What makes a house a home? It’s a feeling of comfort and familiarity, a sense of belonging and, at times, of beauty. Sure, your home may not always look spotless and gorgeous, but how you arrange your furniture and how your decorate your walls matters; it’s a part of how you make your house yours.
Everyone wants to make their home look great, so many people seek out advice in books and online. They learn how to hang their wall art at the right height and how to arrange their furniture. They seek organization and storage tips, and they try to make their rooms look the way that those rooms “should.”
But while it’s true that there are some pretty universal ideas in interior design, decorating your space is not something that you should do with a “one size fits all” mindset. Rather, you should be making your house beautiful in a way that also makes it feel more a home. Here are a few ways to do just that.
Hang a custom canvas print
Wall art can be a tricky thing to handle as you try to decorate your home. It’s easy to fall into a trap of hanging the same sorts of things: The same glossy photos in the same plain frames, the same posters you’ve had since college, and so on. The better play, of course, is to vary the textures and looks of your wall art in a way that makes your space feel more engaging.
Wall art is also a great way to customize your space. One of the best materials to use in wall hangings, stretched canvas, is something that you can get custom-printed. You can print a treasured photo to canvas and turn a special memory or family portrait into wall-worthy art.
Canvas prints are a great way to commemorate family vacations in Alabama and Wyoming, or every place in between. They’re wonderful materials to use for portraits, and they can also display your personal digital art in the real world.
Turn a personal item into an accessory
What’s the difference between a treasured item you own and a hip accessory to display on a shelf or in a shadow box? The short answer: Not much. You can and should use your personal items are decorative touches.
As long as you feel that your item goes with your decor and brings you joy, there’s no reason not to display it. From a hand-me-down antique to a beat-up old baseball glove, there are a lot of sentimental items that can make great display choices. Larger items can even be hung on the wall; remember, it doesn’t have to be “real art” to look great up there.
Form meets function
An old sentimental item can still be worthy of display long after it has outlived its original purpose. The things that you still use can be displayed in various ways, though, too.
Books are one obvious example: Most people store them in bookcases and bookshelves, where their spines are on display to all who walk by. However, you don’t have to limit out-in-the-open organization and storage to classic choices like books. From vintage belongings you still use (like vinyl records and video game cartridges) to modern items that you might not think of as “beautiful” (like mobile computing devices and smart speakers), there are plenty of useful everyday objects that can look great out in the open.
So, don’t feel like you have to hide everything. Use catchall trays instead of drawers, open shelving instead of cabinets, and other revealing storage options to display the personal items that you think say something about you. You’ll still want to hide the unsightly stuff, but there are plenty of items that will say something about you and bring you joy when you see them forming a part of the decor of your rooms.