Designing a Home you Love

Ah, mandatory quarantine. Nothing works faster than being forced to stay in your home all day to get you to notice that trendy piece you bought back in 2012 that doesn’t actually match anything you have now and that you really haven’t liked since 2013.

Once you’ve lived in your home for a while it’s easy to go house blind. You don’t notice little details about your home and decorations or furniture just kind of melt into the room.

Before you know it, you’re in day two of working from home and you’re ready to purge everything and start over. Not only can you not find a good room in your home to grind out some emails, now you’ve realized your home decor could use a serious upgrade.

Whether we realize it or not design can impact our mood and comfort level. The way a room feels can make us want to stay or get out at first chance.

Well, the good news is you probably have more time to search through Pinterest for inspiration and online shop. However, before you add to cart, I wanted to share some tips on home decor I have learned through reading, research, trial and error, and not to discount the hours of HGTV I’ve watched in awe since elementary school.

Now before you start seeing dollar signs, I just want to preface with the fact and reminder that I am in my early 20’s, recently married, and only about two years post-grad. It’s not like I have a ton of petty cash to blow on furniture and knick-knacks.

However, I love my home and I want to enjoy being in every inch of it. Somethings I spent more on than others, but every piece was thoughtfully chosen in order for me to feel right at home. Home for me is a cornerstone of safety. It is where I am most comfortable and where I have the freedom to be completely myself.

I have come to realize that it is fairly common for people to feel locked in a stalemate when it comes to creating a space that feels unique and specific to them. Honestly, having a place that feels personal is what I find to be the most important thing about a home. Yes, be inspired, look at other’s homes and generate new ideas. However, do not try and copy someone else’s space and design. It will leave you feeling like you’re stuck in someone else’s space. Think about how you want to feel in the space rather than how you want the space to look.

It is super easy to compare your home to others when we have access and are force-fed hundreds of images a day of other people’s homes. But let me tell you, there is something so freeing in creating a space that is an outlet to showcase your personality as well as everyone who lives inside the walls of your home.

Yes, for some design and decorating just comes a little easier. But do not lose heart. There is no formula for creating a home that you’re proud of. Give yourself the freedom to try and fail. There is no penalty for saving that receipt and returning it after a couple of days. The design police will not come after you for painting a room and deciding it wasn’t the right choice and starting over. It is not the end of your design career.

Get creative with it! Not only can creativity stretch your dollar, it allows you to make something that is meaningful and uniquely you.

Here are my top five tips to create a home you love spending time in.

1. Tell a Story

My living room was an area I wanted to make sure reflected me and my husband, Jason.

Throughout the room, you will notice agate and rocks. Since I was probably four years old I have always been enamored with how the earth can create such colorful and sparkly minerals. Anyone close to me can sign off on this claim. So I have graduated from putting my stones in a wooden box to using them as decorative accents.

On my walls, I have three prints one of Dallas, Houston, and Austin. I grew up in the Houston area and still very much consider it home, I live in the Dallas area now where Jason was born and raised, and Austin is one of my favorite cities in Texas and I have family there as well.

These places are significant to us. These are places where we have sweet memories both together and apart. They represent home.

My shelf also houses deer antlers of the first buck my brother ever shot. After my father died, there were a lot of men that stepped up and poured into our family and specifically my brother who lost his father at 13 years old. One of the things a dear family friend took him to do was hunting. I remember how proud and excited my brother was after he brought us home some venison and how happy I was to see my brother excited about something.

The gold painted antlers are a simple reminder of those who love us and stepped up to pour into my family in our time of need. It also serves as a reminder of how time spent with others can truly change the outcome of their lives.

Small details, big meaning.

2. Identify an Overlying Style

This tip is number two for a reason. I truly believe that this can make anyone’s home feel much more fluid and purposeful. Think of your main open living areas as a “grownup” studio apartment. You have one main space so you want it to look like it goes together. Your ‘studio’ consists of rooms like your kitchen, living room, and general areas where if you had guests over they would be gathered or would easily see.

Joanna Gaines also describes six different core design styles which I have happily adapted to and considered when decorating my home. Her core styles are as listed below along with a link to The Open Door Home’s Pinterest boards which show some examples of each category and a link to my favorite Amazon finds for each style.

