Many of us are spending more time at home these days, so today I’m happy to share this guest post with some lovely tips for beautifying and personalizing our homes.

The following is a contributed post.  For more on my contributed posts, please see this page.

Personalize Your Home With These Brilliant Interior Tricks And Tips

When you live in a home, you want to make it feel as personal as possible. After all, it’s where you spend most of your time, especially during the present crisis. 

But what if you look at the four walls of your abode and get the sense that it is not a reflection of who you really are?  What can you do to fight back and make your property feel more like yours?

Here are some ideas to get you started. 

1.  Add A Pleasant Scent

 

There’s no denying that many of us react strongly to certain scents. When we detect a familiar fragrance, it suddenly transports us to a different place, and we feel refreshed.

That’s why we need to add pleasant fragrances to our homes. 

Your options here are almost endless. You could go for the subtle scent of potpourri, or you could fill your diffuser with essential oils. 

Whichever you choose, try to go for fragrances that remind you of home. Think about the scents that you enjoyed in your childhood.  Familiar scents might include lavender, sandalwood, or beech.  Or the scents of warming spices like cloves and nutmeg.

If you have a penchant for essential oils, you could also experiment with stronger fragrances. Peppermint, for instance, is distinct and helps you relax and unwind after a long day. 

2.   Personalize Your Furniture

Generic furniture is affordable and often high quality. But it doesn’t always feel like yours. Your home can often start resembling something out of a magazine instead of an environment that reflects your character. And that can be a little soul-destroying. 

So what can you do about it? 

One option is to start personalizing your furniture and making it your own. 

The easiest option is reupholstering. You just select a suitable fabric and then get a reupholstering service to fit it to your sofas and chairs. 

If you love DIY, then you can get creative and take things much further. And upcycling old pieces of furniture allows you to stamp your mark on them and make them feel more personal. 

3.  Soften Harsh Lines

Straight lines can make a property feel clinical and formal, but there are several ways to remedy this. One is to add more soft furnishings, like throws and cushions. Another is to disrupt some of the straight lines by hanging wall art or adding more sideboards to your rooms.

Play around with furniture placement.  If you have space, you might want to add a round rug to your living room and place furniture on it. Placing furniture pieces in the center of the room on something round can dramatically change how the room feels. 

4.  Add Heirlooms And Memorials

Don’t just put your heirlooms and memorials in a box in the attic and forget about them. Instead, leverage them to make your house feel more like home. 

Memorial and keepsake stone rocks can have a profound influence on how you feel about your house. They remind you of the connections that you have with the people in your life. And they help to stamp your mark on your interiors. Your rooms no longer look like something you would see in a magazine. Instead, they’re personal and reflect your values. 

5.  Put Colorful Plants Everywhere

Research suggests that people react positively to plants in their environment. The more of them that we have, the better we feel. 

Adding plants and color makes a home feel more inviting.  Start in the bathroom. Choose species that don’t require a considerable amount of natural light, as these will tend to thrive the most. 

Once you’ve done that, begin adding plants to your hallways and living spaces. Put them in the kitchen to brighten up the countertops and make them appear friendlier.  You could also try growing herbs in your kitchen so you can have fresh herbs readily available for cooking.

6.  Improve Your Seating Arrangements

Seating arrangements can make a room feel static, or it can make a room feel dynamic and interesting.  Think about how most people arrange their seating. More often than not, they push the furniture up against the walls, dominating the room. 

That’s not what you want. If your living room is only large enough to accommodate a single two-seater sofa, then limit yourself to that. Place it on a rug in the middle of the room and allow it to become a focal point. Don’t let your furniture dominate the size of the room. Let the room’s size determine the kind of seating you put in it. 

7.  Add Flashes Of Color

Neutral homes are good for making you feel relaxed and keeping things simple. But there is currently so much use of beige, white, and cream in interiors that using these colors can make your home feel impersonal – and just like everyone else’s.  

Fortunately, you can fight back against this by adding pops of color to your living and dining areas. 

Try painting the wall on the opposite side of your front door an accent color. If the rest of your property is neutral, try adding black. The interior will immediately feel more personal to you. There will be an edginess and sophistication about it that wasn’t there before. 

So, how will you make your home feel more personal?

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