When we think about personality in interior design, we think about how to decorate in a cohesive manner, so that the character of a room shines, and it has a clear theme. But there’s more than one way to achieve this. For example, we could say that a showroom has personality, but what makes a home actually look lived-in, or unique and personal to you? After all, while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with going to your local home furnishings store and bringing back items you’re fond of (this can work out quite well, even), there’s nothing as beautiful as personal artifacts lining a room.
After all, home furnishing decorations tend to be standardized to appeal to as many people as possible, and they may be found in many houses on your street. Again there’s nothing wrong with this, but if you want to get a little more personal, how might you go about that? In this post, we’ll discuss all of that and more, and hopefully help you find the best route forward:
Home Crafts
There’s nothing quite as personal as home crafts you make yourself. From using free patterns for macrame wall hangings, to knitting a beautiful throw for your sofa, to painting custom stencils around the skirting board of your living space or bedroom, a personal touch you’ve had to put effort and thought in is wonderful. Here you’ve crafted something that only you can enjoy, that was made by your own hands, and that has your personal touch all over it.
Home crafts can be simple, and fun to get involved with. You might take a pottery course and use the vase you make to hold flowers throughout the month. Alternatively, you might even get involved in woodwork and furnish a beautiful coffee table with your own design intent behind it. There’s nothing quite as fun as this, as looking around and seeing many examples of your own creative effort will feel deeply satisfying. This way, your home is certainly your home, and no one could argue it.
Mixing Old & New Pieces
When you do a full sweep of the home furnishings store, you tend to bring home decorations that are relevant now. That’s perfectly fine of course, no one will argue that decorating your home in an outdated fashion is superior. However, it can also mean that everything feels rather too present, rather too curated and perhaps a little artificial.
It can be nice, then, to allow the natural era-blending intent behind your decorations to come together and create something new. Perhaps you have a vintage fire guard for your fireplace, or older frames for cherished photographs, or a rather ornate mirror that you picked up from an antiques roadshow you visited one year. Mixing that with newer decorations instead of artificially only relating to one theme can make the home feel more authentic, more realistic, and more cohesive. In other words – don’t think you have to only decorate to one era in the specific ornaments and furnishings you bring into a space. Sure, outdated elements like textures wallpaper from the 90’s can be removed, but if you truly love old character, you can keep that too.
Gallery Walls
Celebrating your family and the people you care about most can be a lovely justification for any decorative effort. In practicality, this might include using a range of photographs, well framed and perhaps even lit, to line a wall of your entrance corridor.
You might also use larger framed images in your bedroom, or perhaps even display units such as those sports trophies your children have won to show how proud you are of them. A gallery wall can include anything that you relate to, even if that means hanging up your framed academic certificates in your home office, they will serve as valid decorations too. As you can see, moving forward with decorative elements you relate to can make a whole difference.
Focal Points
It’s not always what you decorate with, but how you decorate and where those decorations are placed that matters. For instance, keeping the decorations in a particular room minimal but effective can help the space feel open and welcoming, not cluttered or tired.
Moreover, how you freshen up the space can count too. So for example, a potted plant on a bookshelf may give it a more diverse visual profile, and can help break up the uniformity of many books wedged together. Focal points can also mean mounting your television so you have more room without a mount, or implement strip lighting so that you can highlight certain areas of the room, such as behind your television, or near a cupboard. Little changes like this help you distinguish your home more readily, and that in itself defines the space as yours.
Unique Textiles & Materials
Workng with particular materials can also help a room look unique and designed with real intent. For instance, a coffee table designed from regular wood is always nice, but what about reclaimed wood? Perhaps you’re renovating and have some wood leftover, and can give this to a carpenter to fashion into a new furnishing.
Not only does this help you repurpose a vital part of your home, but ti will have an added sense of character and history to it. You can’t achieve this with every new furnishing of cours,e and not all materials will work, but it can certainly add a unique spin to a relatively pedestrian item. On top of that, you might consider certain materials you’re fond of, like spanish tiles that help give your exterior a unique aesthetic in the warm sun, or darker floorboards that give a space more character, and feel a little more authentic than usual laminate flooring.
With this advice, you’re sure to see how adding real, authentic personality to your home just means indulging in your creative “what ifs?” – and having a great time as you do it. After all, there’s no test to pass here, and no one you need to ask permission from, just a home you love to live in and wish to improve.