Farmhouse

Modern

Rustic

Industrial

Traditional

Boho

Even once you nail down your favorite style, creating a cohesive look doesn’t mean that one design has a monopoly on your home. That would lead to boring design and lack of creativity.

For example, if you have very traditional furniture add some modern tabletop decor or a minimalist painting with colors that accent the room.

In fact, your style doesn’t even have to be exclusively one of these. I would consider my style to be a mash-up of three styles. Industrial, modern, and traditional.

Pick design elements that highlight your go-to styles and run with it creating a clear theme. For example, my side chairs have traditional elements like being tufted but have modern shaped legs. The makeshift table (actually a bar cart) in between is very industrial. However, I have styled it with some hardback books to give it more of a traditional feel.

These three styles are melted together throughout most of my home. So in my case, my style is some sort of traditional-modern-industrial hybrid.

For rooms that aren’t as visible feel free to be a little experimental or even consider a completely different style that inspires you but may not want your whole home to look like.

Some good rooms to play with design are but not limited to your laundry room, master bedroom, powder bath, or office. Go ahead and paint that bathroom that rich shade of emerald and add that cool mosaic tile backsplash. Go wild!

3. Buy Timeless and Neutral Anchor Pieces

Pillows can be easily changed, mantles can be easily rearranged, and shelves can be re-accessorized. Changing chairs or couches may not come as easily.

Timeless and neutral does not need to mean boring. As you change or even go through different life stages, your style and decor preferences may change too. And that’s okay! As you evolve, so should your home.

So how do you combat the desire to change everything every couple of years?

You buy classic and neutral pieces.

Sure, you love those purple patterned chairs now, but what happens in five years when you’ve ditched your purple phase and are on your green kick renouncing your purple phase all together?

Or what about that super trendy table that you splurged on but only stays trendy for two seasons?

Well now you’re stuck with the purple chairs and trendy table or you need to buy new ones.

Instead, look for pieces that are timeless in color, shape, texture and pattern. These are the pieces you want to spend more money on. They are the pieces you are planning to keep until they are worn out.

One example in my own home is our master bedroom set. Before Jason and I got married I lived in our future apartment for two months alone. In preparation for us both moving in, we wanted to get a bedroom set that we would keep for years to come. We didn’t want this to feel like apartment furniture and didn’t want to waste money on things that would fall apart in a couple of years to save a little more money now.

So we bought a solid wood bedroom set that had more of a traditional feel. It was pretty pricey but it had a classic look and color that would match with anything, as well as being super sturdy. I am not worried about it going out of style because it is a design that has been used throughout history.

I can always change my comforter or pillows and even artwork to give it a different feel. $50 on new throw pillows every couple of years is more than doable. $4,000 on new furniture every couple of years, not so much.

4. Use Odd Numbers

Throughout my years of painting, one of the first and most influential things I learned when setting up a composition is the “Rule of Odds”.

The rule of odds states that a composition is much more interesting to look at when it contains an odd number of elements rather than an even amount. An even number will tend to create symmetries that can quickly become boring and uninteresting to look at.

The same goes for everything we look at including our home decor!

So try using clusters of three or create balance by using two big objects and three smaller objects on the other side. I have noticed the place people most often fail to use the rule of odd numbers is on their mantle. Mantles are typically focal points and you should definitely use the rule of odd numbers here!

5. Texture Texture Texture

I will never stop preaching how important it is to add texture to your design. Even if everything is one style or color adding different textures can make the room infinitely more interesting.

Adding certain textures can also change the tone of the room. For example, smooth and glossy textures scream modern interior, whereas rough and natural textures are more in line with a rustic scheme.

Another benefit of using texture is adding contrast. By incorporating contrast to your look, it will keep the room balanced and visually interesting. You can do this by adding some thickly woven pillows to your soft leather couch or a velvety throw blanket on your linen chairs.

My go to ways of adding texture are though baskets, plants, pillows and natural elements.

Conclusion

Being stuck in quarantine at home may not be ideal for anyone but loving a home you’re stuck in should be an attainable goal for everyone! I hope these tips help you to develop and nurture your authentic design style that feels distinctively yours. If you are struggling with a place to start, try troubleshooting any areas you particularly don’t like a figure out the reason you don’t like them. For example, does the room feel too dark or cold? Does the room feel overcrowded or sparse? Then take the first step to make the room feel more like you!