make them and place on shelves.
Sports
Whoever says there’s no such thing as a sophisticated sports memorabilia doesn’t know their stuff. Having posters, stickers and full jerseys on display does show off what you like but doesn’t look as classy as having one token item that carries history. For example, a baseball on the mantle is going to look better than a Yankee’s pillowcase. Even in something like WWE wrestling, fans can buy small pieces of a wrestling ring (we’re talking inch by inch) as memorabilia to display at home rather than a 6ft display of Stone Cold Steve Austin or what some would consider a garish wrestling belt stuck on the wall.
Get everyone involved
Just like having a way to highlight those interests, when it comes to family mementoes and ideas to add personality to your home, get everyone under the roof involved.
It doesn’t mean the kids are in charge of picking a new couch, or dad has to think which shades would look best on a lamp, but try to make spaces like the living room, bathroom and kitchen feel like everyone has brought something (sometimes literally) to the table.
This could be as simple as making sure your pooch has a special doggy seat in front of the TV too, or kids have drawings on display in the hallway and not just stuck on the refrigerator door.
Looking for more décor ideas?
Check out the latest living room posts on the blog here.
