It’s Where You Spend Your Time – Make It Your Own
I will readily admit it, I love my small home. Bruce calls it our “cozy cottage” and that’s truly how it feels. I’ve owned many homes over the years, in many styles and sizes, but this one is the most relaxed and comfortable one I’ve ever lived in. I bought my house when I was getting divorced, so maybe there was extra motivation for making it truly my own, but in doing so I did learn a lot. So today I am sharing a few of those lessons that I think are really universal truths about personalizing your home. Enjoy!
Step Away From Perfect When Personalizing Your Home
Voltaire said that “perfect is the enemy of good .” He actually probably said, “l’ennemi du bien est le bine,” if my college French hasn’t failed me, but I digress. I think of this quote often when personalizing my home because there is no such thing as a perfect room or a perfect home. Trying to get it that way can really get in the way of making it wonderful. So what do I mean by that? Well, I mean choosing a piece of art that you love instead of one that matches your couch perfectly. Or perhaps you mismatch your frames in your gallery wall because you love their shapes and colors? You pick a Mid-Century Modern chair for your oh-so-traditional living room, because it’s exceptionally comfortable and gives you a great spot to read? You are personalizing your home. It doesn’t have to be perfect it just has to be perfectly YOU!
Avoid Themed-To-The Extreme When Personalizing Your Home
My home has a coastal feel, but my house isn’t coastal-themed. Themed homes are great for vacation rentals and Air B&Bs, but themed homes tend to push out individuality and a sense of history. If everything must fit the theme how personal can it really be? For example, in my coastal feel home I have a glass and wood, Mid-Century Modern kitchen table. I love the lines. And although the fingerprints drive Bruce batty, I love the fact that you can see through it. It’s hardly coastal, but it suits me. In a mountain cabin, you might decide on bright, yellow, kitchen cabinets as much for your love of this sunny shade as for the brightness it brings to your interior. It’s your house, so even it has a certain feel that drives your design, leave room for those things that speak to you.
Your Home Is Not A Showroom – It’s Where YOU Live
For those of you who know my Mom, this will not come as a surprise, but we used to tease her about the rooms in my childhood homes that seemed as though they needed velvet museum roping to keep out the “riffraff.” Seriously, there were rooms in my parents home that we kids were only allowed in on state occasions or with a note from the principal (never me, of course). They were beautiful rooms, don’t get me wrong, but they were hardly personal. They were showrooms.
What I also mean by this is avoiding the furniture showroom look, where everything matches and there’s no room for the you in it. C’mon, do you really want to live in a furniture store? You can also refer to my previous blog, Should You Buy Matching Furniture Sets, for more of what I mean.
Insider Tip: Antique and Consignment shops, like Consignments Ltd., are great resources for inspiration and personalization of your home. And by their very nature, cookie-cutter looks are nowhere in sight.
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