Life is too short for a boring home – 3 easy ways I add personality without redecorating
From hand-painted details to meaningful souvenirs, these are the simple ways I make my neutral home feel more personal
Home decorator and content creator Leah Hodson is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on overhauling a home with clever DIY and decorating tricks. See the rest of her articles here.
For a very long time, I’ve been a firm believer in decorating for resale, or more bluntly, decorating for the next owner. Since we bought our first home 6 years ago, I’ve stuck exclusively to off-whites and beige.
Decorating neutrally gets a bad rep sometimes, almost as if choosing a lighter colour palette instantly means creating a boring home. However, I’ve learnt that a neutral home doesn’t have to be boring, and there are other ways to insert personality in your house to make it reflect you!
1. A little hand painted detail
If you know me, you’ll know I love a little hand painted detail! Recently I’ve been very much into painting murals in the rooms I decorate. There’s just something about being able to add your own stamp on the space that makes it quite your own.
If you’re not too sure about hand painting, try stencils – that’s what got me started! I created a custom wallpaper in my children’s room using stencils. It took much longer to measure out the placement and then go about stenciling compared to buying wallpaper – however, by doing this I made my own personalised wallpaper, unique to my home!
A less permanent way of adding small personalised detail to your home is to paint or stencil furniture. It is also a cost effective way of making a boring piece of furniture your own! It doesn’t have to cost much either, Amazon has a range of affordable stencils and with a little pot of sample paint, you can create anything!
2. Souvenirs tell a story
One way of telling our story in our home is through the souvenirs we buy on our trips. It’s a memory of a wonderful time spent exploring someplace new.
However, if the souvenir you bought is now safely stored away at the back of a cabinet, it doesn’t serve any purpose and could be seen as a waste of money. Keeping mementos from places you’ve visited doesn’t have to be confined to a fridge. Often, it’s less about what you collect and more about where you display it. Give it a space in your home, and it becomes a meaningful part of your decor.
Think outside the box when it comes to displaying souvenirs. Magnets don’t have to be displayed on a fridge. Frame it up and it now turns into a piece of art – a piece that showcases the places you’ve been too!
3. Flowers
Flowers and plants are an easy and affordable way to make your house instantly chic. There’s something about having fresh flowers in your home, the sweet scent, colour and connection to nature signals your brain to release happy chemicals and puts you in a much better mood.
However, having to replace fresh flowers regularly can quickly add up. Faux flowers are a really great alternative. They don’t give off sweet scents but the colours and organic shape will stimulate feelings of happiness too.
I have a combination of faux and real flowers in my house. In the winter months when fresh flower options are more limited, the faux flowers I have on my bedside table makes waking up and going to bed a lot more joyful. You can’t go wrong with a selection of affordable options from The Range or Dunelm. Alternatively, if you’re looking to invest in some stems, Neptune and The Faux Flower Company have very real looking options.
How you fill your house is as important as what you fill it with. Displaying and using items that bring you joy is the most important! With these simple changes, you’ll be able to make your house feel more like you than the picture perfect version that you see online.
